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Assam prawn is a Malaysian Nyonya recipe. I personally didn’t tried it before, but I did some research online and decided to give it a try. In fact it looks easy to prepare that is the main thing for a quick fix. The main ingredient for the dish is the Tamarind or Assam, you can always get the fresh tamarind or look for tamarind paste. You can use any kind of prawn or shrimp for the recipe, preferably with heads and shell intact.

The tamarind or Assam sauce flavor covered the whole shell and prawn heads, infused with soury and sweet taste which is very appetizing. I am sure you will suck up all the sauce because it is so good.  So prepare some napkins as you will be using your hands for this finger licking good recipe.

Ingredients:
1 lb shell-on prawns
2 tbsp tamarind pulps
4 tablespoons water
1-2 drips dark soy sauce
2 teaspoon sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons cooking oil

Cooking Methods:

1. Add water to tamarind pulps to mix till smooth, discard the pulps.
2. Make a slit on the back of the prawn to devein, rinse and pat dry with paper towel. Set aside.
3. Combine the sauce of tamarind juice, salt, sugar, 1-2 drips of dark soy sauce (not too much to prevent the prawns turn too dark), mix into the prawns, marinate for 10-15 minutes.
4. Heat up a pan with oil over medium high, add in the prawns and stir fry till cooked. Cook a bit longer to reduce the sauce and to slightly burnt the shells.  Serve.

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Previously Patrick cooked the Steamed Shrimp with Minced Garlic, this dish is always a hot favorite among our friends. Especially when it is cooked with garlic and wine, made it extremely fragrant. One of our friends, Sit Yee suggested that we can even put some vermicelli or Tang Hoon (冬粉) underneath the garlic shrimp, the vermicelli will soak up the sweet broth from the fresh shrimp. That sounds like a delicious dish, thus I’ve decided to give it a try.

I suggest to use whole shrimp / prawn with shell and head on. This will give the broth a much sweeter taste. However this time I only used shelled shrimps without the heads, because I have bought the shrimps before I thought of making this dish. The broth was awesome with the fragrant Chinese Shaoxing cooking wine (紹興酒) and absorbing the sweetness from the fresh shrimp. Plus the aromatic fried garlic gave it a distinct taste too.

Ingredients:

2 handfuls vermicille
8 medium shrimps (preferably heads and shell on)
1 tbsp minced garlic
4 sliced ginger (finely stripped)
1 fresh red chili (chopped)
1/2 medium white onion (finely stripped)
Coriander leaves (garnish)

For the seasoning:
1 tsp peppercorns (crushed)
3 tbsp Shaoxing Wine
1/2 tbsp soy sauce
1 tsp sugar
3/4 cup water or seafood stock
1 tsp fish sauce

Cooking Method:

1. Soak the vermicelli in cold water till soft, drain. Remove the shrimp’s leg and whiskers. Make a shallow cut on the back of the shrimp shell and remove the intestinal tracts, rinse.
2. Heat up 2 tbsp oil over high heat, shallow fry the shrimps for 10 seconds, drain and set aside.
3. Use a pot, heat up 1 tbsp fried shrimp oil, stir fry minced garlic and ginger strips till golden. Add in onion strips and chopped red chillies, stir fry till fragrant.
4. Add  2 tbsp Shaoxing wine, water (or seafood stock), sugar, soy sauce, fish sauce and peppercorns, bring to boil.
5. Add in vermicelli and shrimps, turn heat to medium low and simmer for 5-7 minutes till broth is fairly dry.
6. If you have a claypot pre-heat claypot about 5-10 mins on the stove. Place the vermicelli on the claypot, follow by shrimps on top. Ladle with broth, circle with 1 tbsp of wine and garnish with coriander leaves. Serve.

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Another seafood dish into my collection, this is one of my all time favorite prawn dishes, the Butter Oat Prawn (麥片蝦). In Malaysia, when my family dine out, sometimes Butter Oat Prawn will be one of the usual prawn dishes we order. If you haven’t heard of or tried this dish before, you might think this is so weird to cook the prawns or shrimps with cereal oats? No, of course. Let me introduce you to this delicious dish.

The specialty about the Butter Oat Prawn is to deep fry the egg yolk until golden and crispy, then stir fry with cereal or oats and add in other ingredients such as curry leafs, chili, butter and creamer.  The whole complete mixture has a distinct taste of saltiness, sweetness and a bit of spiciness with a hint of curry leaves and chili. Toss in the prawns and mix in with the oat mixture, the golden color makes it real nice and you will be surprised that you are about to enjoy a delicious and special dish.

Some people like it with or without egg and creamer, this is up to you to decide the flavors. Now you can easily prepare this scrumptious dish at home with some quick and easy tips by using the simplest ingredients you can find in the kitchen. You can use the plain Quaker oats, or  even the 3-in-1 Nestle premix cereal packets for your morning breakfast. This time I have also use some crushed cornflakes because I do not have enough cereal at home and it came out madly delicious. I have finished all the tiny bits of cereal mixture. I love it and hope you enjoy too!

