Coconut Milk Prawn and Sudachi Curry, made with SN2

Coconut milk and the toasty savour of roasted prawns, lifted by the tartness of sudachi.

SPICE CURRY SPICE PACK (Spice Curry Spice Pack Symphony No.2 / SN2) makes this Coconut Milk Prawn and Sudachi Curry.

Ingredients (serves 4)

• SN2 / starter spices (the bag of whole spices): 1 bag
• SN2 / powder spices (the bag of ground spices): 1 bag
• Canned tomatoes (whole): 400g
• Onion: 1
• Garlic: 10g grated (roughly 1–2 cloves)
• Ginger: 10g grated
• Prawns (head-on, medium): 5
• Coconut milk: 200g
• Sudachi (a small, tart Japanese citrus): 2
• Sugar: 2 tsp
• Salt: 1 tsp
• Nam pla (Thai fish sauce): 1 tbsp (soy sauce also works)
• White sesame oil: 3 tbsp (use whichever oil you prefer)

Swap the sugar for 1 tbsp of marmalade and it is just as good.

Preparation

• Pull the heads and shells off the prawns, and rub the bodies with sake.
• Cut the onion into wedges.
• Slice as many rounds of sudachi as you need to garnish at the end; squeeze the juice from the rest and discard only the seeds.

Making the prawn paste

1. Spread the shells you removed on aluminium foil and roast them in a toaster oven until they are browned and crisp.
2. Blend the roasted shells together with the coconut milk: 200g into a paste.

This paste is the one step that makes the recipe a little demanding. You need a blender, and it takes a bit of work, but the flavour it gives back is worth it, so do give it a try.

Method

1. Pour the white sesame oil into a pan, add the starter spices (the bag of whole spices), then set it over low heat.
   
   
2. Once the mustard seeds start to pop, add the grated garlic and ginger and stir them through the spices. Keep stirring for about 30 seconds.
   
   
3. Add the onion, stir it through, then turn the heat to medium and cook until it turns a deep amber.
   
   

   If it looks like catching, splash in a little water and keep cooking patiently. (The point is to watch the spices rather than the onion — it matters far more that the spices do not burn.)

4. Once the onion is amber, add the canned tomatoes and salt: 1 tsp, crushing the whole tomatoes as you stir them in.
   
   
5. When the tomatoes come to a gentle simmer, add all of the powder spices and stir, thinking of it as cooking the powder itself through.
   
   
6. Add the prawn paste you prepared, the sugar: 2 tsp and the nam pla: 1 tbsp (soy sauce also works).
   
   
7. Once it comes back to a simmer, add the prawn bodies and the sudachi juice and peel, and simmer for about 5 minutes.
   
   
8. When it has thickened, adjust the salt, spoon it onto a plate and finish with the sudachi rounds.

Inspice spice curry spice sets contain none of the chilli, cayenne or red pepper that usually carries the heat, so add as much as you like to suit your taste.

If you plan to eat it the next day, we suggest taking the sudachi pieces out. They start to turn bitter.