A pepper prawn dish with ingredients like ginger-garlic and coconut milk gives this seafood recipe wonderful flavours.
It’s a dish to try out on curry nights when you have a few friends who are feeling adventurous with their food.
Once you’ve cleaned and deveined the prawns, you’ll be surprised how easy it is to make this black pepper prawn(shrimp) recipe.
You can quickly make this dry pepper prawn curry using pre-cleaned or frozen prawns.
What to see serve with pepper prawns
- Serve with various rice dishes.
- Side-dishes to serve with pepper prawns.
- Salad and mallums to serve with pepper prawns.
FAQ: Sri Lankan pepper prawns
- How to choose the right-sized prawns(shrimp).
- There are three sizes to choose from small, medium and jumbo.
- For serving large crowds I would recommend choosing medium or jumbo-sized prawns.
- How many Prawns per person for parties?
- Unless you are allergic to seafood, everyone loves Prawns with or without shells.
- Be kind to your guests or family and serve more. The minimum per person for jumbo prawns would be 8. if they are medium in size, 10.
- How many Prawns in a Kilo?
- On average,
- 30-35 Prawns per kilo if they are large. 40-50 prawns per kilo if they are medium in size. These figures might slightly vary.
- I do the cleaning in two stages, to keep it simple.
- Before you devein the prawns, you will need three large bowls or pans, place one bowl with all the prawns in your sink under running water.
- Once this is done, drain the prawns, wash them once and place them back in the pan for the next stage of cleaning.
- How do I clean prawns?
- The method of inserting a toothpick into gaps between the shell of the prawn and pulling out the icky stuff works and this is how you do it.
- remove the head of the Prawn and clean the shallow cavity.
- To clean the vein that runs along the spine, gently bend the prawn, once you bend it, find the gap between the shell where you can get to the fleshy part.
- Use a toothpick but a small cocktail fork works better, insert it into the gap and pull out the vein.
- It might take you a few minutes to get the rhythm of it but you will.
- Should I keep the head and legs on?
- It is a personal preference.
- I believe the best of the flavours are in the parts that you might be inclined to throw.
- There is a reason you’ll find them used in broths and bisque, including shrimp paste.
- This is my personal preference, I like to use the head to soak the gravy and slurp on it.
- If you still feel you are not comfortable having the legs while you cook the Prawns then please remove them. When it comes to the skin, I would recommend leaving it on so they don’t overcook.
- How long does it take to cook the Prawns?
- Prawns take less than 5 minutes to cook and you’ll know they are done when they turn Pink in colour. This is why I’ve made the gravy first, reduced it by half and then added the Prawns.
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Utensils and appliances needed.
- Chopping board and knife
- Large bowl to marinate the prawns.
- Large frying pan or skillet to make the black pepper prawn curry.
More prawn(shrimp) recipes
Sri Lankan prawn curry cooked in coconut milk.
Caramelized garlic prawn stir-fry
Sri Lankan Jaffna curry powder prawn curry.
Storing
Use glass containers or old plastic containers to store the black pepper prawn curry as it will stain the containers, refrigerate and consume within 2 days.
Freezing
Avoid freezing.
Heating
Heat the dish using a microwave and a teaspoon of water, make sure to use a microwave cover. you can also heat the prawn curry with a few teaspoons of water on a stovetop.
Stop food waste by
Making seafood fried rice with leftover rice.
reipe difficulty- easy
Ingredients to cook pepper prawns.
The ingredients mentioned below use standard measuring cups and spoons.
700g of deveined, cleaned and washed Prawns(can use frozen prawns)
In a bowl mix two tablespoons of vinegar and 1/2 teaspoon of Salt to marinade the Prawns
3 tablespoons of Oil
1 sprig of curry leaves
2 medium-sized onions sliced fine
4 pods of garlic crushed.
