On our weekly visit to the Asian grocery store (Far Corners), we were delighted to find fresh prawns. Whilst the supermarkets here do carry prawns, they are most of the time pre-cooked and shelled, and always with the head removed! Americans will eat the prawns as they are, thawed with a seafood salsa dip. BTW, prawns are more commonly called as 'shrimps' here.
So, you can imagine our delight when we stumbled on the shining fresh prawns (with shell and their heads still intact). A small pack containing about 20 average-sized prawns costs us around US$ 5+. We decided to fry them with crispy oats, which is one of my wife's favorite zhe zhar dishes in Singapore. As we had not prepared this dish before, I had to do some research on the internet. As it turn out, the dish is not that difficult to prepare. Below is the recipe, but as usual, I don't have the exact measurement. My style of cooking is "agak-agak" (guesstimate).
Ingredients:
Ingredients:
20 prawns, soya sauce, pepper, shaoshing wine, cooking oil, 80g butter, 5 chili padi, a bunch of curry leaves, two fistful of oats, 1 egg, diced garlic and onions, salt and sugar.
Stage 1- Fry prawns
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1. Trim the sharp-ends of the prawns with a kitchen scissors, slit & devein but keep the head intact.
2. Marinate with a dash of soya sauce, pepper, shaoshing wine for 30 mins.
3. Dust with cornflour and fry prawns in very hot cooking oil till golden brown.
4. Remove and place on absorbent kitchen towel to remove excess oil.
Stage 2 - Fry oats
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5. Melt butter in a hot wok to stir fry the chopped garlic and onions (shallots would give a better fragrant, but they weren't readily available in our pantry).
6. Add the curry leaves and chili padi (cut into small rings) and fry until fragrant.
7. Beat the egg, drip drop into the wok, and stir rigorously in one direction.
8. Add the oats, fry till they turn crispy and golden brown (instead of Nestum oats, which was recommended on the internet, I could only get my hands on Quakers Oat. They taste alright, but were not as crispy as I had wished).
9. Add cooked prawns and mix well. Add a pinch of salt and sugar.
The prawns were yummy and so crispy that we could crunch the whole prawn, shell, head, everything!
7. Beat the egg, drip drop into the wok, and stir rigorously in one direction.
8. Add the oats, fry till they turn crispy and golden brown (instead of Nestum oats, which was recommended on the internet, I could only get my hands on Quakers Oat. They taste alright, but were not as crispy as I had wished).
9. Add cooked prawns and mix well. Add a pinch of salt and sugar.
The prawns were yummy and so crispy that we could crunch the whole prawn, shell, head, everything!
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Photo: Honey dew sago...................................... Photo: Thai papaya salad
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We had a feast tonight. For starters, we had wanton, fish cake and thai papaya salad; followed by fried black olive rice accompanied with grilled chicken, minced turkey basil, stir fry sweet pea, and of course, the crispy oat prawns. We ate honey dew sago for dessert. We round up with a delightful raspberry pie, homemade by Sharon.
