Prawns In Mandarin Butter Sauce 金龍報喜 － Reunion Dinner 2011 Part 3

For our final dish I created a new dish with a rather auspicious sounding name (金龍報喜, kam long bo hi - roughly translated as golden dragon announcing good news) instead of prawns in tomato sauce (乾煎蝦碌)which was initially planned. Mandarin (柑, kam) is a must for Chinese new year as it sounds like gold in Cantonese, where as prawns (蝦, har) is popular because it sounds like laughter. Give it a try and let me know what you think. Butter was an after thought and it certainly gave the sauce a much rounder finish.

P.S My Malaysian Monday post will be postponed until Tuesday or Wednesday so stay tuned. I am trying another internet company hopefully we can be connected by the end of the week.

recipe from the tummies' kitchen

serves 2 to 4 as part of a Chinese meal

you'll need;

600 g of whole prawns

3 garlic cloves, finely chopped

5 cm knob of ginger, finely chopped

2 shallots, finely chopped

rind from a mandarin, pith removed and finely sliced

2 spring onions, sectioned, finely sliced lengthwise and refreshed in a bowl of iced water

1 cm piece of butter

corn flour solution for thickening

for the sauce;

juice from 4 mandarins

1 tbs of light soy

1 tbs of rice vinegar

1 tbs of sugar

1 tsp of sesame oil

1/2 cup of stock

salt and white pepper to taste

Prepare the aromatics, spring onions and mandarin rind.

Mix all sauce ingredients in a bowl and check for seasonings.

To dress the prawns - cut away the pointy end of the heads and remove the sand sacks.

Pan fry prawns in batches until golden (70% cooked) and set aside.

Saute chopped ingredients with a little oil for 20 seconds before adding the sauce ingredients. Bring it to a boil.

Return prawns to the pan and mix well. Add butter and simmer prawns in the sauce for a minute before thickening the sauce with a little corn flour solution. Check for seasonings.

Place prawns onto a serving plate with sliced cucumbers and garnish with sliced spring onions and mandarin rind. I am very pleased with the result and I hope you will be brave enough to give this a try.