Freedom to cook.... Goan Prawn Curry

Independence Special - On the occasion of my beloved country's 64th Independence, I thought probably I should also give freedom to all my readers from my deadly recipes... LOL... :P Don't you guys dare think that way...

Independence mean Freedom to express and live the way you want to without any interventions from one another and I really enjoy that to the highest extent with my recipe blog. So, thought why not ask my best buddy to be a guest cook and share one of his best recipe to make your meal on Independence day even better. R. Venkatram aka Venky Baba has been my best buddy from college days and we both have done mischievous things which are greater than what probably all of you would feel, "so what even we did the same?!"... Sorry can't disclose those here because not only his wife but even my fiance would just take two brooms and clean us up big time... LOL... :)

Venky Baba is teaching all of us including me how to prepare Goan Prawn curry in the most easiest and the simplest method. And, by the way you guys must be thinking "Agreed if Venky is short for Venkatram but why 'BABA'?!" Long story but will shorten it for you guys and that is simple, he used to give unnecessary gyaan to all of us in college. From that day our entire batch started calling him "Venky Baba Ki Jai" the minute they see him. You don't believe me, go to FACEBOOK and check for Venky Baba you will find him, the one and only Baba on Facebook I guess.... LOL... :P

Goan Prawn Curry

Ingredients - (For four people)

Medium Sized Prawns - 500 gms

Salt - To taste

Oil - 1 tablespoon

Kokum - 4-5 nos

(Kokum or Garcinia Indica or even known as bhinda in Konkani or Murugala Hannu in Kannada is a western coastal fruit from a fruit tree and this is a very close substitute to tamarind or in plain and simple language a souring and tangy agent.)

Green Chillies - 2-4 nos

For paste -

Dry Red Chillies - 12 nos

Coconut Scraped - 1/2 no

Ginger - 30 gms

Garlic - 30 gms

Black Pepper Whole - 2 tablespoons

Coriander Seeds - 2 tablespoons

Cumin Seeds - 2 tablespoons

Turmeric - 1 tablespoon

Cooking Vinegar - 20ml

Method to prepare -

As I always aim at making the recipes as simple and easy as possible for you to try and I guess Venky Baba has also achieved my recipe blog aim in this recipe.

• Grind all the ingredients mentioned under the tab "For paste" into a very fine paste and please keep in mind it has to be a really smooth paste, as even a coarse texture will spoil the whole curry
• In the mean time, wash your prawns thoroughly and de-vein them, if you are wondering what is de-veining them, all you need to do is make a small slit on the back of the prawns and remove the black gastrointestinal tract
• If you are really lazy and think why should I do it, forget it won't make much of a difference then don't forget to keep a strip of "LOMOTIL" tablets next to you because if that black thing is consumed by humans then we tend to have a very very very loose tap with a tsunami swirling in our tummies
• Once the paste is ready along with prawns de-veined & washed, its time to prepare your dish
• Heat a pan with a little oil, add the paste to that oil along with kokum and slit green chillies
• Cook this mixture till it becomes thick and starts oozing out oil on the edges of the pan
• Add 1/2 litre of water to the mixture and then place the raw prawns inside the curry before leaving it to cook
• Cook this mixture to a boil and then simmer for about 5-7 minutes for the prawns to cook
• Be careful while cooking prawns, because if you end up over cooking them then all you can do is take the prawns out from the curry, wash them and use as eraser for your kids drawings.... LOL... :)
• There you go with your prawn curry and now all you need to do is enjoy it with pipping hot plain rice probably with a beetroot coconut fry and oil fried papad

Go ahead and try it out and let me know your feedback on this Independence Day Special Dish. Thank you Venky Baba for helping me out with Goan Prawn Curry and I did really feel that we both re-visited Goa with this curry and the few beers along with Goan Trance playing in the background the entire time.

- Thotaji Baawarchi :)