Chef Clarissa Feildel shares her red curry prawn skewers with pineapple and cucumber salad

CLARISSA’S RED CURRY PRAWN SKEWERS W PINEAPPLE AND CUCUMBER SALAD

The salad is basically a palette cleanser. You can have it with the grilled prawns or almost any curry or rich dish. The trick here is to achieve the balance of salty, sweet, sour and with a hint of chili if desired.

Prep Time: 35 minutes plus 1 hour marinating time

Cook Time: 15 minutes

Serves: 4

Ingredients

500g medium to large prawns, peeled and deveined, tails intact Peeled ahead

Chopped coriander, to garnish (optional)

Lime wedges (optional)

Steamed rice, to serve (optional) Steamed ahead

You will need bamboo or metal skewers

MARINADE

2 tbsp red curry paste (I use Maesri)

1 cup coconut cream

1 tbsp fish sauce

1 tbsp soy

1 tbsp lime juice

1 ½ tbsp brown or coconut sugar

2 cloves garlic, crushed

2 ½ cm piece ginger, finely grated

1 ½ tbsp vegetable oil

PINEAPPLE AND CUCUMBER SALAD

2 Lebanese cucumbers, peeled, halved lengthways one prepped ahead?

1 pineapple, peeled, cut into cubes cut-up ahead?

1 birds eye chilli, thinly sliced (optional) chopped ahead

1/3 cup white wine vinegar (or apple cider vinegar)

2 tbsp sugar

½ tsp salt

½ bunch coriander (optional)

1 To make marinade, in a large bowl, whisk the ingredients until well combined. Add prawns, tossing to coat. Cover and refrigerate for 30 minutes to 1 hour.

2 To make salad, remove seeds from cucumber using a spoon. Cut into cubes. (Same size as the pineapple). Combine in a large bowl with remaining ingredients using your hands. Taste to ensure you have a balance of sweet sour and salty.

3 Preheat chargrill pan or barbecue to medium high heat. Thread marinated prawns onto skewers, 4 to 5 prawns per skewer. Reserve marinade.

4 Meanwhile, in a small saucepan, gently boil reserved marinade until rich and thickened.

5 Cook prawns for 2 to 3 minutes on each side, or until prawns are pink, slightly opaque and slightly charred, taking care not to overcook the prawns as they become tough.

6 To serve, arrange skewers on a serving platter. Scatter with coriander and serve with lime wedges, salad and rice (optional).

TIP: If using bamboo skewers, skewers must be soaked in water for 30 minutes prior to cooking.

Discard the core of the pineapple as it can be very woody.

Serve skewers with salad as an appetiser or with salad and rice as a complete meal.

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