I can always be tempted by salt and pepper dishes from our local Chinese restaurant and when the Bear returned home clutching raw king prawns and a bottle of rose it seemed that this would be the night to make salt and pepper prawns. I didn’t want to do a deep fried dish (lovely though that is) so I decided on a more or less dry fried way of cooking so I could at least say I was giving a nod towards healthy eating.
The rose went into the fridge to chill – that lovely pink fruitiness goes so well with spicy seafood – and I started on the spice coating.
All you need is salt, black peppercorns and Chinese five spice powder. Well, actually you should use Sichuan pepper as well, but I didn’t have any.
Actually, I didn’t have ordinary salt, either, which meant I had to crush some….
So, about 2 tablespoons of salt are put into a dry frying pan and toasted…. you will see the salt change colour slightly
In the meantime, crush a teaspoon or so of black pepper corns
And then pour in a teaspoon of Chinese 5 Spice powder and stir it well. If you had the pink Sichuan peppercorns then add a teaspoon of them and grind them
Once everything is smooth and fine, add the spice mix to the salt and toast. Again you will see a colour change
You can see it smoking in the pan… a word of warning – aromatic though that is, it doesn’t half make you cough if you breathe it in
Leave it to cool and then remove it from the pan and get your prawns out. A spring onion, finely chopped and a squeeze of lemon juice will set them off beautifully.
You can see they are grey and raw…
put the minimum of oil in and get it hot and then throw them in
Thirty or so seconds later they are pink and opaque.
Scatter over some of the salt and spice mix
………………….then serve with a scattering of spring onions and a squirt of lemon juice
And the chilled rose is just perfect along side it.
The Bear, who has always been hesitant about prawns and only bought them to please me… ate his portion with gusto and decided he liked prawns after all. I’m not sure that is such a great result.. on the one hand, it is lovely that we both like prawns but on the other… well, I have had to share!
If you can tell me how to cook ribs like this and get them dry (and not shrivelled) like proper Chinese Ribs I’ll be cooking again!
But the prawns look lush!!
They sound and look absolutely delicious. Even though I do not eat me I do eat fish, so will definitely try these 🙂
They were gorgeous! And, best of all, as quick and easy as anything. So juicy and tasty!
Anybody who knows me will know that I am not a fan of prawns – but I am trying very hard to get to like them.
These two recipes are certainly good introductions and I am looking forward to my next “training” session.
lordy lordy!!
I just made the above minus prawns, but with frying steak that had just gone past it’s best before date. All I can say is YUM!!
YUM, YUM, YUM actually.
I added garlic to mine and just fried it off with the spring onions for a minute of so before putting over the steak (or whatever you choose to use). It really was yummy. I’d even suggest that you maybe add some chopped chillies just to add a little more ‘zing’.
I’m seriously impressed with it and may even be able to stop getting takeaways now as I can just do the salt and pepper thing to anything!!
Thanks Wendall (again). I didn’t even procrastinate about this one either.
Good work, Nikki!
It is the seasoning mix that is the important thing – once you have that balance of flavours right you can add it to anything… adding extra oomph with chillies if it is you eating it… little ones might not like it too hot.
Prawns, tofu, chicken, steak, squid…. whatever you have… just salt and pepper it.
Oh and the takeawy normally deep fry everything… by doing it this way you have turned it into a veritable health dish!
i tried th above came out really nice just a lil bit too salty know for next time xxx
Great Krissy! You tweak that mix till you get it right for you… I love salt so that’s good for me. You make it how you like it!