This dish is widespread in Chinese restaurants and 'Tze Char' eateries in Singapore. It doesn't have a lot of ingredients and is quite easy to do though there are a couple of stages, one of which involves deep-frying, though that is very fast.
Salted Duck Eggs are available in Asian supermarkets and make sure you choose the right kind - they are distinct from 'Century Eggs' which are black inside and quite often also using duck eggs. Round here they come cooked and uncooked, in which case you have to hard boil them.
This dish comes together fast once the marinade and deep fry stages are over, so ensure your ingredients are mis en place.
Ingredients
Method
Duck eggs are a pale blue:
The marinade ingredients (the chicken egg white is already in with the prawns):
Stick the marinating prawns in the fridge for an hour:
Sauce ingredients:
The prawns after a quick dredge in the cornflour and a flash deep fry (try to resist eating them at this stage!).
Start the sauce with a quick fry of the garlic, chilis, etc:
Salted Duck Eggs are available in Asian supermarkets and make sure you choose the right kind - they are distinct from 'Century Eggs' which are black inside and quite often also using duck eggs. Round here they come cooked and uncooked, in which case you have to hard boil them.
This dish comes together fast once the marinade and deep fry stages are over, so ensure your ingredients are mis en place.
Ingredients
300g peeled and deveined large tail-on prawns/shrimp
Marinade
1 small chicken egg white
1/3 tsp salt
2/3 tsp light soya sauce
1 tbsp cornflour
1/4 tsp ground white pepper
Coating/frying
1/3 cup cornflour for coating
1/2 litre vegetable oil for deep frying
Sauce and finishing
1 sprig curry leaves (about 15-20 leaves)
1 large clove of garlic, sliced finely
5 small shallots, sliced
2 red birdseye chilis (chili padi) sliced
2 salted duck egg yolks (from 2 hard boiled salted duck eggs), finely mashed
4-8 tbsp of the used deep-frying oil
Method
- Mix together all the marinade ingredients and coat the prawns well in it. Marinate in the fridge for 1 hour. 10 minutes before pulling the prawns out of the fridge, start getting your deep-frying oil up to 160 Celsius.
- Remove the prawns from the fridge and dredge them lightly in the 1/3 cup of cornflour in a bowl. Deep fry them in batches for about 45 seconds each till they are just golden brown. Drain them and keep them to the side.
- Take about 4 tablespoons of the deep frying oil and put into a wok. Fry the curry leaves, garlic, shallots and chilis for about 1 minute on a medium heat.
- Add in the mashed duck egg yolks and stir into the oil until it is creamy and frothing. You may need to add a few more tbsp of extra oil to make it slightly runnier (this is a matter of taste - I like mine a bit dryer so added 2 tbsp). Cook it for another 30 seconds.
- Add in the fried prawns; stir fry and toss for another 30 seconds to heat them through and get them well coated. Transfer all to a plate and serve immediately (usually with white rice).
Duck eggs are a pale blue:
The marinade ingredients (the chicken egg white is already in with the prawns):
Stick the marinating prawns in the fridge for an hour:
Sauce ingredients:
The prawns after a quick dredge in the cornflour and a flash deep fry (try to resist eating them at this stage!).
Start the sauce with a quick fry of the garlic, chilis, etc:
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