A Monday-night Curry

Last night Martin threw me a prawn while he was making dinner. If he was trying to make up for the disappointment of the sea bass incident, it didn't work. The morsel came from a packet of frozen prawns from Thailand, and it had very little flavour and a faintly unpleasant, chemical whiff about it. Sensibly, he cooked the prawns in a curry - not a full-on, from-scratch curry but a Monday night cheat made with a couple of tbs. of Patak's vindaloo curry paste, an onion and half a tin of tomatoes. Alongside it was a a dish of chopped courgettes stir-fried lightly with turmeric, chilli powder and amchoor (a souring agent made from powdered, dried green mangoes, available in Asian grocery shops), and just a drop of water to stop the spices burning. There was also the last of the bhurta aubergine preparation from last week. He served the dishes with brown rice, pickles, pitta bread and a few slices of onion and cucumber.

I put my paw in the curry when Martin wasn't looking, and the prawns were just about acceptable in the hot sauce. (Some people are surprised that cats like spicy food, but many of us do. It's sour stuff that we can't stand.) These oriental prawns are cheap and convenient, but they don't have much flavour and the aquaculture industry in the third world, together with the subsequent transportation, is terribly bad for the environment. I think Martin should avoid them in future.