When we got the Breudher aka Dutch aka Fort Kochi bread from our recent trip to Fort Kochi, we needed to pair it with something. The chettan at the store mentioned it goes well with savoury dishes such as chicken curry, mutton curry as well as with sweet elements such as bananas, peanut butter etc. We decided to try it with a dish that we regularly make - Prawns Balchao. This is based on two recipes - one that I saw by Chef Rego and another similar one on a food blog goya.in. We brought in our own slight modifications such as using Kashmiri chilli powder instead of using dried chillies. This is a goan dish and has a unique ingredient of using coconut or toddy vinegar typically. However some recipes also used regular vinegar.
Ingredients
300 gm Prawns – skinned and deveined
Two Onions – halved and sliced
1 inch of Ginger - Chopped
5 to 6 cloves of Garlic - Chopped
Half tsp of Jeerakam seeds
5 Cardamoms
1inch Cinnamon stick
4 to 5 Cloves
8 to 10 Peppercorns
Salt to taste
Two tbsp of Kashmiri chilli powder
1 tsp of Turmeric powder
4 tbsp of coconut vinegar
1 tbsp of powdered dried prawns
Oil
Method
Begin by mixing in the salt and turmeric powder to your prawns and fry them separately in a pan.
Once cooked, keep them aside. Add in some more oil to the pan and fry up the onions. Before they start to brown, we can prepare the red ‘mother paste’ which is a key ingredient in most Goan dishes such as pork vindaloo, pork sorpotel etc (to be published).
In a blender, add in all the spices – jeerakum, peppercorns, cardamoms, cinnamon, cloves, along with the coconut vinegar and Kashmiri chilli powder. Grind these nicely together till you get a thick red paste.
By now the onions would have browned and you can add this red paste to it. On high flame, mix the paste into the onions for about 30 to 40 seconds and then add in the prawns. Adjust the salt,and at this stage, you can add the powdered dried prawns as it enhances the flavour of the dish. Cook for about another minute and you are done.
Conclusion:
We enjoyed this with the Breudher bread, however we realised it is much better as a main or side dish with ‘morru’ curry and rice. And Breudher bread is best had with bananas or even by itself!
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