Stir-fry cucumber with prawns

Some days I just love a light lunch. No heavy meaty dishes, just light and easy. One of the dishes that comes to mind is my mom’s stir-fry prawns with fresh cucumbers. It’s an absolutely must-have refreshing dish!

Ingredients

25 fresh sea prawns (shell removed and slightly butterflied, dirt removed)

• 1 tsp sugar
• 1 tsp cornflour

2 medium size cucumbers

2 small pieces of fresh wood fungus

5 fresh baby corns

1 Tbsp fermented black beans (soaked, drained and minced)

2 clove garlic (minced)

1 Tbsp oyster sauce (optional)

sea salt to taste

Preparation

1. Season prawns with sugar and cornflour for 2 hours in the fridge.
2. Heat a frying pan and semi-cook the prawns making sure they are springy and without liquid
3. Cut off a little at both ends. Rub the ends of the cucumber with the end that is cut off. This is apparently done to remove bitterness from cucumber is there is any. Peel off the cucumber skin alternately. Cut the cucumber into half and scoop out all the seeds. then slice cucumber at a 3/4 of a cm slant. (refer to the photo)
4. Wash wood fungus under running water and remove the hard portion and tear the fungus into smaller bite-size pieces.
5. Rinse baby corns and slice them slanted as well.

Method

1. Drizzle olive oil into a frying pan. Saute the garlic and black beans till fragrant.
2. Add cucumbers,wood fungus and baby corns to the garlic black bean paste, in goes the oyster sauce. Fry for 2 minutes before adding in the semi-cooked prawns. Cook for another 2 – 3 minutes, adding a little water thickened with 1/2 tsp cornflour if some light gravy is preferred.
3. Sea salt to taste.