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Prawn Curry

A buttery prawn curry with spinach, simmered in a light sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Prawn Curry

Why it works: Onion and spinach match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,336 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Prawn Curry

Ingredients

Directions

Make the curry base

  1. In a stewpan, melt the butter over medium heat.

  2. Add the chopped onion and curry powder; sauté until fragrant.

  3. Stir in the prawns and cook for a few minutes.

Add the spinach and finish

  1. In a separate saucepan, add the spinach without water; cook until wilted.

  2. Press the liquid from the spinach and add it to the stewpan.

  3. Stir well, adding a little water if necessary to prevent burning.

  4. Let the mixture stew for a few minutes to combine flavors.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

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. Onion + spinachtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,336 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Shrimp + buttertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,931 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).

  3. Butter + oniontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together42,912 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Shrimp + oniontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,437 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Shrimp + spinachtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together237 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

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

What each ingredient does

Prawns or shrimps
Provide the main protein and bulk of the curry.
Butter
Carries the curry powder's flavour and adds richness to the sauce.
Onion
Softens and sweetens as it cooks, forming the base of the curry.
Curry powder
Supplies the spice aroma and flavour when bloomed in fat.
Spinach
Adds leafy body and moisture that thickens the curry as it wilts.

The step that matters

Blooming the curry powder. Sautéing curry powder briefly in fat releases its fat-soluble aromatic compounds, but it can scorch quickly over heat, which turns it bitter. Keep the heat moderate and stir constantly until fragrant.

Swap the spinach

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (shrimp, butter, onion):

  1. Potatofits better
  2. Chivefits better
  3. Okrafits better
  4. Spinachthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against shrimp, butter, onion. 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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