Gaeng Kua Sapparot (Thai Pineapple Prawn Curry)
A vibrant, tangy prawn curry with sweet pineapple, built on properly split coconut cream for a rich, fragrant base without needing a long ingredient list.
Ingredients
Pantry bits
- 400ml tin coconut milk (cream separated, not shaken)
- 3 tbsp Thai red curry paste (or gaeng kua paste if available)
- 500g prawns, peeled and deveined
- 1.5 cups pineapple chunks
- 1 tbsp fish sauce
- 1 tbsp palm sugar
- 1/2 cup chicken or vegetable stock
- 4 kaffir lime leaves, torn
- 1 long red chilli, sliced
- Thai basil leaves, to serve
Instructions
- Spoon the thick cream from the top of the coconut milk tin into a wok, leaving the thinner liquid behind.
- Simmer the cream over medium-high heat without stirring too often, until it visibly splits and the oil rises to the surface, about 5–6 minutes.
- Add the curry paste and fry in the split oil for 2–3 minutes until fragrant and darker in colour.
- Stir in the remaining coconut milk and stock, and bring to a simmer.
- Add fish sauce, palm sugar and kaffir lime leaves.
- Add pineapple and simmer for 3–4 minutes.
- Add prawns and cook for 3–4 minutes until just pink and cooked through.
- Top with sliced chilli and Thai basil, and serve with jasmine rice.
About this dish
Gaeng Kua Sapparot is one of Thailand's most underrated curries — bright, a little sour, a little sweet, and quicker to make than most because the curry paste is simpler than a full red or green curry. It's a great dish to practise the coconut-splitting technique on, since the curry base is small and forgiving.
The method is the same principle behind every proper Thai curry: let the thick coconut cream simmer alone until the oil cracks and separates, then fry the curry paste directly in that fat. It only takes a few extra minutes but transforms the flavour from flat to genuinely restaurant-grade.
Prawns cook quickly, which makes this one of the fastest curries on the site — perfect for a weeknight when you want something that tastes like it took much longer.
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