Name: Devilled prawns
Yield: Serves 2
Cuisine: Sri Lankan
Ingredients: 1 teaspoon ground turmeric; steamed rice, to serve; 2 medium vine tomatoes, one cut into sixths, one roughly chopped; 1 teaspoon flaked sea salt; 2 tablespoons tomato ketchup or tomato purée; 1 green pepper, deseeded and finely diced; ½ stick of cinnamon, broken in half; 2 cloves of garlic, finely minced; 16 curry leaves (optional); 250 g raw tiger prawns from a sustainable source, peeled and deveined (thawed if frozen); 4 tablespoons sunflower or groundnut oil; 1 medium red onion, halved and sliced about 3mm thick; 1 small thumb-sized piece of fresh ginger, peeled and very finely chopped; a squeeze of fresh lime juice; 1 teaspoon hot red chilli powder; 2 fresh hot green chillies, chopped

Preparation info

Serves
2

Difficulty
Easy

Appears in

What to Eat Next

By Valentine Warner

Published 2014

About

I first encountered this in Colombo, Sri Lanka. I had been very ill in India, and in order to recover I checked into a nice hotel. Pale and wasted, tucked up in bed, I got on to room service and ordered devilled prawns - a Sri Lankan speciality. I made a speedy recovery on at least one plate a day while reading an inexhaustible stash of trashy novels I found in the hotel lobby. Sometimes when I discover a new dish it’s all I want to eat.

I like all the shell peeled from the prawns -