Tuesday 24 July 2012

Thai Red Prawn & Pineapple Curry


I'm becoming more receptive to this savoury and sweet business, the fruit with meat jazz. It just seems to make sense now - all about a question of balance. Although I didn't love the place, I was most recently impressed by the grilled peach accompaniment to my
smoked eel at 10 Greek Street and it got me thinking about classic fish and fruit combinations. 



One that crops up repeatedly, especially in Thai cookery, is prawns with pineapple. I remember quite vividly as a kid being very excited that the prawn fried rice we'd get would be served in a hollowed out half of a pineapple. My dad would roll his eyes. This red curry has the essential savoury element of the fish sauce to balance out the sweetness of the pineapple. Simmered in spicy coconut gravy and packed full of vegetables, it's one of the most pleasing curries I've made.

Thai Red Prawn and Pineapple Curry

Serves 4

For the Paste:
10 shallots
20 dried red chillis, soaked in boiling water until soft and drained
2 stalks of lemongrass, tender part only
6 cloves of garlic
3 inch piece of galangal
3 kaffir lime leaves
1/2 tsp turmeric
1 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp white pepper
3 tbsp fish sauce
1 tsp shrimp paste
1 tbsp palm sugar 

25 large tail-on prawns (I use frozen raw ones, thawed from the Chinese supermarket)
A handful each of sugarsnap peas, baby sweetcorn and cherry tomatoes
1 tin of coconut milk
3 kaffir lime leaves
1 red pepper, sliced finely
1 tin of pineapple, or 1/4 fresh pineapple chopped into bite-sized chunks
1 handful of coriander, chopped roughly
1 lime
fish sauce (to taste)

Whizz up the paste ingredients in a small blender. Fry 3 tbsp in oil slowly for 10 mins and add the kaffir lime leaves. Add the coconut milk and simmer for 15 - 20 minutes. 

Add the slices of pepper and the baby sweetcorn and simmer for 5 minutes. Add the cherry tomatoes and simmer for a few minutes more. Throw in the sugarsnap peas, pineapple and the prawns and simmer for another three minutes (until the prawns have gone pink). Season with fish sauce (I like quite a lot) and serve with a handful of chopped coriander over rice and lime wedges. 

6 comments:

Patrick said...

Looks great. I love pineapple in curries.

The local Thai to me does a mean duck curry with pineapple in it which is awesome.

J@Feasttotheworld said...

This sound absolutely delicious. I love the sweet tanginess of the pineapple in the curry. Like you said, this combination is quite classic, pineapple seems to be one of the fruit that goes into a lot of savoury dish such as Gou Lou Yuk (sweet 'n' sour pork) and the pineapple fried rice, which is one of my favourite too.

Anonymous said...

Sounds absolutely delicious. Where do you buy fresh Galangal in London? I've brought dried slices back from travels before too. Do you happen to know how this could be used instead?
Thank you

Hollow Legs said...

Patrick - thanks! i still haven't got round to making a duck curry; that's next on the agenda.

J - The pineapple worked very well indeed. I sense a lurid sweet n' sour pork in my future.

Anon - Thanks! I buy it at New Loon Moon on Gerrard Street; I buy fresh then chop into chunks and freeze it, it works very well that way. I don't think dried would be much good, as it's a rhizome like ginger and dried ginger is completely different to fresh. I may be wrong though!

PlumLeaf 李葉 said...

The curry looks so delicious and fresh! LOVE Thai food - the aromatic flavours bring it alive. Interesting to have pineapple in a curry - will have to try this!

L'atelier des Chefs said...

I can taste how flavourful this is just by looking at the photographs. I love Thai food and this is a winner. I guess I know what I will be having for dinner. Cheers!