Images Stir-Fry Butter Cereal Prawns (Instant)

Crispy Crunchy Tasty Yummy Prawns

Who doesn't love big prawns? Most adults love it as much as children - unless they're seafood allergic. :-) One of my all-time favourite prawn dish is the ever popular Butter Cereal Prawns. You can find this usually served as one of the courses for Chinese sit-down course dinners in restaurants.

But, for home-chefs who may not have the luxury time to painstakingly prepare the cereal-mix from scratch, you can get the instant pre-packed cereal mix/seasoning from supermarkets or grocery stores - which is what I had done for this occasion. It cut short half the preparation time and taste just as nice.

Ingredients :
- 10-15 white prawns (sea-caught is better, medium size, approx. 4-5cm in diameter per prawn)
- Curry leaves of about 2 sprigs (you might want to add more if you like it more fragrant)
- 1 or 2 medium size chili (de-seeded and cut into small squares or julienne)
- Butter (a few tablespoons or more upon you're liking)
- Cooking oil
- 1 packet of pre-packed cereal mix


How-to:
1) Heat up wok with a few tablespoons of cooking oil. When oil is hot, add in the prawns and stir-fry evenly until the prawns had turned pinkish-brown and curled up a bit. Remove the prawns immediately as you don't want to overcook it. Set aside. Clear up any oil residue in the wok.

2) Using the same wok, you need not rinse, add in the butter and melt it under medium heat. Once its melted, add in the chili and curry leaves immediately. Stir-fry until its fragrant and add in the prawns.

3) Stir-fry the prawns evenly for a little while, then add add in the cereal pre-mix.

4) Under very low heat, stir the prawns thoroughly until all are covered with the cereal. When the cereal mix had turned crispy after soaking up the excess butter in the wok, dish up the wonderful prawns and serve it hot.

Options :
- I did not de-shell my prawns as I prefer it in its original form for more crispiness. I only snipped off the head's front pointy part where the whiskers are and trimmed the legs.
If you prefer, you may de-shell it but do keep the tails intact - it looks nicer and classier when served, also easier to be finger-picked. :-)
- Instead of normal chili, you may go for a hotter taste by choosing bird's eye chili.
- Instead of stir-frying, you may deep-fry it if you prefer for the ultimate crispy crunch.

Ingredients

Step by Step Stir-Frying

Images Soy Sauce Chili Dip (Cili Kicap)

Sliced chili in soy sauce? It can be found in almost every restaurant here because it makes a great accompaniment for the typical Malaysian rice or noodle dish. I think of it as our national dipping sauce.

In our home, it is also a must-have on the dinner table. Today, I was inspired to add a little twist to the simple recipe for extra oomph. It involves crushing all the ingredients together. The end result is a spicy piquant sweet, salty dip.

Here's my take, with the recipe included below.

Spicy Chili-Soy Dipping Sauce

Ingredients:
- 1 red chili (sliced)
- 4 green bird's eye chili (sliced)
- 1 very small red onion (chopped)
- A pinch of fresh ginger

- 1/2 calamansi (seeded)
- 1/4 cup sweet saltish soy sauce (I use a local brand - "Cap Dua Ikan")

How-to:
1. Using a mortar and pestle, roughly crush chili, onion and ginger together into small bits.
2. Once done, add soy sauce and squeeze calamansi juice into the mix. Stir well and serve.

Best eaten with rice dishes or as a batter-fried food dip (I'm thinking bananas, sweet potatoes, vegetables).

Crush, crush, crush!

Warning ~ known to increase appetite!