Tandoori prawns. Indian barbecue shrimp. Spice infused butter. Garlic. Ginger. Lemon. And perfectly cooked prawns. If that doesn’t sound amazing I don’t know what does.
I cannot believe this one has taken so long. It’s been staring me in the face for years. And I’ve just finally seen it. Bit embarrassing actually.
No barbecue required for tandoori prawns
This isn’t fusion. More inspiration than fusion. Indian-ish. A classic cajun dish. Re-imagined. Through an Indian lens.
I love cajun BBQ shrimp. I have been making it for years. It’s all about butter and shrimp stock and cajun spices. It’s a stovetop dish. No grill required. It was invented in New Orleans. Back in the 1950s. It was spiced red. So they decided to call it BBQ shrimp. No clue why. I wasn’t there. I just go with it.
What they did was come up with a dish that is a mess of buttery, spicy shrimp goodness. Crazy tasty. Stupid delicious even.
That’s what these tandoori prawns are about. Cajun BBQ shrimp. With Indian spicing. Diabolical. If I say so myself.
Might be a first. Hard to say. I can’t find it on the internet. But the world is a big place.
I’m thinking this one is mine. Doesn’t really matter though. What matters is that you try these tandoori prawns. Soon. Very soon.
Shells add flavour
Shrimp shells are loaded with flavour. If you ever make shrimp cocktail you know. Shrimp stock makes things way better. Those shells are pure gold.
Same idea here. The shells are poached in butter for around 6 minutes. About a quarter of the time.
That’s long enough to extract some flavour. And you should always take flavour wherever you can get it. Words to live by I think.
You could shell your prawns ahead of time. Makes things less messy. You won’t have to peel those buttery little flavour bombs when it’s time to eat. A little more elegant.
But messy is part of the fun. Tandoori prawns in that wonderful spicy butter. Slurp the sauce off the shells. Peel them. Dip them. Eat them. Lick your fingers. Mop the sauce up with some naan. Let the butter dribble down your chin. Smile. Repeat.
Have fun with this recipe
I love these straight up. Just a whole lot of delicious mopped up with naan.
Serve them up in individual portions. A piece of naan. A few shrimp. Some of that magic sauce. And a napkin.
You have to have a napkin. Paper preferably. Did I mention it was messy?
That’s my favourite way. But I’m a dal addict. So I like tandoori prawns as a tarka. Not what immediately springs to mind. I’ll give you that. But it’s works.
Do it as as an appetizer. A dab of dal. A shrimp or two. A little cilantro. A drizzle of that magical sauce. Maybe a few crispy, fried shallots for garnish.
Or as an entree. Goes pretty much the same way. Like a buttery prawn dhansak. Just a bigger portion.
Fun. Tasty, tasty fun. Peel the shrimp if you are doing the dal version. It’s too messy otherwise. Even for me. Maybe. I like mess.
Tandoori prawns are the easiest appetizer ever
Sometimes effort is not directly proportional to result. Sometimes it’s just easy. This is one of those times. I love these times.
If you can melt butter you can make tandoori prawns. It’s about that easy. Heat up a pan. Gentle heat. Melt some butter.
Toss in some garlic ginger paste. Let it sizzle. Add some spice. Let the spices sizzle a bit. Get all those fat soluble flavours into the butter.
A squeeze of lemon. Stir. Toss in the shrimp. Gently poach them for 3 minutes. Flip them. Another 3 minutes. That’s it. You’ve arrived. Welcome to flavourtown.
Don’t fear the butter
There’s a half cup of butter in this recipe. But it serves 4. So that’s 2 tablespoons of butter per serving.
If that sounds like a lot consider this. 1 Tbsp of butter is 100 calories. Roughly speaking. Shrimp are pretty much zero calorie food. So just over a couple hundred calories per serving.
It’s an appetizer. Like onion bhajies. Or pakoras. Or samosas. It’s in the ball park. Probably less calories. Not health food. Not diet food. But not outrageous either.
Not suggesting you should eat this every day. But I’m not suggesting you should eat samosas every day either. As much as I want to eat samosas every day.
Once in a while, though… Tandoori prawns. That’s a nice treat.
All tandoori masalas are not created equal
A lot of commercial tandoori masalas contain a lot of salt. That’s not necessarily a bad thing in itself. But it adds salt to the final recipe. So you have to be careful.
They also contain red food colouring. Again, not necessarily a bad thing but it makes everything really red.
I don’t like paying for salt. And I don’t always want my dinner looking unnaturally red.
So I came up with my own tandoori masala recipe . I like it better. And I control the salt. So it makes me happy. Do what makes you happy. Always.
