Varutharacha chemmeen/konchu curry - A spicy dish, made with roasted coconut and spices, flavored with cocum. It is a simple and quick Kerala style prawns/shrimp curry preparation. It goes well with pathiri, any sort of rice variants ( ghee rice, pulao, normal rice), chapathi, appam or any other Indian breads.

Curries with roasted coconut base is a Malabar delicacy. The combination of roasted coconut curry with prawns makes it a heaven. Inspired from my friend Sapna's prawns curry 🙂

For more Kerala prawn recipes, check out

Prawns Roast
Prawns Onion Tomato Masala
Prawns Fry

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Prep Time 5

Cook Time 25

Total Time 30

Course Side Dish

Cuisine Indian, kerala

Servings servings

Ingredients

½ kilogram Prawns

Coconut masala

½ cup grated coconut
1 ½ teaspoon chilli powder
1 ½ teaspoon coriander powder
½ teaspoon turmeric powder
½ teaspoon pepper powder

Gravy

1 number Cocum (kudampuli)
3 tablespoon lukewarm water
8 number shallot (small onion)
1 tablespoon garlic (paste or crushed)
1 tablespoon ginger (paste or crushed)
3 number green chilli
1 number tomato
½ cup water
coconut oil (vegetable oil)
salt

Instructions

Soak cocum (kudampuli) in 3 tbsps of luke warm water for 15 - 20 minutes.
Prepare the coconut masala - Heat 2-3 tablespoon oil in a heavy-bottomed pan. Fry grated coconut until brownish. Make sure that you don't burn the coconut.
Reduce the flame to the minimum. Add coriander powder, chilli powder, turmeric powder, pepper powder. Fry the masala powders for a couple of minutes. Add oil if needed. Switch it off. Keep it aside and let it cool down.
Add just the sufficient water and grind it to a smooth paste. Add enough salt in the masala paste.
Clean shrimp well. Chop shallots / small onion. Grind ginger and garlic into a fine paste. Slice tomato.
Heat oil in a pan, splutter the mustard seeds. Add chopped shallots, ginger, garlic, green chilli and curry leaves. Cook it on medium heat till it's sauteed well. Add oil, if needed.
Add sliced tomato. Mix it well and close it for around 5 minutes until it gets cooked.
Add soaked cocum (kudampuli) with the water to the above mixture. Add another ½ cup water and enough salt to the pan. Bring this to boil and then add cleaned prawns pieces. Mix it and immerse the shrimp in the gravy. Cover the pan and cook it.
Once prawns are half cooked, add the grinded roasted coconut masala paste. Swirl the pan and mix it. It would be probably 5 - 7 minutes after adding prawns.
Switch off the pan, once it is cooked and the gravy has desired consistency. Garnish with fried curry leaves. Serve it with pathiri, any sort of rice variants ( ghee rice, pulao, normal rice), chapathi, appam or any other Indian breads. Enjoy 🙂