Prawn and Chickpea Curry

Recipe notes

Cook out the curry paste

Cooking out the red curry paste removes the raw, harsh flavors and toasts the spices. If you don’t cook out the curry paste first, the curry won’t be as aromatic and could taste bitter and too sharp.

Cook out the coconut milk until it cracks

Cracking, or splitting the coconut milk helps to release oils, which unlocks fat soluble flavours in the curry paste. It’s a traditional Thai technique that, when done correctly, maximizes the flavour of the curry and gives the sauce a glossy layer of fragrant oil. To get the best results, don’t shake the tin of coconut milk. Use the layer of cream which sometimes separates on top for cracking.

Serving suggestions

I enjoy this recipe as a weeknight meal, on its own because it’s easy. If you want to bulk it out, you can serve the curry with fluffy steamed jasmine rice to help absorb some of that sauce, topped with fresh herbs like coriander and mint or crushed, toasted peanuts. 

Storage

Allow the curry to cool at room temperature for half an hour, before placing it into a container fitted with a lid and refrigerate for up to 3 days, or freeze for up to 3 months. Make sure the curry comes to a complete boil for food safety reasons when you reheat it.

Ingredient notes

Red curry paste:

This is a blend of red chills, lemongrass, galangal and a mix of spices. It's very aromatic and is what gives this curry so much flavour. You'll be able to pick it up in a grocer or Asian supermarket.

Demerara sugar:

It's a type of minimally processed, raw cane sugar. For this recipe the best alternative would be any raw sugar, otherwise palm sugar or standard white sugar work well. We don’t add sugar here for the curry to be sweet; you want to add just enough so that the sugar balances the acid and spice.