After the last weeks seafood shopping mishap we were on the hunt for good cheap prawns again. Baby they were there they were cheap and great! (If you live in Sydney $7.40 kg!!!)
I am still upset about the Thai prawn salad, so I just couldn’t go there again. I had a feeling about what I would like to make but…. I wasn’t quite sure.

I came home and I saw the little Indonesian homestyle cookbook that Casey’s sister had brought back from Indonesia for me, I flicked through a few pages and I saw this! Yep that is what I am a makin’! It also earns bonus points because Jo and Miligwimper will be able to use up there large collection of ‘Bomb’s in a jar’ sauces they are about to be overloaded with LOL!

So is this to hot? Is this to spicy? No and No! There is a little heat but life would be boring with out that, and if you like a nice Thai curry then you will love this.

I recommend serving this with plain rice and some raw vegetables, tomato and cucumber. If there is a few people to serve then a gado gado or pecel salad would be perfect. The best drink to compliment this has to be a nice crisp beer. Don’t be scared just try it!

ingredients
450g prawns *
3 TBSP oil
1 stem lemongrass, thickend only, bruised
2 cm galangal, bruised
3 bay leaves (optional)
1/4 tsp of freshly ground pepper
200mls thick coconut milk
salt to taste

Spice Paste
4 chilies ( use the size and heat you are comfortable)
4 shallots
4 cloves of garlic
10 candlenuts or macadamias
1 tsp belacan/terasi (malay/indonesian dried shrimp paste) toasted #
3 TBSP shopped palm sugar or dark brown sugar
80 mls water

If you are using prawns in the shell cut off prawn legs and rinse.
To make the spice paste, coarsely chop the chilies, shallots, garlic and candlenuts place in a blender or food processor with the shrimp paste, palm sugar and water. Blend to a smooth paste.
Heat oil in a wok or a saucepan. Fry til the Spice paste is fragrant and the oil separates. Add the prawns^, lemongrass, galangal, bay leaves, ground black pepper, coconut milk and salt to taste.
Stir fry over medium heat until the prawns are cooked through and the sauce is thick, aprox 15 minutes.

* you can use pre cooked prawns
# this paste does smell, Wrap a hunk in foil and toast under the grill or in a gas burner for a few minutes to toast
^ If you add precooked prawns don’t add them at the beginning, add them towards the end for about 2 minutes, just long enough to warm them up.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 26th, 2005 at 5:23 am and is filed under Recipes. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.