Dad’s prawn curry

Name: Dad’s prawn curry
Yield: Serves 4
Cuisine: Lao
Ingredients: 150 ml coconut milk; 75 ml vermouth; a small handful of flaked almonds; flaked sea salt; 2 good teaspoons mild curry powder; 1 small hard garlic clove, finely chopped; seeds from 10 green cardamom pods, crushed, husks reserved; 2 small bay leaves; a grating of nutmeg; 1 tablespoon hot water; a good pinch of saffron threads; 1 medium onion, finely chopped; 35 g butter; buttered rice, to serve; 75-100 ml double cream; 600 g cooked peeled large Atlantic prawns

Preparation info

Serves
4

Difficulty
Easy

Appears in

The Good Table

By Valentine Warner

Published 2013

About

My father was British Ambassador in Laos during the sixties and this is a curry influenced by the cooking of French-colonised Asia that he passed on. He used to make it with packets of standard-issue peeled Atlantic prawns when it was just us three mice and the cat was away. My brother and I would literally count the prawns on our plates to make sure we had the same amount. One prawn difference guaranteed unrest, a subsequent clip over the ear and a ruined evening. Dad was the only person w