Prawn Koliwada: Fried Indian Prawns

Thursday, November 24, 2011, 11:01

Prawn Koliwada is a typical fried prawns dish of Indian coastal cuisine. This Indian prawns recipe is much relished as a starter in restaurants and also as a side dish cooked at home. You can easily try the recipe for prawns koliwada at home because it is actually a home bred recipe. This Indian seafood dish is popular along the western coastline of India covering the states of Maharashtra and Goa.

This fried prawns recipe is Konkoni is origin. Thus the spices used in this Indian prawns recipe are Konkoni in origin. Some people prefer to make this fried prawns dish with coconut and others don't but nevertheless it is spicy and tangy. There are several variations of it and this is the most standard one.

Ingredients For Prawns Koliwada:

1. Small prawns about 20 (without shells)
2. Ginger garlic paste 1 tablespoon
3. Red chilli powder 1 tablespoon
4. Garam masala powder (pepper, cloves, cardamom, cinnamon and star anise)
5. Green chilies 2 (chopped) [optional only if you want to make it really spicy]
6. Lemon juice 1 tablespoon
7. Thymol seeds or ajwain 1 pinh
8. Coriander leaves (chopped) handful
9. Flour or Besan (gram flour) 1 cup
10. Salt as per taste
11. Oil (half of deep pan for deep frying)

Procedure For Prawns Koliwada:

Marinate the prawns with lemon juice and salt for at least 10 minutes.
Mix flour, ginger garlic paste, red chilli powder, garam masala powder, ajwain and whisk it together with a little bit of water to create a thick paste.
Make this paste just of the right consistency so that it is neither too dry nor too watery. It should be just about right to make small balls out of the prawns before frying.
Pour the marinated prawns with the lemon juice into the batter and mix it. You can add the green chillies and coriander powder now.
Heat oil in a deep pan and wait till it starts steaming. Now pick the prawns and make a small round balls out it; you take a couple of prawns if the prawns are really small.
Fry the prawns in the oil on medium flame. As Koliwadas are really small there is not much danger of the insides remaining uncooked.

Strain the prawn koliwadas on a tissue paper and serve hot with chopped onions.