Anne Morgan The Delia Smith prawn curry recipe is her Thai Prawn Curry with Pineapple, a fragrant curry for 2. You blend your own curry paste, boil the coconut milk until the fat separates, then add dry-fried tiger prawns and pineapple. Allow about 1¼ hours, because the chillies soak for 30 minutes first.
Delia got this recipe from The Oriental’s Cookery School in Bangkok. She changed it a little to suit Western ingredients, and it sits in the Stars of the East chapter of her Winter Collection (1995).
The same recipe is on her website, for 2. Two more prawn curries of hers, an Indian one for 1 and a quick Thai green one for 4, are in the FAQs below.
The Thai green curry with chicken on this site comes from the same chapter of the book.
Delia Smith’s Prawn Curry
Course: DinnerCuisine: ThaiDifficulty: Medium2
servings40
minutes35
minutes1030
kcalTiger prawns and pineapple chunks in reduced coconut milk with her own paste of dried chillies, lime, lemon grass, ginger and garlic.
Ingredients
- For the curry:
450g (1lb) uncooked tiger prawns in their shells
2 x 400ml tins coconut milk
450g (1lb) fresh pineapple, cut into 2cm (¾in) chunks
- For the curry paste:
4 dried red chillies
juice and zest of 1 lime
1 tablespoon lemon grass, finely chopped
1 x 2.5cm (1in) cube root ginger
5 garlic cloves, peeled
7 Thai shallots, peeled
1 teaspoon shrimp paste
½ teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons Thai fish sauce
- To garnish:
2 kaffir lime leaves
2 medium red chillies, de-seeded and cut into hair-thin strips
- To serve:
Thai fragrant rice
Directions
- Soak: Put the dried chillies in a small bowl with the lime juice and zest. Leave them to soak for 30 minutes.
- Prawns: Defrost frozen prawns in a colander for about 1 hour. Heat a wok or a very large frying pan over a high heat. Dry-fry the prawns in their shells for 4 to 5 minutes, tossing them, until the stripes turn pink.
- Peel: When the prawns are cool enough to handle, peel them. Cut a slit along each back and pull out any black thread, then cover them and keep them in the fridge.
- Paste: Put the chillies with their lime juice and zest in a food processor or blender. Add the lemon grass, ginger, garlic, shallots, shrimp paste, salt and fish sauce, then blend at high speed to a coarse, rough paste.
- Coconut: Pour the coconut milk into the wok and stir it as it comes to the boil. Then boil it for about 20 minutes, until it reduces and the fat separates from the solids.
- Curry: Stir in the curry paste and cook it for 3 minutes. Then add the prawns and pineapple, and heat them through gently for 2 minutes.
- Serve: Stack the lime leaves, roll them up tightly and cut them into very thin shreds. Scatter them and the chilli strips over the curry, and serve it with Thai fragrant rice.
Notes
- Wear thin gloves to shred the red chillies, or wash your hands well after, my own tip.
FAQs
Why does my coconut milk look curdled?
That is how it should look, and Delia says to ignore it. The coconut milk has to boil until its fat splits away from the solids.
Her tip is to listen as it boils. You hear a sizzle when the fat starts to come out, and that tells you it is ready for the paste.
Which prawns should I buy?
Raw tiger prawns in their shells, because they are dry-fried before they go in. When the fish counter has none, Delia says the freezer cabinet of a large supermarket is fine.
Cooked prawns would turn tough in the dry pan. For cooked peeled prawns, I’d skip steps 2 and 3 and add about 250g with the pineapple, my own call.
What if I can’t find shrimp paste, Thai shallots or lime leaves?
Delia gives a swap for each one. Use 2 anchovies instead of the shrimp paste, and ordinary shallots if there are no Thai ones.
The lime leaves are only for the garnish, so she adds them only if you can get them.
How far ahead can I make the curry paste?
Earlier the same day works well, my own call. Delia makes the paste and peels the prawns first, then keeps both covered in the fridge until she starts the curry.
That leaves only the coconut milk and the last 5 minutes for dinner time.
What is the quickest Thai prawn curry?
Her Thai green prawn curry in How to Cheat at Cooking, which serves 4. You need 400g frozen raw tiger or king prawns and a 295g pack of frozen Thai curry mix, plus 1 dessertspoon oil. Add 3 x 165ml tins of light coconut milk, 1 tablespoon Thai fish sauce, 1 teaspoon shrimp paste and 1 teaspoon palm sugar.
Leave the curry mix out for 20 minutes, set its lime leaves aside, and blend the rest to a coarse paste. Fry the paste in the oil for 2 minutes, then add the frozen prawns for 2 minutes, until pink. Stir in the coconut milk, fish sauce, shrimp paste and sugar.
Let it bubble, uncovered, for 5 minutes more, until the prawns are cooked through. Then stir in the lime leaves, cut into very thin strips. She serves lots of Thai jasmine rice with it.
Does Delia have an Indian prawn curry?
Yes, her Kashmir Spiced Prawns in One is Fun is a mild curry for 1. You need 110g peeled prawns, 1 dessertspoon groundnut oil, 1 chopped onion, ¼ green pepper and 1 crushed garlic clove. Add 225g chopped tomatoes (or a 200g tin), 5cm of peeled cucumber, 1 teaspoon mango chutney juice and 1 tablespoon natural yoghurt.
For the spices, grind ¼ teaspoon cumin seeds, ¼ teaspoon coriander seeds, ½ teaspoon turmeric, 1 cardamom pod and ⅛ teaspoon chilli powder. Then add 2.5cm of grated ginger. With no time to grind, she uses 1 level teaspoon hot curry powder, ½ teaspoon turmeric and ½ teaspoon ground ginger instead.
Fry the onion, pepper and garlic in the oil for 5 minutes, then add the spices for about 5 minutes. Stir in the tomatoes and cucumber and simmer gently, uncovered, for about 6 minutes. Add the prawns, chutney juice and yoghurt, heat them gently for 5 minutes without boiling, and serve with Basmati rice.
