RECIPES
The Nutmeg Trail
RICA RICA PRAWNS INGREDIENTS
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2 tbsp neutral oil 3 tomatoes, chopped 100g spring onions (scallions), chopped 4 lime leaves, vein removed 1⁄2 tsp sugar 360g raw peeled prawns, tails intact Squeeze of lime
For the spice paste • • • • •
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5 large red chillies, seeds removed 1–4 bird’s eye chillies, seeds in (optional) 4 small shallots 4 garlic cloves 5cm ginger, peeled 1⁄2 tsp fine sea salt Juice of a lime
Eat with me
One of the chilli hotspots of the world is Northern Sulawesi. Here fragrant lime leaves, lemon basil and extreme use of chilli typify the food, for heat that hits you with shouts, not whispers. Spice pastes are often used in one-to-one ratio with the quantity of meat or seafood. Rica rica is the signature cooking style, the ‘c’ pronounced ‘ch’ as in ‘chilli’, which is also what the word means. Stoke the fire to your taste, by all means scaling up the bird’s eyes. These are for heat; the seeded larger chillies are there for flavour. Other chilli-seafood dishes of the wider region to explore include prawn sambal (Indonesian versions tends to be more tomatoey than the salty-sweet Malay renditions), Singapore chilli crab (hands-on eating with a rich, sweet red sauce), and the prized spanner crabs of the Philippines island of Mindanao, doused in spicy coconut milk red-stained by annatto.
Yellow coconut rice for a good colour contrast
Recipe:
You may also like a Sour-and-spice pineapple relish: Peel, core and chunk a small pineapple. Chop 2 red chillies, removing the seeds, then grind to a rough paste with 1 tablespoon sugar and 1/2 teaspoon salt. Loosen with 1 tablespoon vinegar and stir through the pineapple. Leave to sit for 15 minutes for the flavours to mingle.
Roughly chop the aromatics for the spice paste and blitz all the ingredients together in a blender to a rough paste.
The Nutmeg Trail by Eleanor Ford. Photography by Ola O. Smit. Murdoch Books RRP $49.99.
70 GOLD COAST • PANACHE Magazine
Heat the oil in a frying pan or wok and scrape in the spice paste. Fry on a medium heat, stirring often, until it is sweetly fragrant and the harsh, raw edge has gone. Stir in the tomato, spring onion, lime leaves and sugar and cook so the tomato starts to break down to a sauce. Add the prawns and simmer for about 5 minutes, until they lose their glassiness and are just cooked through and pink. Spritz in some lime juice and taste to see if any of the flavours need balancing – add more lime to brighten, or sugar and salt as needed. Serve at once.
