Coconut love – Laotian Prawn Curry

I got to know the great blogging event - JFI for Coconut through the beautiful post of Haalo of Cook anything at least once. Hosted by Ashwini of Food for Thought, bloggers are supposed to post a recipe featuring coconut on January 1. I hope this post (a bit late since it is now January 2 in Australia) is still accepted.

Coconut, in whatever form it may be – fresh, cream, milk, juice or the meat, is an integral part of many cuisines in the world. I cannot imagine Southeast Asian or Indian cuisines without coconut. If I search out for more, I will surely find its presence in other cuisines as well… I love coconut, especially young coconut juice – their light and sweet flavour is awesome during hot summer days. As a child I was amazed to find out that you could use salt, not sugar, to sweeten the coconut juice. Funny, isn’t it?

For this month JFI, I have chosen a dish from “my part of the world” – Southeast Asia. It is a beautiful green prawn curry from Laos, which is called Gang Keo Goung. Like most of SEA’s curry, you cannot cook it without thick coconut milk. I personally do not like the taste of low-fat coconut milk or Carnation “fake” Coconut Milk. Sure they are lower in fat and cholesterol content, but what we lose is the creaminess and even the distinct taste of coconut. So go for the real thing, but be sure eating everything in moderation!

A bit more on this Laotian curry. Unlike the more well-known Thai curries, this dish uses fresh dill (a lot of them) as the garnish to match up the seafood taste of prawn and tone down the intense flavour of the kaffir lime leaves. It was my first time to try dill in a curry, and I have to admit its charm!

GANG KEO GOUNG –

GREEN PRAWN CURRY WITH FRESH DILL

If you cannot find Laotian Kore (Curry paste), feel free to substitute it with a good Thai Green Curry like what I did. Serve with some extra dill on the table so you can eat the curry with fresh dill in every bite!

Source: Curry

Ingredients

3 tbsp vegetable oil

5 tbsp Laotian Kore or Thai green curry paste

1 tbsp shrimp paste

1 tbsp palm sugar

500ml thick coconut milk

500ml chicken or vegetable stock

4-6 kaffir lime leaves, bruised

Fish sauce to taste

2 large waxy potatoes, peeled and cut into 2.5 cm (1in) pieces

675g raw prawns, peeled and deveined

1 bunch of dill

Method

Heat oil in moderately high heat and fry the curry paste for 2 mins or until just golden and fragrant.

Add shrimp paste and palm sugar, stir-fry for 1 min.

Reduce the heat and add coconut milk, stock, lime leaves and fish sauce to taste/ Add potatoes, cover the pot and cook for 20 mins.

Add prawn, stir well and cover again and cook for about 5 mins or until they turn pink. Serve hot, garnish with fresh dill.

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Tag: recipes food blog food and drink Asia Southeast Asia curry Laos Laotian Cuisine