Make tandoori prawns for friends
This is flashy cooking. I wouldn’t be surprised to see it on a menu at a funky Indian restaurant. One that’s pushing the envelope. And that’s hip enough to go with the mess. Don’t wait for the restaurants to catch up. Make this at home. And serve it to friends. Good friends. Foodie friends.
Or cook up a batch and eat them all yourself. That doesn’t sound like a bad idea to me. Not bad at all.
tandoori prawns
Ingredients
- 12 prawns 16-20 count (per pound) in the shell (see notes)
- 1/2 cup butter
- 2 tsp garlic ginger paste
- 2 tsp tandoori masala see notes. If you use a commercial blend with food colouring in it be prepared to have it come out a lot redder than the pictures.
- 2 tsp kashmiri chili powder you can use less but the butter really does tone down the fire
- pinch kasoori methi – maybe 1/8 of a tsp if you really feel like measuring
- 1/4 tsp kosher salt – if you are using commercial tandoori seasoning you probably will not this salt.
- 1/4 lemon juiced
- cilantro to garnish
Instructions
Do your prep
- Make your spice mix. Combine the tandoori masala , kashmiri chili powder, salt and kasoor methi. Note that if you are using commercial tandoori masala it likely already has lots of salt so you won’t likely need more.
- Prep your cilantro garnish. Have your lemon ready. Have some naan standing by for dipping into the buttery goodness. This is a really easy recipe but it does go fast.
Make the tandoori prawns
- Pick a frying pan just big enough to hold all the shrimp in a single layer. That’s important. Big enough for a single layer. But not so big that the butter just films the bottom of the pan. A 9 to 10 inch pan is about right.
- Melt the butter over medium low heat. You don’t want things to get too hot.
- When the butter starts to foam add the garlic ginger paste. Cook for about a minute. You want gentle bubbles. You aren’t frying things hard.
- Add the spice mix (tandoori masala, kashmiri chili powder, salt and kasoori methi). Cook the spices in the butter for about 1 minute. Still want gentle bubbles. This is called blooming spices. Oil soluble compounds dissolve in the butter and flavour magic happens.
- Add the lemon juice. Squeeze the lemon with one hand and through your fingers on your other hand to catch the seeds. That’s a handy trick whenever you need fresh lemon juice. Life skill. No extra dishes. Cook for another minute.
- Add the shrimp in a single layer. Cook for 3 minutes. Still want gentle bubbles.
- After 3 minutes, flip the shrimp. If they are uniformly pink cook them another three minutes. If there is a little grey when you flip them go 4 minutes total on the second side. Overdone shrimp suck. Err slightly on the side of caution. You will be happier for it. I will be happier for you.
- Garnish with a little minced cilantro. Serve with naan for dipping into the sauce. You will cry if you don’t have something to mop up the sauce.
Notes
Nutrition
tandoori prawns
Ingredients
- 12 prawns 16-20 count (per pound) in the shell (see notes)
- 1/2 cup butter
- 2 tsp garlic ginger paste
- 2 tsp tandoori masala see notes. If you use a commercial blend with food colouring in it be prepared to have it come out a lot redder than the pictures.
- 2 tsp kashmiri chili powder you can use less but the butter really does tone down the fire
- pinch kasoori methi - maybe 1/8 of a tsp if you really feel like measuring
- 1/4 tsp kosher salt - if you are using commercial tandoori seasoning you probably will not this salt.
- 1/4 lemon juiced
- cilantro to garnish
Instructions
Do your prep
- Make your spice mix. Combine the tandoori masala , kashmiri chili powder, salt and kasoor methi. Note that if you are using commercial tandoori masala it likely already has lots of salt so you won’t likely need more.
- Prep your cilantro garnish. Have your lemon ready. Have some naan standing by for dipping into the buttery goodness. This is a really easy recipe but it does go fast.
Make the tandoori prawns
- Pick a frying pan just big enough to hold all the shrimp in a single layer. That’s important. Big enough for a single layer. But not so big that the butter just films the bottom of the pan. A 9 to 10 inch pan is about right.
- Melt the butter over medium low heat. You don’t want things to get too hot.
- When the butter starts to foam add the garlic ginger paste. Cook for about a minute. You want gentle bubbles. You aren’t frying things hard.
- Add the spice mix (tandoori masala, kashmiri chili powder, salt and kasoori methi). Cook the spices in the butter for about 1 minute. Still want gentle bubbles. This is called blooming spices. Oil soluble compounds dissolve in the butter and flavour magic happens.
- Add the lemon juice. Squeeze the lemon with one hand and through your fingers on your other hand to catch the seeds. That’s a handy trick whenever you need fresh lemon juice. Life skill. No extra dishes. Cook for another minute.
- Add the shrimp in a single layer. Cook for 3 minutes. Still want gentle bubbles.
