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Prawn Curry

A spicy curry of prawns, tomatoes, onions, potatoes, and aromatic spices.

From the Wikibooks Cookbook · 19 ingredients
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Prawn Curry

Why it works: Cinnamon and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,189 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Prawn Curry

Serves 6

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Heat a tablespoon of oil in a pan and sauté prawns over medium‑high heat for 2 minutes until their water dries out and they turn pink.

  2. Heat the remaining oil in a saucepan and fry onions over high heat for 8–10 minutes, stirring constantly until they become light golden in color.

Make the curry

  1. Add tomato pieces, ginger garlic paste, red chili powder, turmeric powder, salt, cloves, cardamoms, and cinnamon sticks to the onions.

  2. Cover the pan and cook over medium heat until they mix together and form a curry, about 10–15 minutes.

  3. Add potato pieces and 1 cup water to the curry and cook for 15 minutes until the potatoes are tender.

  4. Uncover the pan and cook over high heat until the oil separates from the gravy.

Finish and serve

  1. Add cumin powder, black pepper powder, garam masala, nutmeg, and mace powder.

  2. Add the fried prawn pieces and a sprinkle of coriander leaves, mix together, cover the pan, and cook for a minute over very low heat.

  3. Serve with boiled rice or naan.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

505Calories
32 gProtein
16 gFat
63 gCarbs

Counts 15 of 17 ingredients. The other 2 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 15 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Potato1 medium (173g) baked161
Olive Oil1 tbsp (14g)119
Shrimp100g cooked99
Onion1 medium (110g)44
Tomato1 medium (123g)22
Nutmeg1 tsp ground (2.2g)12
Turmeric1 tsp ground (3g)9
Cumin1 tsp ground (2.1g)8
Clove1 tsp ground (2g)7
Cardamom1 tsp ground (2g)6
Cinnamon1 tsp ground (2.6g)6
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Garlic1 clove (3g)4
Ginger1 tsp grated fresh (2g)2
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
Macenot in our table0
Coriandernot in our table0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

Recipe from the Wikibooks Cookbook.

Steps grouped into stages for easier reading; the method is the source's own.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Cardamom + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,299 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  3. Cardamom + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,114 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  4. Onion + garlictop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together29,058 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

  5. Tomato + garlictop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,076 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Onions
Browning builds sweetness and a deep, rich body as the base of the gravy.
Tomatoes
Provide acidity and moisture that cook down into the body of the curry gravy.
Potatoes
Add starch that thickens the gravy slightly and gives a soft, tender bite.
Prawns
Supply the main protein, which turns pink and firm when cooked briefly in the pan.
Vegetable oil
Carries the spices' fat-soluble aroma and separates from the gravy when cooked well.

The step that matters

Frying the onions until light golden. Onions need steady stirring over high heat; uneven heat or scorching turns them bitter, while proper browning builds sweetness and the base flavour of the gravy.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (shrimp, tomato, potato, cardamom, cinnamon, clove, garlic):

  1. Okrafits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Carrotfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against shrimp, tomato, potato, cardamom, cinnamon, clove, garlic. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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