You know the curry is good when the kid says “Why don’t you make this more often?” 😁

Roasted coconut is often added to curries to make the gravies rich, thick and so much more tastier. But the fact that you need to grate coconut, roast and then grind it into paste translates to more work and this long preparation process is reserved for more special occasions. Roasted coconut curries also called varutharacha curry in Malayalam can be made with a lot of core ingredients such as fish, kadala (channa, esp. the black channa), bitter gourd and so on. As one of my colleagues would say there are the normal tasty black kadala (black channa) curry and the super tasty varutharacha black kadala curry for special days like when there are guests !!

Prawns and roasted coconut – two flavourful ingredients and together they result in a dish compounding in taste. For me the only laborious process is grating the coconut; a once in two weeks activity, as I store grated coconut in my freezer to use as needed. Roasting and grinding are simple tasks.

The inspiration for this dish came after reading my recent pick from the library – Madhur Jaffrey 100 Essential Curries. She has detailed the recipe in her book under making of Prawns, Crab or Lobster, Kerala Style . It’s my first Madhur Jaffrey cookbook. The book is good; the selection includes simple starters to fish, meat, veg and rice dishes, recipes are easy to follow and the pictures are droolworthy😋.

Her recipe used vegetable oil, I used coconut oil. I also tempered the oil with mustard seeds and methe (fenugreek seeds) almost a habit for me especially while making prawns. And in the end, I added dried kasuri methi (fenugreek) leaves. I cannot imagine prawns without the incredible aroma of kasuri methe. Other than these small compulsions, I followed her recipe and it turned out really good !! I am adding this to my list of prawn favourites.

If you have the grated coconut, it’s an easy dish to make. Make it for yourself and family to enjoy together without the need for an occasion.

Till next post, take care !!