Serves 4 as a main dish

Ambot Tik is another hot and spicy dish from Goa that combines Portuguese and Indian flavours. It can be cooked with any any type of fish but popular choices are shark and prawns. If using the prawns keep their shells on to soak up the range of flavours. To cook this curry, first create the aromatic masala by dry frying spices, combine with a sauce of onions, tomatoes and tamarind and add the prawns.

What you need…
• 600g prawns, deveined but with shells left on
• 3 Tablespoons oil
• 1 teaspoon garlic paste
• 1 teaspoon ginger paste
• 1.5 onions, finely chopped
• 2 tomatoes, chopped
• 2 Tablespoons tomato paste
• 3 Tablespoons tamarind paste
• 10 curry leaves
• Salt to taste
• Coriander leaves to garnish

Masala
• 10 dried red chillies
• 2 cloves
• 15 black peppercorns
• 1 teaspoon cumin seeds
• 4 Tablespoons desiccated coconut
• 0.5 teaspoon salt

Shop now

How you make it…
1. Dry fry all the Masala ingredients in a pan over a medium heat until they release their aromas (about 2 minutes). Grind into a powder and set aside.
2. Heat the oil in a pan to a medium heat, add the garlic paste and ginger paste and cook for 1 minute.
3. Add the onion and cook until it softens (about 5 minutes).
4. Add the tomatoes, tomato paste and tamarind, mix well and cook for 2 minutes.
5. Add a little water and use a hand blender to the mix the ingredients to a paste.
6. Add the Masala, mix well and cook for 10 minutes.
7. Add the prawns, curry leaves and salt if needed, allowing the prawns to absorb all the flavours and cook until the they are fully cooked (about 7–8 minutes).
8. Garnish with the coriander leaves serve.

If you like this you should try our…
Chicken Recheade • Medium Chicken Curry • Chicken Madras • Chicken Vindaloo Restaurant-style) • Chicken Bhoona • Chicken Feet Curry (Africa)

Check out 5 Best Goa Curries

You know this is a delicious dish because it Tiks all the boxes…