Ingredients:
18 – 20 medium prawns or shrimps (trimmed and deviened)
10 curry leaves
2 bird eye chili or cili padi
1 stick of margarine
3 egg yolks (beaten)
2  tbsp butter

For oat mixture:
2 packets of 3-in-1 premix cereal
2 tbsp crushed cornflakes
1/2 tsp salt
Few dashes of salt and pepper
or use below,
6 tbsp plain oats or cereal
3 tbsp creamer or milk powder
1 tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt
Few dashes of salt and pepper

Cooking Method:

1. Trim and devien the prawns, rinse and drain.
2. Heat up some oil in a small deep pot, deep fry the prawns in batches until golden. Remove and drain on paper towel.
3. Heat up margarine in a pot over high heat then add in the beaten egg yolk, dip fry the egg yolk until it forms crispy streaks. Remove and drain on aside.
4. Melt butter over low heat, fry curry leaves until fragrant. Add in the cereal mixture and fried egg streaks, stir fry briefly.
5. Add in prawns and coat with cereal mixture evenly. Sprinkle with chopped chill.
6. Ready to serve.

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Our Chinese New Year recipe continues with today’s special ingredient, prawn or shrimp.  I came upon this prawn recipe from a Chinese cookbook in the bookstore a couple weeks ago (forgot the name), I thought it is easy yet meaningful that best suits this  festive event. The name of the dish is called 如意蝦 , ru yi xia in Chinese, which literally means ones’ wish or  dream will be fulfilled, a symbol of good luck. You can name it Good Luck Prawn or Wine-Seasoned Prawn (or Shrimp) with pandan leaves.  I have substitute the recipe with 8 large tails of shrimps, that make up the lucky number 8 because it has the similar pronunciation for richness,   fa (發) in Chinese. I hope this dish will bring good luck and many wonders  to everyone.

This dish is really simple to be prepared, the main thing is to prepare the special wine with rice wine (上等白米酒) and rose wine (玫瑰露酒) or any wine preferred for taste and seasoning. These fresh shrimps are so good when they have adsorbed the aroma of the wine. Plus, they are wrapped in pandan (screwpine) leaves which give them an extra pandan fragrant.  When the shrimps are cooked, you can see the vibrant color of reddish orange of the shrimps with a touch of shiny gloss surface, wrapped up in green color pandan leaves. I absolutely love the presentation that would definitely make the dinner more interesting.

Previously I have also used pandan leaves in my Black Glutinous Rice Dessert, many people have asked what pandan leaf or screwpine leaf is. Here I’ve showed you in the picture section. You can usually get them in the frozen section of the Asian market in LA. The pandan leaf is widely used in Southeast Asia dishes mainly because it has an aromatic fragrant that blends well with the food. You can also purchase the extracted pandan essence for cooking or even baking cakes and desserts.

Have a try on the recipe and happy Chinese New Year to you.

Ingredients:

8 tails of tiger prawns or large shrimps (trimmed and deveined)
8 pandan leaves or screwpine leaves
8 toothpicks
1 cup rice wine (上等白米酒)
3 tbsp rose wine (玫瑰露酒)

Cooking Method:

1. Trim the head and legs, devein the tiger prawns or shrimps. Rinse them under cold ice water for 5 minutes for a more crunchy texture.
2. Season the prawns or shrimps with rice wine and rose wine for 15 minutes. Remove and drain.
3. Wrap the prawns or shrimps tightly with pandan leaves, use a toothpick to hold in position.
4. Heat up 5 tbsp oil over low hear, fry tiger prawns or shrimps till turn orange pink. Dish up and serve.

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Char Kway Teow (炒粿條, or aka Fried Flat Rice Noodle) is one of the must-order-food when you are visiting the state of Penang, Malaysia. It is sold in almost every part of the city from hotels, malls, restaurants to the hawker stalls. Ask the locals, they would definitely know where to find the best in town. You wouldn’t want to miss this delicious local favorite food.

The Char Kway Teow is stir fried with cockles, prawns, fresh bean sprouts, chives and egg. Add some red chilli paste for an extra kick to the noodle.  Most importantly, the Char Kway Teow is cooked in fiery wok heat with lard (if possible), that makes it so aromatic and fragrant.

Ingredients:

1/2 packet flat rice noodle (gently separate the noodles)
1 cup bean sprouts
10-12 cockles (take out the cockles from the shell)
8-10 medium prawns (tail-on)
1/4 cup chives (chopped into 2 inch length)
2 tbsp garlic (minced)
1 egg
2 tbsp oil

For Red Chilli Paste (Ground):
5 dried chillies (soaked)
2 fresh red chillies (chopped)
2 small shallots
2 garlic cloves
Salt
1 teaspoon oil

For Seasoning:
2 tbsp light soy sauce
1 tbsp dark soy sauce
Salt and pepper to taste
2 tbsp water

Serve size: 2 people.

Cooking Method:

1. Ground all ingredients for red chilli paste. Heat oil in a wok, sauté ground ingredients until aromatic. Dish up and set aside for use later.
2. Heat wok (preferably in a cast iron wok until smoking hot) on high with oil, add in chopped garlic, stir fry until light brown.
3. Add in the prawns stir fry until turn color. Add the bean sprouts and give a quick stir. Push the ingredients to a side.
4. Add the noodles and stir fry quickly, add in the seaoning mixture over the noodles. Stir fry till well blend.
5. Make a empty space in the middle of the wok, crack the egg on it and add a little oil, scramble to mix the egg yolk and white. Fold all the ingredients on the egg, stir fry until cook.
6. Add the cockles, and some chilli paste (based on spicyness preferred), stir fry evenly.
7. Finally add the chives and give a quick stir.
8. Dish up.

Serves hot immediately.