This is an interesting recipe from a friend, Mr. Viki who is a well known poet and hails from Sri Lanka.

He is known to be a great cook and I have eaten some of his creations such as his cutlets both fish as well as vegetarian, they were excellent. He brought it when we went for a retreat so it was like fabulous picnic food.

On another occasion, when we wanted to celebrate a mutual friend’s birthday, we threw a potluck party and this is the dish that he had cooked and brought. It was soo good!

I asked him to share his recipe and this is it!

His recipe seems to have many ingredients but I can tell you it is worth the effort of cooking this dish. I have done the dish with little changes and it came out fantastic. It is a good party dish and goes so well with wine as a starter.

For most of us a steaming plate of rice is enough accompaniment. But if you remove the shells of the prawns, or reduce the chilies then it can be rolled into breads etc. I had some leftovers, which I spread on pizza dough and baked quickly. Oh my goodness – so delicious!

The dish is very spicy with plenty of chilies and fresh peppers and I loved it with just wine alone.  The recipe given here is exactly as Mr. Viki had given me.

Thank you Viki for a wonderful recipe. Wish to learn from you more!  My dear friends – make this dish and taste for yourself the superb flavors in this delicious prawn dish.

INGREDIENTS

1 kg King Prawns – remove heads, legs, leave the shells on and deveined

5 medium sized onions – sliced into 8 wedges.

5 tomatoes – cut into wedges

6 banana peppers – sliced

6 green chilies   – sliced

2 green bell pepper – cut into pieces

1 red bell pepper – cut into pieces

2 pandan leaves

1 lemon grass – white part only

2 tbsp tomato paste

3tbsp Maldives fish flakes

4 tbsp dried chili flakes

1 tbsp chili powder

½ tsp turmeric powder

½ tbsp garam masala

1 tbsp coarsely ground black pepper

1 tbsp brown sugar

1 ½ tbsp minced garlic

1 ½ tbsp minced ginger

1 tbsp light soya sauce

1 tbsp fish sauce

1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce

2 tbsp tomato sauce

4 tbsp chili sauce

200 ml coconut oil

Salt to taste

Water as required

METHOD

In a large pan, add oil. Once heated, add ginger, garlic and all the spice powders. Stir through and add a little water so as not to burn the powders.

Add the prawns and stir through.

Add all the remaining ingredients and once the onions are soft and the prawns have turned to a beautiful orange colour, remove from stove.

Serve hot.

NOTES:

Prepare all the ingredients and keep them near your cooking area, as cooking time is short.

Don’t overcook the prawns.

If you cannot get some of the ingredients you may substitute or omit them.

For Maldives fish – either can add dried prawns or dried anchovies (ikan bilis) or omit it.

Banana peppers – this is not always available so green chilies are a good substitute.

You may substitute coconut oil for another oil.

If you want to make it less spicy, reduce chilies, and all hot spices.

It was good when cold too but it would be superb if it is served hot.