Steamed Sea Prawns in Chinese Wine

In other parts of the world large sea prawns are called shrimps but strange enough I grew up thinking shrimps are the tiny baby prawns used to make “hae bee” (small tiny dried prawns).

Anyway, whatever name you wish to call them, prawns or shrimps doesn’t make a difference to their taste. As long as they taste good, you can call them anything you wish.

Finally, I am starting to get my cooking bug back after thinking about nothing much except fish and more fish for the whole of last month. In fact, I am beginning to actually like fish. I was very inspired to cook this dish after watching Bobby Chinn of “Eating Asia” in Hong Kong cooking an almost similar dish except his prawns were steamed over some eggy rice. It brought back some lovely memories of my love affair with prawns (shrimps) during my earlier days.

Ingredient

10 large sea prawns (eyes, sharp tail-end and legs trimmed)

1 stalk of spring onions (cut 1 inch length)
1 stalk of coriander leaves (pluck leaves and cut stems into 1 inch length)
3 Tbsp garlic oil (including the garlic)
A dash of light soy sauce
1 small red chili (seeds removed, sliced thinly)
300 ml of fragrant rice wine
A pinch of sea salt

Method

1. Remove the black vein of the prawns, maintain the shells.
2. Place prawns in a large shallow steaming bowl.
3. Garnish with spring onions, coriander leaves, chili, garlic oil, soy sauce and pour in the wine. Add a little sea salt to taste.
4. Steam the prawns in a prepared steamer for 10 minutes and serve immediately.