Deep-fried Chilli Prawns

PILE OF YUM

I am going to preface this with what I said to my boyfriend just before I started cooking it: “If this goes terribly wrong, can we order takeout?”

So, this is way out of my comfort zone. I don’t normally deep fry anything and I’ve never cooked a prawn before IN MY LIFE.  So this is one of those, if *I* can do it, then anyone can! Though as a caveat, please be careful when deep frying. You do NOT want to get spattered with hot oil. It will burn you a lot, it is not a toy.

I just used the easiest prawns I could think of for my first foray: peeled, de-veined, cooked, frozen prawns. Simple! Next time, now that I have the technique down, I might get the real deal prawns. But these were bite-size, spicy, crispy balls of deliciousness!

serves 2

Ingredients

• 300ml oil, for deep frying
• 200g prawns
• Cornflour, for dusting
• 1 tbsp oil for dry frying
• ½ a green pepper, chopped finely
• 2 cloves garlic, diced finely
• 1 tsp ground peppercorns
• 3 spring onions, sliced
• 1/2 a chilli, diced finely
• Salt, to taste

Method

Begin by heating the oil in a wok or non-stick pot, you want it just to the point of smoking, takes about 3-5 minutes. BE CAREFUL.

While you’re waiting for the oil to heat, roll the prawns in the cornflour to lightly coat. I kind of shook them off after so they only had a light covering.

When the oil is at the right point, dump the prawns in SAFELY. I did it in two batches to let everything cook properly. It WILL sizzle so be careful.

Cook the prawns until golden and crispy, it took me 1-2 minutes or so to get them to that point, but my prawns were quite small.

Meanwhile, mix together the oil, garlic, pepper, and 1 diced scallion and stir together to let the flavours really mingle.

Heat the oil mixture in a separate small pan and  fry for a minute or two before adding the, green pepper and rest of the scallions and frying for 1 minute, stirring the whole time.

When the prawns are done, add them to the other pan and and fry for 1 minute, salting near the end.

Serve! I served mine with sesame noodles, but rice would be perfect too.