Monday 16 July 2012

Crispy Salted Egg Prawns

 This is one of my favorite dishes in Malaysia.  A chinese dish that is so awesome in taste that will leave you wanting more, but beware, cholestoral in this one is high so please indulge occasionally only!!

Ingredients

- 300g of peeled prawns (about 30 small prawns)
- 2 quarts of Cooking oil. (Preferably a vegetable oil)
- 3 duck eggs
- 2 eggs
- 1 cup of all-purpose flour
- 2 cloves of garlic
- 1 teaspoon of crushed red chili in white wine vinegar
- Soya Sauce
- Lettuce for garnishing

Directions

In a small saucepan boil the duck eggs in water till hard boiled (5-7 minutes in boiled water to be sure). 

While the eggs are cooking de-vein the prawns by sliding a sharp knife down the back of the prawn and removing the vein.  Have a bowl of water handy to rinse the prawns and then pad them dry before putting one by one in the egg and cover with flour.  Place the coated eggs on a plate and put in the fridge for 15-20 minutes to seal.

Gotta love deep-fried
Place the oil in a medium-sized heavy based saucepan.  The Chinese would use a flame and a wok, but my little kitchen has an electric stove so have to make do with the saucepan, but don't worry it works fine.  Put on high heat.

While the oil is coming to cooking temperature peel the duck eggs.  Discard the whites (i know this is a bit of a waste.  Alternatively you could keep the whites for a rice porridge, but it's not something i eat.  The whites are extremely salty and not really my taste).  For this dish we want the red/golden yolk of the eggs.  put in a plate and mash with a fork.

A slotted spoon is a must
Chop the garlic into little pieces and place a piece in the oil to test the temperature.  If it sizzles and bubbles form then you are ready to deep-fry the prawns.  Get them from the fridge and add 5 at a time to the oil.  We don't want to add to many at once as the temperature of the oil will drop and they won't deep fry.  Leave the prawns for 60-90 seconds and then extract with a slotted spoon to a dish. 


Combining egg yold with prawns

Add more of the garlic and the crushed chili to the oil to add more flavour.  The oil will sizzle when the whilte wine vinegar hits the oil, so just a little safety queue there to be careful.  Continue the process of deep-frying till all 30 prawns are done then remove the oil from the heat.

On the same hotplate use a skillet to combine the eggyolk and the prawns.  When the skillet is hot add a tablespoon or 2 of the hot oil, a little soy sauce if desired, 1/5 of the duck egg and 6 of the prawns.  Stir the contents around with a spatula combining the egg yolk with the prawns.  This only takes a few seconds.  Transfer to a serving plate decorated with lettuce leaves.  Repeat for the remainder of the prawns and egg yolk.  Sprinkle with more salt and pepper if desired.

Your ready to serve this up with steamed rice and a meat dish.  Please remember to do some treadmill before this meal  and the next day to burn off the cholestoral!!

A variation that I want to try is to use 2 tablespoons of salted butter in the skillet for combining the egg yolks to the prawns.  We will call that butter fried prawns and will give a bit softer creamier texture to the prawns and taste great.

Enjoy!



2 comments:

  1. Great ! I love this so much specially with crab

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    Replies
    1. Thanks! And i was kinda surprised how easy it was to make. I probably need to try it 100 more times before it is restaurant quality but it is in the ballpark!!

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