Spicy prawns with pooris

Prawn pooris are a popular starter in many UK Indian restaurants. But I think they can make a great weekend lunch, or a light supper for any night of the week or weekend. In the restaurant you only get one poori, topped with prawns. This is a slightly larger portion, bearing in mind it is a whole meal. 

 

The prawns are being cooked in a lightly spiced sauce. You can choose how spicy you make it. Feel free to leave the chilli out if you don’t like it hot. But please don’t omit the ground spices, or you will only be making a tomato and prawn sauce. Heat lovers, you could always add a little chilli powder too, maybe half a teaspoon.

I am using ghee to make the light prawn curry, but if you can’t get hold of it, or don’t want to use it, you can substitute 2-3 tablespoons of peanut, sunflower or rapeseed oil. You could add some grated ginger to this dish, too. There are lots of variations you could make.

The pooris would traditionally be made in a wok like pan called a karahi. My Mum has the same karahi at home that she’s had since the 1970s. It is utterly solid, but now has the blackened coating which comes from repeated use, like a good steel wok would have. It is truly a thing of beauty, and it is the source of many of my greatest food memories. But I don’t have one, so I used a regular frying pan, with the bottom covered in oil. We can’t all be as good as our mothers, sometimes. It’s OK.

Happy cooking, and happy eating!

Spicy prawns with pooris

Serves 2

Ingredients

For the prawns:

2 tbsp ghee

3 tbsp ground nut (peanut) oil

4 shallots, finely diced

2 green chillies, very finely chopped (use gloves if needed)

5-6 cloves garlic, very finely chopped

300g prawns or king prawns, tails removed, peeled and “deveined” (remove the poop chute!)

2-3 tomatoes (2 large or 3 medium tomatoes) diced

1 tbsp tomato puree

1 teaspoon ground cumin

½ teaspoon ground coriander

½ teaspoon turmeric

½ teaspoon ground paprika

¼ teaspoon ground black pepper

¼ teaspoon salt (feel free to increase within reason)

2-3 tablespoons fresh coriander, roughly chopped (try to prepare this just before serving)

Lime wedges to serve (optional)

For the pooris:

250g Atta (this is Indian chapatti flour, currently available in Tesco and other supermarkets, I used Elephant brand)

 

½ mug of water or thereabouts – this is not an exact science, please see the method below

½ tsp of salt

Vegetable or ground nut oil for frying

Method

Weigh out the Atta and place in a bowl. There is no need to sieve it. Make a well in your bowl. Measure out your half mug of water, obviously into a mug. Pour about a third of your water into the bowl, and mix, using your hands, thoroughly. As the water becomes more scarce, rub the moisture into the flour as best as you can to get what I call “stringy breadcrumbs”.

When this amount of water is gone, be careful about adding water bit by bit and mixing carefully until the flour and water just about comes together. Once bound together, do not add more water. Cover with a plate or tea towel or cling film and leave for at least half an hour. 

While the dough is resting for half an hour, prepare you other ingredients. I like to put these into individual dishes depending on when they go into the dish.

We begin with making the spicy prawns.

Melt the ghee in the groundnut oil on a low heat, stirring to combine. When mixed, raise the heat to medium and add the shallots and chilli. Keep it moving, stirring frequently, allowing the onions to start to soften for around 5 minutes. 

Now add the garlic, keep it moving until softened and fragrant. Please feel free to turn the heat down to low whilst completing this step. The garlic will need around 5 minutes to soften. Do not allow it to burn.

Add the chopped tomatoes and tomato puree. Stir to completely combine. Now cook on a medium heat for around 15-20 minutes, stirring occasionally to combine the ingredients and move them from the direct source of heat – this will help the chopped tomatoes to break down.

Add the salt and ground spices as the moisture starts to come off the tomatoes. Once the salt is added, keep stirring from time to time, to circulate the moisture in the ingredients and allow the flavours to meld. Keep an eye on it; if it is drying out, take it off the heat. 

If you can, the time when the tomatoes are cooking is the time to get cracking on the pooris. You need a clean work surface and a dusting of atta. Divide the dough up into 4-5 equal sections and replace into the bowl. Dredge your surface with atta. Form each of your dough portions into an even ball, place on the work surface and roll into a circle of around 5”.

Flour a spare plate very lightly. Place your first poori disc on the plate. Prepare your remaining pooris. Use flour between each on this spare plate to ensure the pooris to be cooked do not stick. 

If you cannot take these poori steps whilst the tomatoes are stewing, then prepare them in advance.

Cover the bottom of a frying pan with half to one inch of either vegetable oil or ground nut oil for frying. Heat up on a medium high heat.

Put something wooden like a chopstick in the oil, if little bubbles form (of the size of Champagne bubbles) around it it's medium hot (c 150c), if the bubbles are large (of the size from a glass of sparkling water bubbles), then it's hot (c 200c). You can make pooris on either level of heat, but I would recommend you start cooking the pooris on medium heat, as when you continue to cook the pooris, the oil will get hotter and hotter. Please note that if the chopstick catches fire when you put it in the oil, it's too hot! If at any time you think the oil it too hot, take it off the heat and leave it for a few minutes to cool down.

If your oil is initially medium, I would say that your first poori will need around 45 seconds per side.

Your subsequent pooris will need less time as you go along. We got down to 20 seconds per side for the last one. This required quick reactions!

If you are lucky, you have someone else helping you with the pooris whilst the prawns are cooking. What you are hoping is that you get your first couple of pooris cooked while you add the prawns to the tomato sauce.

If you are cooking alone, then put the prawns in and cook until pink. Put to one side and cook the pooris as described above. You can give it a quick reheat, if needed, just before serving.

 

Once your pooris are cooked and your prawns are pink and ready to serve, throw in your coriander leaf and mix thoroughly. 

 

Serve up your pooris and your prawns. If you wish, serve with lime wedges to squeeze over the prawn mixture before devouring.