When I think about Asian cuisine, one of the first associations, which swam in my head is seafood. And prawns are among them. Asian cuisine is a mix of flavors. They like to combine thigs, which really hard to combine.
The recipe, which Oleg Pashkevich gave me, is one of where incongruous products sing together very good.
The recipe of Cococnut Tempura Prawns.
Ingredients
Method
- Dissolve the dashi powder in the hot water.
- Stir in the soy sauce, rice vinegar and sesame oil.
- Stir in the grated ginger and crushed garlic and divide the sauce between four small bowls.
- Peel the prawns, leaving the last section of shell and the tail on.
- Cut a shallow slit along the back of each prawn and pull out the dark vein.
- Make 5–7 shallow cuts across the underside of each prawn.
- Press each prawn flat on the board with your fingers until it straightens; you may feel small snaps.
- Pat the prawns very dry with paper towels.
- Peel the carrot and cut it into thin rounds, about 2 mm.
- Overlap 4–5 carrot rounds into small fans.
- Pour the oil into the pan to a depth of 4 cm and heat it to 175°C (350°F).
- Put the flour for dusting and the coconut in two shallow dishes.
- Just before frying, whisk the batter flour and cornstarch in a bowl, add the sparkling water and stir briefly with chopsticks; small lumps are fine.
- Holding a prawn by the tail, dust it in flour, dip it in batter and roll it in coconut.
- Lower the prawn into the oil, holding the tail for 5 seconds so it sets straight, then let go.
- Fry 4–5 prawns at a time for 2–3 minutes, until golden and crisp; the flesh turns opaque.
- Lift the prawns onto the rack and let the oil come back to 175°C (350°F) between batches.
- Dust the carrot fans with flour, dip them in batter and fry for 2–3 minutes, until crisp.
- Serve at once with the dipping sauce.
- Prawns:
- Cleanse from the shells the prawns and delete the esophagus.
- Make 5-7 slits and align each prawn to remain flat during cooking.
- Heat the oil in a wok (about three liters)
- Put each prawns in tempura flour and then, holding the tail, dunk in batter, then into the coconut.
- Hold the prawn by the tail, take her, dipping into the oil to keep it straight and not curled.
- Sliced carrot combine as fan, roll in flour, dip in batter and fry (no more than 2-3 minutes).
- Tempura sauce:
- Ginger grate, squeeze garlic.
- Mix mizkan, sesame oil and soy sauce.
- Add dry Hondashi fish broth and stir everything thoroughly.
- Add ginger and garlic, mix well and serve.
What we changed for home
- Deep-frying in 3 litres of oil replaced with 4 cm of oil (about 1 litre) in a wide, heavy pan Flattened prawns lie low, so a shallower layer is enough. Less oil heats faster and is easier to handle; use a thermometer and keep the pan no more than one-third full.
- Tempura batter made from flour, cornstarch and ice-cold sparkling water, or from a supermarket tempura mix The original lists 100 g of 'tempura batter' without saying how to make it.
- Flour for dusting added to the ingredient list The method dips the prawns in 'tempura flour' first, but the list leaves it out.
- Hondashi dissolved in 3 tbsp of hot water Dashi granules don't dissolve in cold soy sauce. Any instant dashi powder works; it is sold in the Asian aisle of large supermarkets.
- 'Mizkan' given as rice vinegar Mizkan is a Japanese brand best known for its rice vinegar.
- Coconut chips replaced with unsweetened desiccated coconut Fine coconut sticks to the batter; sweetened flakes burn before the prawns are cooked.
- Ginger and garlic in the sauce halved, to taste The chef's amounts per plate add up to 40 g of ginger and 20 g of raw garlic for four, very sharp in a small dipping bowl. Add more if you like.
- Five prawns per person as a starter The chef plates six for one; five makes a starter for four from one pack of large prawns.
The dish in the photograph was cooked by the restaurant for this story. Photo: Oleksandr Slyadnyev.
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