The smell of these masala prawns frying reminds me of when I was back in Kenya. We had the family gatherings Friday onwards. Everyone would tuck into these prawns and mop all the masala and oil up with fresh bread. Many would suck the juices off the prawns because the shell just holds so much flavour.

To get juicy prawns, the key is not to overcook them and also ensure they are good quality. The shell also retains all the moisture so the prawns do not dry out.

You do need a good amount of oil when making these prawns because the masala is dry and you almost want the oil to infuse all of it so have this beautiful tasty marinade.

It was my first attempt to clean, take the head off and devein prawns. If you want to watch how I did it check out this video I made on TikTok. It did freak me out to start with but it was so therapeutic and not as hard as I expected.

INGREDIENTS

• 560 g king prawns (preferably with shell on). I was kindly gifted some prawns from Jackhook Seafood who deliver a great selection of fresh seafood straight to your door.
  PASTE
• 1 small red onion
• 26 g crushed garlic
• 15g crushed ginger
• 2 crushed green chillies 
• 4 tbsp oil
• 2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
• Juice of 1 lemon plus more for later
• 3 tbsp tomato paste
• 7 g coriander plus more for garnish
• 1 tsp chilli powder
• 1/2 tsp dhana jiru 
• 1/2 tsp garam masala
• 1/2 tsp turmeric powder 
  GARNISH
• 3 Sliced Spring Onions
• Handful Chopped Coriander 
• Half Lemon  

Oil for frying

METHOD

The key to getting those flavours into the prawns is marinade the mixture. However the secret is cook the paste first so all the aromas are released then marinate the prawns.

1. Blitz the paste ingredients together. I used a nutribullet. 
2. Heat a pan with 2 tbsp of oil and cook the paste until it darkens and you can smell all the aromas. Use a low heat so the paste does not burn
3. Once the paste cools totally, marinate the prawns with it and chill for at least 3 hours. Overnight is better
4. Half an hour before you are going to cook the prawns take them out the fridge
5. Heat a pan with oil, enough to shallow fry them. Cook them for about 10 minutes, ensuring they don’t burn. You need medium heat. *** These would work well on the BBQ as well***
6. Once cooked, turn off the heat and sprinkle the spring onions and give it a good mix. This will take the edge of the spring onions
7. Squeeze some lemon juice on them and sprinkle with coriander

I served mine with an easy no yeast naan. All you need is full fat greek yoghurt and self raising flour for the naan and then you can add in salt, coriander, crushed garlic…whatever you want.

For about 6 naans, mix 100g greek yoghurt with 175-180g self raising flour and 1/2 tsp salt. Form a soft dough then let this rest for about 30 minutes. Make 6 equal balls then roll them out. If they get sticky, sprinkle some flour on them. They don’t need to be perfectly shaped. Cook on a pancake pan. Recipe can be found here.

Hope you get to make these easy juicy prawns. If you have any queries drop me an email via the contact page.

Want more prawn recipes? Try out my Ultimate Prawn Tacos. They are so juicy and once you have these you will not turn back.

The Ultimate Prawn Tacos

Neha