There is no way you want to miss having a prawn dish on your table during Chinese New Year. Prawns are pronounced “Ha” in Cantonese, which means to 笑哈哈, laughing all year long. How could you miss the happiness of a brand new year? Therefore you wouldn’t want to miss out on this additive Chinese New Year dish – Crispy Cereal Prawns Recipe, 香脆麦片虾.
Highly addictive, pour some on plain-tasting white rice to add some taste, especially the kids who love the cereal coating that goes on the prawns! The contrasting but complementary flavours of sweetness from the cereal and spiciness of the chilli padi! Both add to the fresh taste of the prawn.
How to prep your Prawns
We start by preparing the prawn, there are two options for this, the unshell and shell prawn. We prefer the shelled prawn as after deep-frying it gave the dishes a crispy texture.
- Remove the legs and head of the prawn. Start by cutting off the legs and half of the head of the prawn using a scissors. It doesn’t changes the taste of the dish but makes the presentation of the dish cleaner.
- Remove the guts. Most of the prawn have guts along the back and you would want to remove it. Our method is using a toothpick, poke through the 3rd section of the prawn horizontally and pull the guts out. It maybe hard at first, but it’s easy to master after a few try. The other method where many like to use is to slit the back of the prawns with scissors to remove the guts. Then use a knife to cut a deeper slit to butterfly the prawns.
- Marinate it. Many of the recipie doesn’t have this step, after trying many version we do like to marinate our prawn, as it add an extra flavour to the prawn. In a bowl of prawn, add in ginger, spring onion and shaoxing wine. Marinate it for at least 15 minutes, or overnight for intense flavour.
Coat and Deep-fry
Now that you have your prawn prepared it is time to deep-fried them. We decide to deep-fried the prawn lightly as we don’t want a heavy coating like tempura. We omit the egg coating that many recipes used, and we straight away coat them with corn starch (you can replace them with plain flour). We suggest you use a shallow flat pan for the corn starch, making the coating process easier and quicker. Heat up some cooking oil for frying the prawns. Fry in the hot oil until the coating becomes slightly golden and the prawns are red and cooked through. Drain and set aside.
In a separate wok or frying pan, melt the butter. Add the chopped garlic, chilli and curry leaves, fry till fragrant. Pour in the prepared cereal seasoning mixture. Stir fry for 2 to 3 minutes until the cereals start to get toasted and become golden brown. Add the cooked prawns and stir gently, making sure each piece is coated with the cereal mix.
Cooking Tips
- Do not over-cooked the prawns. Otherwise, they will be tough and dry.
- The oil must be hot before adding in the prawns to seal up the juices.
- Remember to lower the heat first before adding butter to the wok, as butter gets burnt easily, so will the curry leaves and cereal. The cereal gets burnt with seconds, so need to watch closely when frying the cereal.
- How to tell the prawns is cooked? You can tell the level of doneness from the shape of the curl :- C’ shape is not quite cooked, ‘O’ shape – overcooked, ‘U’ shape – just right!
We hope that you enjoy this recipe as we do. Share with us your version! Take a photo of your version, send us an email, tag us on Instagram, tweet us, anything. We love to see yours!
xoxo, Joe
Crispy Cereal Prawns
Ingredients
16 to 18 pieces medium to large-sized prawns
3 tbsp of Shao Xing Wine
2 slices of ginger
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour or self-raising flour
Spring Onion
Cooking oil for deep frying
45 grams butter
6 bird’s eye red chilli, chopped
5 sprigs of curry leaves, leaves detached and cleaned
200g of cereal
Methods
- Start by cutting off the legs and half of the head of the prawn using scissors. Using a toothpick, poke through the 3rd section of the prawn horizontally and pull the guts out. In a bowl of prawns, add in the ginger, spring onion and Shaoxing wine. Marinate it for at least 15 minutes, or overnight for intense flavour.
- Shake off the excess Shaoxing wine, then coat it evenly with corn flour.
- Heat up some cooking oil for frying the prawns. Fry in the hot oil until the coating becomes slightly golden and the prawns are red and cooked through. Drain and set aside.
- In a separate wok or frying pan, melt the butter. Add the chopped garlic, chilli and curry leaves, fry till fragrant. Pour in the prepared cereal seasoning mixture. Stir fry for 2 to 3 minutes until the cereals start to get toasted and become golden brown. Add the cooked prawns and stir gently, making sure each piece is coated with the cereal mix.
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