Prawn & Taufoo Curry - and a little joke about Half Past Six!

There's nothing quite like a good Prawn Curry. A favourite way of making prawn curry is to make a dryish curry with lots of potatoes. My mother-in-law makes a great prawn curry this way and it's no surprise that The Lovely Wife does just as great a job with her own version of Prawn Curry. Actually, I think her version is better!

Prawns are kind of expensive but they are so, so delicious. It doesn't help that prawns are high in cholesterol either as I'm supposed to be watching mine. It doesn't help that I love prawns - in any form or fashion - but there's nothing quite like a good prawn curry eaten with rice.


This is what The Lovely Wife did:

Ingredients
1 kg prawns - shelled and deveined
4 firm taufoo - cubed
2 Potatoes - cubed
3 cloves garlic - minced
2 inches ginger - minced
2 large onions - sliced
2 Tbsp Fish Curry Powder
1 Tbsp Chilli Powder
2 tsp turmeric
5 stalks curry leaves
1 to 2 medium tomatos
1 cinnamon stick

Method
Marinate the prawns and taufoo with the ginger, garlic, curry powder, chilli powder and turmeric for about 1/2 hour
Fry the cinammon stick in a little oil till fragrant. Add in the onions and fry till soft. Add in the curry leaves and fry till fragrant and then add in the tomato. Cook until a nice paste is formed and add in the potatoes. Cook till just tender before adding in the prawns and taufoo and cook well till the prawns turn pink. Add salt to taste. Keep cooking over a simmering flame till you achieve the dryness you want.
You can use more curry powder or chilli powder depending how hot and spicy you want it!

The Lovely Wife and I both have different ways of making our curries. Usually, I will fry the chilli powder and curry powder to bring out the flavours but The Lovely Wife has her own method of doing things.

Regardless, The Lovely Wife's prawn curry was really delicious. I'd have preferred it withouth the taufoo but I have to admit it was different and it also added more quantity to the dish. Prawns are expensive and anything more you can add to the dish is always good!

The Lovely Wife made this dish some time ago and so I had to get the recipe from her to update my blog. As she was explaining how she made this dish, and as I was busy scribbling it down, I remarked that I would fry the spices first. I also mentioned how I would do things differently. She scoffed at me and said that her way was better.

As a joke, I drew a circle on her shoulder - as a clock face - and then marked out the time as six Thirty. I then called my son over and showed him the 'clock'. I told him that since I thought Mummy's recipe wasn't quite so good, that it was a 'Half Past Six Recipe' and that's why she had a clock on her shoulder that showed Half Past Six.

The laugh from my son was priceless, and The Lovely Wife, who had no idea what I had drawn on her shoulder, couldn't help laughing out too. I'm still surprised that she let me draw on her shoulder but I suppose she knew I was setting her up for a joke. She's a fun lady too that Lovely Wife of mine!

Now to explain: Half-past-six” is a Malaysian slang for 'inferior' or 'lousy' or 'poor quality' - you get the drift. It was probably more in use when I was younger but it's still used a fair bit these days.



I really don't know if this term is used in the rest of the world nor do I know it's origin. The only guess I have is that since both hands of the clock point downwards at half-past six, it's as if it were a 'thumbs down’.

Any one of you have any other takes on this? Any one else around the world familiar with this? Let me know!