Era varuval / Prawn fry

This is a very simple prawn fry. We just loved it. Hope you will also like it. Here we get big variety,  frozen prawns but nothing can be compared to the small variety, fresh prawns which I ate when I am young.  Might be the above statement is true or might be its just the age that matters :). My mom used to deep fry the prawns and I still have that taste in my tongue, a bit sweet yet spicy and crispy hmmm...:).

Ingredients :

Prawns- 250 gms

Onion- 1 no

Tomato- 1 no

Garlic- 2 pods

Ginger- a 1/2 inch piece

Green chillies- 4 nos

Black pepper corns- 20 nos

Red chilli powder- 2 tspns

Coriander powder- 1 tbspn

Cuury leaves- 20 leaflets

Coconut scrappings- 1 tbspn

Cinnamon- 1 inch pice

Cloves-4 nos

Fennel seeds- 1/2 tspn (optional)

Salt to taste

Oil- 3 tbspns

Method :

Cut onions, ginger, garlic, tomato into pieces. Heat 2 teaspoons of oil in a pan. Fry onions, green chillies, ginger and garlic until they become brown. Now add tomatoes and saute well until they turn soft. Add pepper corns and coconut scrappings to the above mixture and saute for 30 seconds. Remove from fire. Allow the mixture to cool and grind them into a paste in food processor. Wash prawns and keep aside. Now heat a pan with 3 tablespoons of oil. When the oil gets heated add cloves and cinnamon. When they emit a nice aroma add the ground paste. Saute well for few second and to this add red chilli powder, coriander powder and turmeric powder. Add enough salt to this mixture. Fry for a few seconds and then add prawns to it. Add half-a-cup of water and allow the mixture to boil well. Simmer the mixture until all the water content is gone. Remove from fire and garnish with coriander leaves. When serving squeeze lemon juice on the dish.

Taste enhancing tips for this recipe : The taste is much better if you fry the onions until it turns brown. Do not cook the prawn in high heat for a long time. They become rubbery. You can add fennel seeds when grinding the masala. It enhances the flavour of the dish. Add lots of curry leaves when making any sea food, that makes a lot of difference. Happy cooking !!!