If you want to spice up your cooking, making tikka masala will certainly send you down that aromatic road. It’s a dish that combines Indian-style flavours with British/western-style food preferences.
As noted in past stories on tikka masala, lore suggests this now very popular dish started humbly a few decades ago in Great Britain when a customer in a Glaswegian curry house asked for gravy with his Indian-style chicken. The chef didn’t seem to mind that request, because soon after he accommodated the customer by serving the chicken with a quickly prepared spicy tomato sauce. It proved to be a flavourful combination and a dish now known as chicken tikka masala was born.
Tikka is a term for spiced meat often cooked on skewers. Masala is a spice mixture. To make chicken tikka masala, you don’t skewer the chicken, you simmer the pieces in masala-flavoured sauce.
As time moved along, cooks discovered other tasty things, beyond chicken, could also be cooked in that super savoury sauce. That includes prawns, what I used in today’s recipe that serves two.
To make it, large prawns were peeled, deveined and patted dry. The shells from the prawns were simmered in water, and then the mixture was strained, creating a simple prawn stock.
The next step was to make a spice mixture by combining garam masala with ground coriander, cumin, turmeric and cayenne pepper. Some of that mixture, and a bit of salt, was then sprinkled on and tossed into the prawns, seasoning them.
Garam masala and curry powder are similar in that they are both Indian-style spice blends often made with similar spices. But, in very brief, their flavour profiles are different, with garam masala having a sharper, more intense, complex flavour and not containing the turmeric curry powders often have.
Back to the prawns, once then were seasoned, they were seared in hot oil in a skillet until just cooked through, creating an almost grilled, charred taste. The prawns were then removed from the skillet and set on plate.
The tikka masala sauce for the prawns was made by sautéing diced onions in the skillet until golden. Some of the same spice mixture you seasoned the prawns with, along with some fresh ginger, garlic and tomato paste, were mixed into the onions. Tomato sauce and the prawn stock were then mixed into that mixture creating a sauce that was simmered a short while, melding all the different flavours together.
To finish the dish, some yogurt and chopped cilantro was added to the sauce, followed by the prawns. When the prawns were hot again and nicely flavoured by the sauce, this prawn tikka masala was ready to serve.
You can serve the saucy prawns with steamed basmati, mango chutney and/or lime pickle, warm naan or chapattis, and a simply steamed or wilted green vegetable.
Prawn Tikka Masala
Plump, large prawns, seared and served in a spice-rich tikka masala sauce.
Preparation time: 20 minutes
Cooking time: about 35 minutes
Makes: two servings
12 to 14 large, raw, shell-on prawns
1 1/3 cups water
2 tsp garam masala (see Note 1)
1/2 tsp ground coriander
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1/8 tsp ground turmeric
1/8 tsp ground cayenne pepper (see Eric’s options)
• salt to taste
1 Tbsp + 1 tsp vegetable oil
1/3 cup finely diced onion
1 Tbsp tomato paste
1 tsp finely chopped fresh ginger
1 large clove, minced
3/4 cup tomato sauce (see Note 2)
1/2 tsp brown sugar
2 Tbsp finely chopped cilantro, plus some cilantro sprigs for garnish
3 Tbsp plain yogurt
To peel each prawn, hold the end of the tail in one hand and use your other hand to grab onto its swimmerets, the little legs under the shell. Now carefully pull off the shell, leaving the very bottom portion of the tail intact. Put the shells you removed from each prawn into a small, not overly wide, pot as you go along.
Now devein each prawn, if needed, by using a small paring knife to make a lengthwise slit along the back of each one. Pull out, or rinse out with cold water, any dark vein material you find. Pat the prawns dry with paper towel, set on a plate, and then refrigerate until needed below.
Pour the water into the pot with the prawn shells, set over medium heat and bring to a gentle simmer. Lower the heat as needed to maintain that gentle simmer. Simmer shells 20 minutes, and then strain this prawn-flavoured stock into a glass-measuring cup. You should have 2/3 cup, but if you don’t, add a bit more water until you do (see Eric’s options).
Make spice mixture by combining the garam masala, coriander, cumin, turmeric and cayenne in a small bowl. Remove the prawns from the refrigerator and sprinkle and toss them with 1 tsp of the spice mixture. Also season prawns with salt.
Set a large non-stick skillet over medium-high heat and add 1 Tbsp of the oil. When oil is hot, add the prawns and cook 45 second to one minute per side, or until just cooked through. Remove skillet from the heat. Lift the prawns out of it and set on a clean plate.
Now set the skillet over medium heat and the remaining 1 tsp oil. Add the onions and cook and stir until tender and golden, about four minutes. Mix in the tomato paste, ginger, garlic and remaining spice mixture. Cook and stir one minute more.
Mix in the tomato sauce and prawn stock and bring to a gentle simmer. Adjust heat as needed to maintain that gentle simmer, and then simmer this tikka masala sauce five minutes.
Whisk the yogurt and chopped cilantro into the sauce, and then taste it and season with salt, if needed. Set the prawns in the skillet and simmer two minutes more, or until they are hot and flavoured by the sauce. Set the prawns in a serving dish, garnish with a few cilantro sprigs, and then serve.
Note 1: Garam masala is an Indian-style spice blend sold in the bottled/bagged spice aisle of some supermarkets, specialty food stores, Indian food stores and Asian markets (see Eric’s options).
Note 2: The leftover tomato sauce you have from the can you purchased to get the amount needed here could be placed in a freezer container and frozen for another use.
Eric’s options: 1/8 tsp of cayenne will make this tikka masala mildly spicy. Add a bit more if you’d prefer it to be hot and spicier. If making prawn stock is too much trouble for you, replace it with 2/3 cup of store-bought fish or chicken stock. If for some reason you can’t find garam masala, replace it with an equal amount of mild or medium curry powder.
Eric Akis is the author of eight cookbooks. His columns appear in the Life section Wednesday and Sunday.
