Recipe: Lemon prawn with spiced aromatic rice

Chef Vineet Bhatia brought back a packet of Arabic spices from the souq to his kitchen at Indego. It contained fennel, coriander, green and black cardamom, cinnamon, cumin, star anise and dried limes. And he used them to prepare an impromptu dish for our readers.

“I’m cooking coastal-style prawns with these spices,” he said. “I’m only adding curry leaves and coconut milk. It’s something Indian, something Arabic. In fact, it will be a blend of both cultures as I’ve taken things from the local market and given it my own little twist.

“A lot of people want to use whole spices but find them too hard to eat,” Bhatia said, looking around for a string for his spice potli for the accompanying rice and improvising with cling film. “Best way to do it is you make a small potli or pouch, put it in the dish and take it out when the dish is cooked. This will retain the swad (taste) without the hindrance of whole pieces. What you’ll have is a really aromatic dish”.

Lemon prawn with spiced aromatic rice

4 portions

Prawns

2 tbs corn oil

1/2 tsp cumin seeds

1/2 tsp fennel seeds

6 curry leaves

1 tsp ginger-garlic paste

1 medium size onion, chopped

1 tbs tomato paste

1/2 tsp red chill powder

1/2 tsp turmeric powder

1/2 tsp cumin powder

1 dry lemon, roughly chopped

Salt to taste

100ml water

40ml coconut milk

16 prawns, medium size

Heat the oil in a deep pan. Add the cumin and fennel. As they begin to splutter, add curry leaves.

Add the ginger-garlic paste, sauté, followed by chopped onions. Cook until softened. Add the tomato paste and the spices along with dry lemon, salt and water. Simmer. Now add the coconut milk and bring the sauce to a boil. Reduce the heat, add the prawns and poach them until they are cooked.

Rice

240g basmati rice

Salt to taste

1 tsp turmeric powder

For the spice potli

1/2 tsp fennel seeds

1/2 tsp cumin seeds

1/2 star anise

1/2 tsp coriander

1 black cardamom

3 green cardamoms

1/2 inch stick cinnamon

Wash and soak the rice for about 30 minutes.

Boil the water in a heavy-based pan. Add turmeric and salt. Tie all the spices in a piece of soft white cloth, making a potli. Add the rice and cook until done. Drain the water from the rice and serve hot with the lemon-prawn curry.