Narkel chingri (Prawns cooked in coconut milk also called prawn malai curry)

Ingredients:
Prawns - 250 g (medium sized - 2-3 inches long)
Coconut - 1(or coconut milk - 1.5 cup)
Chili powder - 1/2 teaspoonful
Green chili - 2
Turmeric powder 1/2 teaspoonful
Salt - according to taste
Cooking oil - 3 tablespoonfuls
Tejpatta - 2-3
Sugar  - 1 pinch
Cumin powder - 1/2 teaspoonful (optional)
Coriander powder - 1 pinch (optional)
Ginger paste - 1 teaspoonful (optional)
Coriander leaves - 10-20 (optional)

Procedure:

1. Extract the milk from the coconut. You can buy packed coconut milk (powder) in the market but that lacks the flavour of fresh coconut. To extract milk from the coconut, first break it and then grate the kernel. Next take a handful of the grated kernel and squeeze out the milk into a container. You can also take it in a piece of clean cloth and squeeze. Usually not all the milk comes out in the first go. Mix a little warm water (~1/4 cup) into the grated kernel and squeeze it again to extract the remaining milk.
2. Clean the prawns if necessary: remove the shell (leave the bit over tail - which is hard to remove anyway) and the legs and the eyes and the antennae. You can soak them in a little warm water to ease the cleaning. The shell is tightly connected to the flesh in fresh prawns, and the staler it gets the looser the shell becomes. Next, devein the prawns: make a slit on the back of each prawn to reach the blue/black-ish vein (which is the animals gut) and pull it out. You can find videos in youtube showing how to do it.
3. Mix turmeric powder, 1 tablespoonful of oil, chili powder and salt with the prawns and let it marinate for 10-15 minutes.
4. Heat 2 tablespoonfuls of oil in a pan and lightly fry the prawns. They will turn golden brown, the shells turning orange/red. Take them out of the pan and keep aside.
5. Add the sugar and the tejpatta into the same pan (hopefully with some oil left in it, add more if you want).
6. Slit the green chilies into two halves and put them into the pan. Add the ginger paste (optional).
7. After stir-frying for about 20-30 seconds (as the chilies fade in colour and become soft and the ginger paste turns brown), pour the coconut milk. Bring it to boil.
8. Add the coriander and cumin powder and mix it into the coconut milk. Add salt according to taste.
9. Add the prawns and cover the pan. Cook until the prawns are done. Prawns take really short time to cook (5-10 minutes of boiling, and they are already half cooked by frying). If you cook them for too long they become rubbery. Break a piece after about 7 minutes and see if the inside has turned opaque white. That is an indicator of being cooked enough. Correctly cooked fresh prawns will be soft and juicy.
10. Remove the pan from heat, garnish with chopped coriander leaves before serving.