A Cantonese-style dish featuring crispy fried prawns coated in a glossy, umami soy sauce with garlic and spring onions. Simple, aromatic, and ready in minutes.
Rinse the prawns, trim off the sharp rostrum, the legs and sharp tip of the tail. Devein the prawns and rinse under running water to make sure its clean.
Pat dry the rinsed prawns with paper towels and set aside.
Peel garlic and cut into big cubes. Cut spring onions into long strips, separating the green and white parts.
Prepare the Sauce:
Have ready all ingredients to make the sauce.
To prepare the sauce, first place crushed rock sugar and some water in a pan. Using low heat, cook slowly till all the rock sugar melts, stirring constantly.
Then place the dissolved rock sugar liquid into a bowl. Add light soy sauce, dark soy sauce and oyster sauce. Stir to mix well the sauce. Set aside for later use.
Cooking Fried Prawns with Sauce:
First, we need to fry the prawns. Heat wok and add in oil. Using medium high heat, heat up oil till very hot. Fry the prawn for about 20-30sec. Drain and set aside.
Remove excess oil from wok. Leave just a little and fry the cut garlic cubes till fragrant and garlic turns golden in colour. Remove and set aside.
Next, to the garlic oil, add in the white parts of spring onions. Stir fry till fragrant. Then add in the fried prawns straight away together with the fried garlic cubes. Stir fry for a while to let the fragrance of garlic and spring onions get infused into the prawns.
Next, slowly add the sauce mixture and continue to stir fry till the sauce coat all the prawns. Lastly, add in the green part of spring onions and butter. Turn the heat to high and continue to stir fry till butter dissolved and evenly coat all the prawn. And we are done!
Serve this prawn dish hot with steamed white rice and Enjoy!
Choose the right prawns - Use medium to large size prawns like Tiger Prawns, Ming Prawns and White Prawns. These prawns stay juicy even after frying. Fresh prawns should smell ocean-clean, not fishy. Keep the shell and head for more flavour.
Prepare the prawns properly - Trim the long feelers and legs. Devein the prawns by slicing the back slightly and pulling out the black veins. Pat dry rinsed prawns with paper towels as moisture causes oil splatter and soggy shells.
Get the oil temperature right - The most important thing in frying the prawns is the oil temperature. Heat oil to about 170-180 degree C (medium-high heat) in order to be able to fry the prawns. Fry prawns in batches (do not overcrowd). If all the prawns are fried one go, the oil temperature will drop. In short, throughout the frying process, maintain high temperature all the way. Fry until shells turn bright orange and crisp, around 1-2 minutes per side depending on size.
Prepare all the ingredients in advance - easy access before you start to stir fry the prawns.
Stir fry the prawns in just about 30 seconds - overcooking makes the prawns rubbery.
Serve immediately while hot - the shells stay crisp and the sauce glossy.