Sometimes we crave for a dish that we have tasted long ago somewhere. At least I do that often 🙂 In most cases, I also remember the ‘where’ and ‘when’. Yeah I am a little weird like that. I remember what some folks would call as ‘trivial’, unimportant details such as what dress I was wearing that one day 15 years ago when I visited my aunt’s place or what dish were served at a family party 10 years ago. So last week, when I saw the picture of prawn masala on a FB page, I was instantly reminded of this spicy prawns dish that my uncle would make sometimes when he visited us.
I was a teenager around then and I was already very interested in cooking. This uncle of mine was my best buddy – you see he was a bachelor all his life until he passed away two years ago. So we got along great and I would always tag behind him everywhere. So we started with going to the fish market to buy fresh jumbo size prawns. And then I helped him with the chopping, roasting and powdering spices etc. And I stood next to him absorbing every bit of culinary advice that he had to offer! This uncle of mine whom I loved to death was unlike any ‘normal’ person. He had an interesting personality. He was an artist after all – unconventional, reckless, ‘rebel’ sort of. So of course, when it came to cooking too there was no one recipe that he would adhere to. Just a little bit of this and a little bit of that. Whatever spices he felt a particular fancy for on that day would go into the pan. He was sort of a ‘minimalist’ and believed in simple, fresh ingredients. Whatever he did, he would always finish with a drizzle of pure coconut oil on the top and some fresh curry leaves. And he was always able to create magic in the kitchen every single time he cooked – the dishes were all ‘out of this world’! I remember him making really ‘gourmet style dishes and we would come up with interesting names for those like ‘ black chicken’, ‘white chicken’ and other similar interesting ones! How I wish now that I had done some note taking those days.!
Anyways, so that’s what happened to me last week – I went down memory lane to reminisce about my dear uncle and his shrimp dishes and I had to create one. So drawing from my memory, I tried to re-create his ‘prawn roast’. In kerala ‘prawn roast’ or ‘egg roast’ or ‘chicken roast’ are dishes which are spicy and dry in nature – just spicy masala without a wet gravy. The technique is important here. First cooking the shrimp without any water and then sautéing the cooked shrimp with other ingredients.
How I miss you dear maaman. I am grateful for all these wonderful memories. I couldn’t taste this shrimp since I am on a restrictive anti-inflammatory food diet to control my RA. However, without question all this reminiscing and consequently creation of this recipe was very well received by my family 🙂
Bringing this spicy shrimp dish to Throwback Thursday where my rice noodles and chicken curry was a feature last week! Yay! Also Linking to Fiesta Friday this week where Mollie @ The Frugal Hausfrau and Scarlett @ Unwed Housewife are co-hosts this week.
Thanks For Sharing this Amazing Recipe. My Family Loved It. I will be sharing this Recipe with my Friends. Hope They will like it.
[…] Spicy Shrimp Roast Prawn Dry […]
This dish looks fantastic. I love seafood and these shrimp look really flavorful. Thanks for sharing this at Fiesta Friday #117!
You are welcome!
I could put away some of this! I think your rebel uncle was ahead of his time and what a beautiful tribute to him! Thanks for linking up with us on Throwback Thursday!
Mollie
thanks Mollie. Yes that’s so true that my uncle was ahead of his time! And thanks for reading my post. I appreciate it greatly!
This dish sounds and looks amazing! We love shrimp and this looks like another great way to fix them.
Hi Julie, we both have similar tastes then. Unfortunately I am off shrimp now due to my anti-inflammatory diet. But I am hopeful I can add them back on someday! And my family surely loved this recipe so you should try it ! 🙂
I didn’t know they were inflammatory. ?
I guess they are ok for normal people. But for people with auto immune or inflammatory disease, they are not good 🙁
A very tempting dry roast shrimp dish….love all the spices in it.
Yum!! Your uncle would have blessed you for making this 🙂
Delicious!