It's national curry week and I thought I'd make my own unique curry that I could share with you. It was 2 years ago that I won MasterChef with my Mauritian Mutton Curry and who would've thought that something that was a family classic would win a culinary TV show like MasterChef. I remember thinking at the time as I was recipe testing my final dishes for the show that I was mad, how on earth did I think that a curry would ever be good enough? After recipe testing and perfecting my recipe I remember thinking I had to just go with it, after all, these are the recipes I loved so much and I didn't want to create plate that wasn't nostalgic or didn't have meaning to it - and of course delivered a massive wallop of flavour.
Curry is a staple in my house, but curry does get a bad rep for being some generic name used to bunch together a one pot melange of meat, veg or fish in a spice based sauce. It's so much more than that. Each curry is unique to every household, I could guess my mums curry in a blind 'curry off' hands down and her curries are so memorable because she labours over them, she takes time to cook the onions properly and careful attention to spicing. For this recipe I've decided to use Thai flavourings but using a madras curry powder as a base.
Prawn, Potato and Lemongrass Curry
2 potatoes peeled and cut into 2cm cubes
12 raw king prawns shelled and de-veined
3 cloves garlic
1 chilli
Handful coriander
1 stalk lemongrass
2inch piece ginger
2tbsp mild madras curry powder
400ml light coconut milk
2tbsp unrefined light muscavado sugar
1tbsp fish sauce
Juice of 1 lime
1 spring onion finely chopped to garnish
Method
Using a mini chopper blitz together the garlic, ginger, chilli, coriander, sugar, oil, 4tbsp coconut milk and lemongrass
In a saucepan over a medium to high heat add the mixture and cook for a few minutes until fragrant and sticky.
Add the madras curry powder and cook for a few more minutes ( if the mixture becomes dry add some more coconut milk )
Reduce the heat to a medium flame, add the potatoes and the rest of the coconut milk and cook for around 15 minutes stirring occasionally.
Add the prawns and turn off the heat. The residual heat in the pan will cook the prawns.
Season with fish sauce and lime juice to taste and garnish with spring onion and serve.