2 tablespoons of ginger paste
1/2 teaspoon of turmeric
2 tablespoons of curry powder
2 tablespoons of sugar
2 tablespoons of fresh ground Black pepper
1/2 a cup of coconut milk
Salt to taste
How to make pepper prawn curry
Marinating for pepper Prawns.
Place the washed and cleaned prawns(700g) in a large bowl.
Add 2 tablespoons of vinegar and 1/2 teaspoon of salt and mix.
Marinate the prawns(shrimp) for at least 15-20 minutes.
Place a pan over medium heat, heat it for a minute and pour in the oil(3 tbs) followed by the curry leaves(a sprig) and sliced onions(2 medium).
Cook until the onions turn translucent, this would take two to three minutes.
While continuously stirring, reduce heat and mix in the garlic(4 pods minced) and ginger paste(2 tbs), turmeric(1/2 tsp), curry powder(2 tbs), sugar(2 tbs), black pepper(2 tbs) to make a thick paste.
Cook for 2 minutes making sure that the paste doesn’t burn.
Pour in the coconut milk(1/2 cup) and stir in the curry paste until you have a thick gravy.
Check the taste of the gravy and season if necessary, cook the gravy until it reduces by half and turns dark in colour.
Once the gravy has thickened and reduced, add the prawns and cook for 5 minutes under low heat.
Serve warm over rice or enjoy as it is.
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black pepper prawn(shrimp) curry.
A rich, black gravy made with crushed black pepper, ginger, garlic and Coconut milk.
It’s a dish to try out on curry nights when you have a few friends that are feeling adventurous with their food.
Ingredients
- Ingredients mentioned below use standard measuring cups and spoons.
- 700g of deveined, cleaned and washed Prawns
- In a bowl mix two tablespoons of vinegar and 1/2 teaspoon of Salt to marinade the Prawns
- 3 tablespoons of oil
- 1 sprig of curry leaves
- 2 medium-sized onions sliced fine
- 4 pods of garlic crushed
- 2 tablespoons of ginger paste
- 1/2 teaspoon of turmeric
- 2 tablespoons of curry powder
- 2 tablespoons of sugar
- 2 tablespoons of fresh ground Black pepper
- 1/2 a cup of Coconut milk
- Salt to taste
Instructions
Marinating the Prawns
Place the washed and cleaned prawns(700g) in a large bowl.
Add 2 tablespoons of vinegar and 1/2 teaspoon of salt and mix.
Marinate the prawns(shrimp) for at least 15-20 minutes.
Place a pan over medium heat, heat it for a minute and pour in the oil(3 tbs) followed by the curry leaves(a sprig) and sliced onions(2 medium).
Cook until the onions turn translucent, this would take two to three minutes.
While continuously stirring, reduce heat and mix in the garlic(4 pods minced) and ginger paste(2 tbs), turmeric(1/2 tsp), curry powder(2 tbs), sugar(2 tbs), black pepper(2 tbs) to make a thick paste.
Cook for 2 minutes making sure that the paste doesn’t burn.
Pour in the coconut milk(1/2 cup) and stir in the curry paste until you have a thick gravy.
Check the taste of the gravy and season if necessary, cook the gravy until it reduces by half and turns dark in color.
Once the gravy has thickened and reduced, add the prawns and cook for 5 minutes under low heat.
Serve warm over rice or enjoy as it is.
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K
Tuesday 26th of January 2021
Made this tonight! It was so good. Thank you! Only tweak was I Didn’t have curry powder so added red chili powder and Dhaniya mix. Came out really good!
jehan
Wednesday 27th of January 2021
Hello K, Thank you for your patience and apologies for the late reply. Glad you loved it and you are most welcome. Most of my readers go through comments as well so your suggestions to substitute curry powder will definitely come in handy to someone out there. Stay safe and best regards, J
Brian Lageose
Monday 20th of February 2017
This looks deliciously yummy!
jehan
Monday 20th of February 2017
Hi Brian, Thank you. fyi, I've somehow blocked myself from my wordpress.com and unable to read any of your post. need to find a way back in. miss reading your work.