- After 3 minutes, flip the shrimp. If they are uniformly pink cook them another three minutes. If there is a little grey when you flip them go 4 minutes total on the second side. Overdone shrimp suck. Err slightly on the side of caution. You will be happier for it. I will be happier for you.
- Garnish with a little minced cilantro. Serve with naan for dipping into the sauce. You will cry if you don’t have something to mop up the sauce.
Notes
Nutrition
If vindaloo is the king of curries. And jalfrezi is the queen. Then rogan josh is the crown prince. Spicy. Rich. Delicious. Serious business.
This one is world famous for a reason. A very good reason.
Rogan josh – a tale of two curries
There are two distinct dishes that go by the name rogan josh. There’s the Kashmiri version. The Kashmiri version has no onions or garlic. It’s all about asafoetida and fennel. And lamb. Tasty stuff. You should definitely try it some time.
And there’s the Muslim version. It has onions. Garlic. No fennel.
One is not better than the other. No judgement. The Muslim version is probably the one you know. It’s the one they serve in most restaurants.
This is a hotel style recipe. The rogan josh you’d get in the fanciest restaurants. It has serious onions.
Lamb or chicken?
I feel like I’m in economy class on long haul flight. Chicken or lamb? Chicken or lamb? Sir? Chicken? Or lamb?
But it’s true. Chicken or lamb? That is the question here. And there is no right answer.
I like chicken curries. A lot. But I love lamb curries. So I usually make this one with lamb. There’s something about this dish with lamb that just works. All the big curries are great with lamb.
I already have a restaurant style lamb rogan josh on the blog. And a traditional beef version. So I’m making this one with chicken. To complete my rogan josh triple crown.
Make rogan josh how you like
Reality check. Chicken and lamb both work here. Both work with pretty much every restaurant or hotel style recipe on glebekitchen.
Follow the recipe as written for chicken. Or pre-cook your lamb. And make up the juices from the chicken with a bit of the broth from cooking the lamb. That broth is liquid gold.
A quarter cup of broth to start. Another quarter cup to thin it to that lush restaurant consistency. A bit more even. Up to you. Depends how saucy you like your rogan josh.
Pay attention to how much salt is going into the dish. The lamb broth contains salt. A fair bit of salt.
If you’re adding lamb broth skip the salt in the spice mix. And adjust for salt at the end.
Salt as you go is never really a bad idea. Under-salted isn’t fatal. You can fix that. Over-salted though. That can’t be fixed. Except by dilution. And that doesn’t really work here. So watch your salt.
Simple spicing – complex flavour
There are no strange ingredients in this recipe. No special trip to the Indian grocer required. I know I’m a bit of a pain that way. I just love the wonderful world of spices.
This one should be easy. Assuming you cook Indian regularly I guess. If this is your first go at Indian on glebekitchen then off to the Indian grocer you go. It will be fun. Maybe a bit perplexing at first. But fun.
Black cardamom might be outlier here. If you don’t stock it you should. It adds a wonderful smoky flavour. Nothing like it.
The list of spices is a bit long. Don’t let that stop you. Not that big a deal. Really. Do your prep and you’ll be fine.
The whole spices go in all at once. Have them ready and just chuck the lot into the pan when it’s time.
Same goes for the ground spices. It’s always best to make your spice mix up front. Measure it all out before you get started. Add them all in at once. Easy.
You can do it. Just take your time. Do your prep. Stay cool. It will all come together in the best rogan josh you’ve every tasted.
The yoghurt trick
I struggled with this one for a long time. Yoghurt. It’s amazing in traditional Indian cooking.
But somehow it wasn’t working well for me in restaurant style. All I could taste is this awful, funky off-taste in the background. Like sour cheese and curdled milk. Just. Not. Good.
Perplexing. Yoghurt works in traditional curries. But not in quick cooking restaurant curries. Why?
Took me a while to figure it out. Yoghurt has time to cook in traditional recipes. It works. So I tried adding it early. Really early.
And it worked. I got the slight tang that yoghurt adds. That little something. Without the sour cheese flavour.
Unconventional? Yes. Crazy? Could be. I don’t know.
But I do know without this trick I would never have posted this recipe.
Bloom your spices for maximum flavour
Blooming spices is fundamental to Indian cooking. That’s just a fact. Works for any cuisine that relies on a lot of spice really. It’s a life skill. An essential technique.
Bloom your spices. Learn how to do this. Your friends and family will thank you. Your inlaws even. Although you might not be so happy about that.
Spices contain oil soluble flavour compounds. Tasty, tasty compounds. And it’s your job to extract them. To get them out of the spices. And into your mouth. Where they belong.
This is not rocket science. You just need to gently fry the spices in oil. That’s it. Heat oil. Add spices. Make magic.
