rick stein's coconut prawn curry

With an unseasonal inset day looming, we take (further) advantage of the McCarthy clan and drop Milo off in a rain lashed car park in Portsmouth for a last minute weekend on the diamond isle, leaving us free to, well, do what we want.

This variously takes in singing loudly to Kate Bush on the A3, lesson planning, blowing the cobwebs out with a wet and woolly run around Richmond Park, minor alcohol shopping, watching telly undisturbed, actually being able to read the paper and a trip to the Tapestry for a couple of pints and a stint of life-planning.

Booze’s other magical power kicks in on the way home and, rather than constructing a healthy prawn and avocado concoction whilst watching the new series of The Bridge, we both immediately crave something curried whilst watching Take Me Out. Maybe something prawny…

Luckily enough my Christmas copy of Rick Stein’s India swings to the rescue with not only a really quick debut prawn curry, but – and I find this hard to believe – but Rick’s favourite curry:

To be fair it is pretty tasty with a lip-smacking combination of heat from the chilli, garlic and massive spoonful of ginger, balanced with sour tamarind and creamy coconut. But favourite curry ever? I’m not sure about that. As Ana pointed out, if anything it was a bit korma-esque, and I don’t think it’s too dissimilar to Nigella’s admittedly excellent Keralan fish curry, which whilst being a bit of a standard chez Barnes, wouldn’t necessarily get into the top ten.

sources
coconut prawn curry - Rick Stein's India, p126