Fragrant Soy-Caramelized Prawns 干煎大吓

Just a few more days and 2012 will be here! Time really flies, cliche but oh so true.  Soon the lunar new year will be here and so I've been thinking up more ways to serve up the popular prawns for the festive season, of course if you're just a fan of prawn/ shrimp dishes, you can whip this up anytime.  The Chinese almost always prepare a lavish feast for the yearly reunion dinner which takes place on the eve of the lunar new year - family members from far and near gather together to celebrate the coming new year with what else but great food and precious company.  Prawns are almost always a must as they symbolise laughter and happiness (the Chinese pronunciation for prawns sound like 'ha') so here's yet another prawn dish that I hope you'll like.

Today's prawns were first shallow-fried to a lovely golden hue, then cooked together with some garlic, ginger, chili peppers and soy sauce.  I added a splash of thick caramel sauce as well for that gorgeous glaze you can see on the prawns - so really this is quite straightforward and this is one of my go-to dishes for prawns especially when I have to cook more dishes than usual which is of course typical in most Chinese households during festive seasons.

This post is part of my Yuen Chun Recipes, an ongoing project on this blog.

Serves 4

Serving suggestion: with steamed rice

Ingredients:

12 medium to large sized prawns, butterflied (shell-on), rubbed with 1 teaspoon corn flour and 1/4 teaspoon salt

Enough oil for shallow-frying

3 cloves garlic, minced

4 slices of fresh ginger

2 bird's eye chili peppers, sliced

1 tablespoon Chinese Shaoxing wine

2 tablespoons light soy sauce (I used Yuen Chun's)

2 tablespoon thick caramel sauce (I used Yuen Chun's)

1 teaspoon sugar or more, to taste

Method:

Firstly, shallow-fry the prawns that you've rubbed with the corn flour and salt.  Shallow fry on medium-low heat to ensure the prawns cook evenly and turn crispy and golden.  Fry for about 5-8 minutes depending on the size of your prawns.  Drain on some paper towels.  Set aside.

Heat up your wok until almost smoking.  Add about 3 tablespoons of cooking oil. Swirl to coat.  Turn heat to low and add ginger, garlic and chili pepper slices.  Fry until aromatic.  Add the Chinese rice wine from the sides of the wok.  Add in the soy sauce, caramel sauce and sugar.  Do a taste test and add more sugar if desired.  Add in the prawns.  Stir-fry to coat well, fry until the soy sauce mixture clings to the prawns.  Turn heat to high and give the prawns one last stir-fry in the wok.  Remove from wok and plate.

Serve immediately.

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