Kerala Prawn (Shrimp) Curry: Chemmeen Kari

Kerala is a state along the seacoast in southwestern India, and seafood dishes are common there. Most recipes use coconut milk in this dish, which of course lightens the color, but I've seen a couple of recipes that omit the coconut milk, and the nice red color of the dish draws me to it. I know the list of ingredients looks intimidating, but it really shouldn't scare you at all, and if you cook Indian food at home often, and you already have a lot of spices, you should be pretty well set to make this dish, with the possible exceptions of curry leaves, which are common in southern Indian cooking, and black mustard seeds. Curry leaves can be found in Indian and Pakistani grocery stores and perhaps in "some" spice shops. They are often frozen, but I've actually found fresh curry leaves here in Cleveland at an Indian grocery store. Curry leaves have a combination of a citrusy and basil like taste. You can substitute basil leaves along with some grated lime peel. Black mustard seeds are available at spice shops, Indian/Pakistani grocers and at some supermarkets.

 

I've made this dish a couple of times before, but when I made it for this article, I decided to substitute tomato juice for the water I had used before, and I now prefer to use tomato juice.

Serve with basmati rice ...

 

Ingredients:

 

1 pound raw medium shrimp, shelled and cleaned

4 tablespoons vegetable or sunflower oil

1/2 teaspoon black mustard seeds

1 large onion (softball size), quartered and then sliced

2 teaspoons grated ginger

4 medium cloves garlic, minced

1/2 teaspoon fennel seeds

1 or 2 red chilies, cut into 4 or 5 pieces each

1 cup chopped tomato

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon ground turmeric

1 tablespoon ground coriander

1/2 teaspoon ground cumin

1 tablespoon ground red pepper (like cayenne, or for milder: 1/2 sweet paprika, 1/2 cayenne)

1 heaping teaspoon ground black pepper

12 to 15 curry leaves (or substitute 1 tablespoon grated lime peel and like 6 or 8 torn basil leaves)

1/3 cup tomato juice

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

2 cardamom pods, crushed or slit 

2 heaping tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro, aka coriander 

Heat oil over medium heat (I list 4 tablespoons of oil, but I suggest using 3 tablespoons, then adding the remaining tablespoon, if necessary), add the black mustard seeds and cook for a minute or until the seeds begin to "pop." Add the onions and saute until they begin to soften, then add the ginger, garlic and fennel seed; saute another minute, then add the chilies and cook for 90 seconds, then add the tomato and cook for 3 minutes. Add the salt, turmeric, ground coriander, ground cumin, ground red pepper (or the half and half mixture), ground black pepper, curry leaves (or grated lime/basil leaves substitute), tomato juice, ground cinnamon, cardamom pods (crushed or slit) and cook for another 6 minutes, before adding the shrimp and cook a further 6 minutes, then add 1 tablespoon of the chopped cilantro, stir and cook about 60 to 90 seconds. Garnish with the other tablespoon of chopped cilantro.

 

Kerala Prawn Curry, basmati rice and paratha, a type of layered and flaky Indian flatbread ...

WORD HISTORY:

Clue-This word is related to "clay," "clod," "cleave" (with the meaning "to cling to," not the meaning "to cut, chop"), all words from the Germanic roots of English, and to "glue," a Latin-derived word borrowed by English via French. "Clue" goes back to Indo European ""gleuh/gleih," which had the notion of "stick together, adhere." This gave Old Germanic "kliwjo(n)," meaning,  "something stuck together, a mass, something clumped into a ball." This gave Old English "cliewen" meaning, "a ball or clump," then "ball or clump of thread," and this then became "clewe," then "clew," then "clue" (perhaps influenced by some French spellings?). The meaning "ball of thread" was long the meaning, but the more modern meaning comes via Greek mythology where Theseus used a ball of thread to guide him out of a maze (used as "clew/clue ball," circa 1600); thus in English, this usage then took on the broader sense (circa 1625?), "something that guides and gives direction to solve a problem." Used in a negative sense in like, "That guy hasn't a clue where he is," with the general meaning "bewildered, not have an idea about something." The early to mid 1930s saw the development of the verb form meaning, "to give information to help point one in a particular direction," not long thereafter almost always used with "in," as with, "Clue me in on how to use this new app." Low German has both "Kluven" and "Kloen" ("ball of thread"),^ Dutch has "kluwen" ("ball of thread"), German has modern "Knäuel" (ball of yarn, ball of twine/thread), and the spelling with the "n" came about through a variant pronunciation in the Middle Ages of German "kliuwel," itself a diminutive form of German "kliuwe," Frisian once had "kliwen," but I cannot find anything beyond that, and Old Norse had "kle" ("ball," also "ball of wool?"), but the word seems to have died out in Old Norse, and thus, in the North Germanic languages.

 

^ Low German is not a standard language, but rather a collection of dialects; thus, it is not totally uncommon to see more than one form of a word by regions, or even totally different words.