Open Kitchen Concept: Prawns in Pineapple Gravy

The colourful ingredients that go into this dish

This is another seriously overdue post - I have not been updating my blog as often as I liked to recently.

I went to A's place again in September and this time, she taught us 3 Peranakan recipes - Prawns/ Fish in Pineapple Gravy (Udang/ Ikan Masak Nenas), Stewed Pork (Babi Pong Teh) and Coconut Spring Roll (Kueh Dadar).

My favourite is definitely the Prawns/ Fish in Pineapple Gravy since I don't really eat pork.. It is a very nice soup-like dish, with a strong fruity flavour. It is also relatively easy to make, so this is something I would definitely want to try at home

Ingredients
1 medium size fish, cut into large pieces
8 - 12 large prawns
Half a pineapple, cut into large pieces
Rempah
Half a ginger flower (or sometimes also called "rojak" flower, sliced into thin pieces)
Some laksa leaves and tumeric leaves
Assam juice (1 golf ball size tamarind pulp mixed with 500ml of water and then drained)
Rempah (See recipe below)

Recipe for Rempah (spiced paste, a must in most peranakan dishes)
3 fresh red chilli
1 tsp belachan
1 pc tumeric (kunyit)
1 pc galangal (lengkuas)
100g shallots
2-4 cloves garlic
2 pcs lemongrass (bruised with the back of a knife)
4 pcs assam skin
To make the rempah, just blend everything together until smooth

Instructions
1. Put rempah and lemongrass into a pot
2. Add assam juice
3. Bring to boil
4. Add fresh pineapple slices and assam skin
5. Add prawns or fish and season to salt and sugar
6. Add the ginger flower
7. Garnish with laksa leaves and tumeric leaves

The secret ingredient in this dish is the ginger flower! And of course you have to use really sweet and juicy pineapples.

Personally, I would use only very large prawns for this dish and cook them only for a very short while, so that they are still soft and springy.