Spiced Prawn and Coconut Pilaf

Slight disappointment. I had expected something as good as the Vegetable Pilau I hade made a few months ago, but this dish tasted quite disbalanced. BF compared it to an orchestra that made sufficient noise (read: was tasty/aromatic enough), but that noise wasn't guided properly as to produce a nice harmonic tune.

Granted, we had to use tomato purée instead of real tomatoes because BF had secretly eaten them up (all of them!), and then (whisper) he actually used the whole double-sized tin (140g)!! Consequently, the dish tasted too much of tomato purée, a slightly sour taste, but also the taste of the curry (we used mild madras) or perhaps the tumeric was too strong. Halfway through the meal we had the idea to add some rasped coconut to balance the spices a little more, which worked a little.

Next time we´ll definitely use fresh tomatoes, even if that means going out to the store again, and cut the curry and tumeric by half, and then see how it goes. I do believe that the basic idea is very nice.

Crosspost. Exact the same recipe was also published in the BBC Good Food magazine, July 2009 edition.