Kitchen Experiments: Prawn Rice

I know I have been blogging like crazy lately, but cant you guess – my long vacation is about to get over and God only knows when I can next have such an extended break?!! :)
Today I made an old tried-and-tested dish for dinner – another one-dish meal! It was taught to me by my wonderful cousin K, who's the epitome of perfection - she's gorgeous, sings like an angel, cooks like a dream and is a surgeon, to boot!
The dish is extremely simple, delicious and has the advantage of appearing like a party dish over which you have slaved for hours! :-D

Ingredients:
250 gms ready-shelled and de-veined prawns (if you get the ones with the shell on, you will need more than 250 gms)
¾ tablespoon garlic paste/ 6-7 cloves peeled garlic
Green chillies (to taste, say about 3)
A fistful of coriander leaves
2 medium tomatoes
2 small onions
1 dry red chilly, broken into 2 pieces (optional)
2 cups Basmati rice (any long grained variety will do)
2-3 cloves, 1 stick cinnamon, 1 bay leaf, 3-4 peppercorns.
3-4 teaspoons oil

Method:

Chop the onions and tomatoes, medium fine.


Grind the garlic, chillies and coriander to form a not-too-fine paste.


Rub this paste onto the prawns and let them marinate for 30 minutes or so.


Wash the rice and cook it with about 3.5 cups water and the whole spices (cloves, cinnamon, bay leaf and pepper). Cook it in an electric rice cooker if you have one so that the rice becomes a bit dry-ish. (Each grain being cooked but standing separate from the others) It should NOT be soft and sticky

Heat the oil in a kadhai/wok and once hot, add the chopped onions and sauté till softened. Add the dry red chilly and stir. Next add the tomatoes and sauté till the tomatoes are half-cooked.


Add the prawns (along with the marinade/juice they are lying in) and briskly stir on high heat till the prawns become opaque. Take care not to overcook the prawns.

Add salt as per taste.(Add more than normal because it is to be enough for the rice which will be added to the pot later on)

Add the cooked rice and give the whole thing a good stir and cook on medium heat till the rice absorbs the prawns’ flavour, say about 5 minutes. Make sure the rice is nice and dry like biryani, no juice should be left to make it wet and sticky.



Garnish with fresh chopped coriander leaves and serve hot!
Squabble with everyone else at the table for the last prawn :P



The above quantities would GENEROUSLY serve 2, (maybe even 3) assuming this is the only dish being served, with maybe some raita.

A few tips:
Tip #1: Use fresh prawns as far as possible. Freshness is more important than the size of the prawns. (I used tiny ones) If using frozen prawns (like I did) make sure you make the dish ASAP once you get them. The prawns are the main flavour-giving ingredient in this dish and any lack of flavour in them makes the whole dish fall flat.



Tip#2: To get the maximum flavour, you can use a different method of cooking – do not pre-cook the rice. Rub the marinade off the prawns (yes, I am not crazy!) and shallow-fry them in the wok. Take them out in 15 seconds (when they are half-cooked). Next fry the whole spices in the prawn-flavoured oil, and continue with the onions etc. Tip in the prawns’ marinade along with the tomatoes. Then add water and salt and the washed rice and cook till the rice is almost cooked. Then add the fried prawns and cook till done. This method extracts the maximum flavour of the prawns - since the rice is cooked in a prawn-flavoured infusion, every grain will be imbued with prawniness!