Gently is the operative word here. You need to be careful not to burn your spices. Burned spices are bad. Like starting over bad.
Use enough oil. Be light-handed with the heat. Get this one thing down you are half way done on the path to Indian cooking grand master.
This is cooking hotel style
If this new to you hotel style means something. Around here anyway. It’s a bit of a different approach. A no holds barred approach to making curries to order.
It’s confusing. I know. There are a lot of recipes on glebekitchen called restaurant style. That’s how they cook in most restaurants. That’s probably what you are familiar with.
It’s tasty stuff. But it’s cooking to a price point. Food cost matters. Labour cost matters. These things are important when you are running a restaurant.
Hotel style is high end restaurant cooking. Posh restaurants. Restaurants that can afford to charge more. And give more back to the customer. Best of the best.
That’s what this rogan josh is about. That’s what all the recipes with hotel in the title on glebekitchen are about. Flavour above all. No compromises.
It’s a bit more work up front. But the rewards are real. There’s a depth of flavour that comes from deeply browned onions that can’t be faked. That depth of flavour is built into hotel gravy .
If you love Indian cooking and want to take it to the next level give hotel style a good hard look.
All hail the crown prince
Rogan josh is one of those curries. Deceptively simple. Deeply satisfying. It’s a favourite around here.
Bottom line. If you like a really good rogan josh there’s really only one question to ask here. Chicken or lamb? Tough choice.
chicken rogan josh – Indian hotel style
Ingredients
The spice mix
- 1 tsp coriander powder
- 1 tsp cumin powder
- 1/2 tsp turmeric
- 2 tsp kashmiri chili powder
- 1/2 tsp tandoori masala
- 1/4 tsp ground black pepper – butcher’s grind is best (a little coarse)
- 1 tsp kasoor methi – dried fenugreek leaves
- 1/2 tsp kosher salt
rogan josh
- 3 tbsp neutral oil e.g. vegetable oil
- 1 2 inch cinnamon bark – cassia
- 3 green cardamom
- 1 black cardamom (optional but a nice touch)
- 1/2 onion – cut into 1 inch pieces
- 1 tbsp garlic ginger paste – recipe link below
- the spice mix from above
- 1 tbsp plain yoghurt – I like full fat Greek yoghurt for this
- 1 cup Indian hotel curry gravy – Recipe link in the notes. It’s meant to be thick. The juices from the chicken will thin it and you can adjust it to taste at the end.
- 2 tbsp cilantro leaves and stems – finely diced
- 3-4 boneless, skinless chicken thighs cut into 4 pieces each
- 4-5 cherry tomatoes halved
Instructions
Do your prep
- Measure out your spices. Prep your chicken. Measure out a cup (237 ml) of Indian hotel curry gravy.
- Cut your cherry tomatoes. Mince the cilantro.
Make the chicken rogan josh
- Heat the oil in a medium sized frying pan over medium heat until the oil just starts to shimmer.
- Add the cinnamon bark, green cardamom and black cardamom if using. Let the whole spices cook for about 30 seconds. You should see little bubbles forming around the spices. If you don’t, your oil is not hot enough.
- Add the onion pieces. Cook until the they are softened, stirring fairly constantly.
- Stir in the garlic ginger paste. Gently fry until the garlic ginger paste stops sputtering. This can get a little messy.
- Turn your heat down to medium low and add your spice mix. Cook for about 30 seconds. You want to fry your spices in the oil. There are fat soluble compounds in spices. You are making magic happen at this point.
- Add the yoghurt. Stir it well. Fry for about 30 seconds. I know frying yoghurt is odd. But it makes a difference. Just trust me. The yoghurt needs to get cooked out. It will be fine.
- Add the Indian hotel curry gravy. Stir it really well to get the oil to combine with the curry gravy. You want everything mixed together. Bring to a simmer.
- Stir in the cilantro.
- Add the chicken thigh pieces in a single layer. Nestle them down into the sauce. Cover and cook about 5 minutes.
- Remove the lid, flip the chicken and replace the lid. Continue simmering until the chicken is done. You are shooting for an internal temperature of 160F. It will get to 170F as the curry finishes cooking. Not a bad idea to get an instant read thermometer if you don’t have one. Done is not subjective. It’s a measurement. You are guessing otherwise.
- At this point you have a decision to make. If the chicken threw a lot of liquid the sauce might be right. My guess is you’d like it a bit thinner. More like a restaurant sauce. Add a couple tablespoons of chicken stock. Check it again. If it’s still too thick, add a bit more stock. I’ve never added more than a 1/4 cup.
- Add the cherry tomatoes, cover, and simmer for another minute or so.
- Chicken rogan josh goes great with rice or chapatis – or both if you feel like treating yourself.
