Prawns In Tomato Sauce 乾煎蝦碌

This is my favourite dish and happened to be my late father's as well; as a child traveling with him on a day trip to Ipoh,  he would always stopped at a Chinese eating place on our way back to Cameron Highlands and ordered this dish for me. Back home we prefer the local fresh water prawns which have the sweetest and firmest flesh, not unlike those of the scampis. We don't normally have such large prawns due to the budget restrain but since our dear friend H was visiting, I thought we ought to make it a little special. (it was also a small celebration for the 100th post of this blog)

Do leave the shells on as it looks and tastes better this way, just have a finger bowl ready for cleaning your fingers. I have been promised a lobster's tail and I can't wait to cook it the same way! :)

P.S this is a rather dry dish, if you prefer a more saucy dish simple double the sauce ingredients and thicken it with a little corn starch solution.

Serves 4 as part of a Chinese meal;

you'll need;

8 large prawns, veins removed, fried with a little oil til golden brown, set aside

knob of ginger, chopped

3 cloves of garlic, chopped

2 bird chillies, chopped

3 tbs of tomato ketchup

2 tbs of sugar

dash of light soy

dash of Chinese black vinegar

1/2 cup of water

salt and white pepper to taste

3 spring onions, cut into 2.5" length

Have everything nearby while heating up the wok.

Fry chopped garlic, ginger and chillies with a little oil for a minute. Add ketchup, seasonings and water.

When the sauce turns a little syrupy, return the prawns and add the spring onions. Heat through.

Serve as part of a Chinese meal. We had it with stir fried flowering chives and snapper and braised soy pork. Plenty of rice of course!