Tiger Prawn Panang Curry with Steamed Jasmine Rice:
Prep Time: 30 Mins to 45 mins
Cooking Time: about 1 Hr 15 Mins
Serves 3-4
INGREDIENTS
Curry Sauce:
3 tbsp vegetable oil
1 medium onion thinly sliced
8 garlic cloves finely chopped
2" piece of Ginger (grated for a finer texture)
2 tsp minced red chillies
1 tbsp tomato puree
8 dried curry leaves
1 tbsp ground cumin
25g Thai red curry paste
2tbsp Malaysian curry powder or Thai hot curry powder
300ml coconut milk
2 tbsp tomato ketchup
500ml cold water
Vegetables & Fish:
18-20 tail on tiger prawns
20 button mushrooms
1 garlic clove crushed
3 tomatoes cut into wedges
2 medium carrots but into batons
3 tbsp groundnut oil
125g broccoli florets
50g mangetout
1 red pepper seeded and cut into chunks
1 yellow pepper seeded and cut into chunks
1 green pepper seeded and cut into chunks
Handful of cilantro
2 spring onions
½ red pepper thinly sliced
METHOD:
1)Heat the oil in a large, heavy based pan and fry the onion gently for 8-10 minutes stirring occasionally until golden brown, stir in the garlic and ginger and then constantly stir for a further 10 minutes still on a low heat. Now add the minced chillies, tomato puree, curry leaves, ground cumin, curry paste and Malaysian or Thai curry powder and fry for a further 5 minutes stirring occasionally. Stir in the water, coconut milk and tomato ketchup, bring all this to the boil and simmer gently for 30 minutes (add more coconut milk to your tasting if you want this creamier). Taste and add a little salt and sugar to your preferences. Allow to cool slightly.
2)In another large, heavy based pan boil a full pan of water add the broccoli florets to the water for 30 seconds once boiled and then remove and instantly place the broccoli into freezing cold water with ice cubes to stop the cooking process, drain after a minute or so and dry with kitchen paper.
3)Heat the groundnut oil in a heavy based frying pan or wok and once the oil starts to smoke add the blanched broccoli, carrots, peppers and garlic constantly sting for 2 minutes, add the curry sauce and tiger prawns then bring to a gentle simmer for 5-6 minutes. Stir in the mangetout and tomato wedges.
4)Serve with a bowl or freshly steamed jasmine rice and garnish the curry with spring onion, red peppers and cilantro
Picture Amends:
Used a 75-300mm lens to try and get a little more shallow depth than with my short range lens yet still trying to show that it was rice in the bowl and not just a heap of white something...
RAW to JPEG conversion
Auto Levels
Auto Colour
Auto Contrast
Colour balance to get greens and oranges more vivid
Crop
Resized to 640 height
Sharpened
Saved for Web
All Basic rules adhered to yet I wish I could have spot edited just two small area’s…
Happy cooking and I hope some of you enjoy trying to make this; it takes time but is well worth the effort.
Statistics
Place: 11 out of 110 Avg (all users): 6.5143 Avg (commenters): 7.4722 Avg (participants): 6.1791 Avg (non-participants): 6.5936 Views since voting: 2510 Views during voting: 505 Votes: 350 Comments: 36 Favorites: 1 (view)
Nice composition, combination of elements, and base colors. The colors look yellow, maybe different white balance or whiter lighting and more saturation would help?
A few critical suggestions on the image: (1) I find the cropping to be distracting -- I'd like to see all of the rice, and all of the dish... Having the chopsticks go off the edge _might_ be OK, and having the mat go off _is_ OK... I just wish to see all of the actual food, in this image. (2) it might also be nice if the depth of field were slightly deeper. Finally, (3) it seems that the colors look more muted than I imagine they would actually be -- it would be nice if they would really pop, particularly the reds of the peppers and the orange of the (beautifully done) carrot-flower.
Still, it looks tasty. I hope you enjoyed eating it. :-)
I normally dock people for a distracting background, but in this case, it matches the chopsticks and makes for a visually appetizing treat. well themed and well executed.
One of the most difficult things in food photography is to make the food look appetizing. I think you have accoplished that here. However, the composition is a little jarring and the lighting is harsh. A good start with a difficult subject. 6 - good luck in the challenge!
Good detail on the main course but a little more DOF maybe to the bottom of the plate would have worked better. Otherwise a great composition and presentation 9
I like the lower half of this image a lot. the upper...i find it unbalanced - move the rise to the left and lower so as not to crop off so much. also, the placemat ends and the strings dangle, drawing my eye away from the food on the plate. maybe could use a tad more contrast or perhaps sharpening to add some zing.
Beautiful presentation and composition!! I might suggest bumping up the saturation just a tad to enhance teh colors in the food. LOVE the flower on the main dish...just incredible!
Very nicely composed. I might like the mat to extend all the way out of the frame, because it tends to draw my eye to the top of the image, away from the beautiful food, but other than that, it's quite lovely. 8
Thai food. The food looks great and so is the presentation. Thai food is known for it's freshness, well at least in my family. I think the presentation is innovative in the sense that is has a fusion Chinese set up to it. Usually these dishes are not eaten with chopsticks, but with a fork and spoon. I won't judge on that. I think your focal point was the panang, but it somehow went out of focus around the huge broccoli.
The colour is very faded as well. Shaped carrots are very pale and look unappetising, so I'll throw a 7 your way for this. None the less the composition works very well.
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