Curry time!!  Indian food and curries have played a major part in my life due to my family’s origin.  That’s why I cannot go a week without eating one!!!

This curry is not a family recipe, this is my favourite dish when ordering an Indian take out, the word ‘pasande’ comes from the Urdu word meaning favourite or liked, it refers the prime meat used.   Originally this would have been made with lamb, where the meat is flattened then marinated in a spiced yoghurt.  I will share my recipe of the meat version soon, but King Prawns are my favourite in take-out curries which is why I really fancied cooking this for dinner last night.  I also added potatoes to mine to make the dish more filling.

Some pasanda’s would also have almonds and tomatoes in which is known as ‘badaam’ pasanda, I once had a take out where it had used pistachio nuts not almonds and it was delicious which is why I have chosen this nut.

Here it is….

Serves 4

Ingredients:

15 large prawns, remove shells but leave the tail on and run your knife along the top to butterfly. Try and find the biggest prawns you can, supermarket ones will just shrink to nothing, if you can’t get them from your local fishmonger, try your local Asian supermarket.

400g natural yoghurt

2 onions diced roughly

50g ginger grated

3 garlic cloves grated

1 1/2 Tbsp. tomato puree/paste

2 red chillies (I used birdseye)

50g coconut cream block grated

60g ground pistachio nuts

Juice of a lemon

1 heap Tbsp. honey

Optional new potatoes halved approx 6

Oil for frying

Spices:

1 heap Tbsp. coriander seeds

1 Tbsp. cumin seeds

1 tsp turmeric

8 cardamom seeds only

1/2 Tbsp. fenugreek seeds

1 cinnamon stick

1 heap tsp garam masala

Method:

De-shell and grind up your pistachios and set aside.

Dry fry the spices apart from the turmeric and garam masala.

Once you smell an aroma remove from the heat and grind up to a powder.  I used a coffee grinder but you can use a pestle and mortar.

Set aside.

Get a large saucepan and add about 1 Tbsp. oil, fry the onions in this oil on a medium heat until soft not browned.  Add the garlic, ginger and chilli fry for a few minutes more, then empty the whole lot into a blender.  I use a hand blender a lot when making curries as it makes the best pastes, if you haven’t got one I would invest.  Add the ground spices and the turmeric (not the garam masala we add this later)

Blitz to a paste (don’t worry if it is not smooth, it is nice to have some texture) then add the paste back into the pan.

Fry the paste for 2 minutes then add the grated coconut, tomato puree and pistachio.  Mix well.

Pour in the yoghurt

Stir well and simmer, add some water to the blender and get all of the remaining juices then add to the pan.  Now add the honey and season with salt.

Keep stirring the pan as the yoghurt can stick or burn so be careful.  If using potatoes add them now and pop on a lid, cook on a low heat until tender.

Once tender add the garam masala and the prawns stir and let these cook for around 3/4 minutes.

Done!! Serve with your favourite Indian rice ❤

Have a good weekend folks!!

love Lulu xxx

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