Asam prawn skewers with stir fried jicama, cucumber, and mushroom

A nice Malay-style snack with a side of Nyonya-style stir fried vegetables. If you have a grill, use that to cook the prawns. But if not, a very hot pan does the job too!

Ingredients

Asam Paste

30g galangal
50g ginger
30g turmeric
30g ginger torch flower
40g garlic
180g red onion
100g red chilli
10g dried chilli
20g lemongrass
10g belacan (fermented shrimp paste)
2 kaffir lime leave
300g water
80g olive oil
40g fish sauce

Prawn Skewers

160g prawns or 10 large prawns
1/4tsp salt
60g Asam paste (from recipe above)
1/4 tsp coriander seed powder

Vegetables

30g shiitake (slices)
60g jicama (cut into strips)
60g cucumber (cut into strips)
30g onion (diced)
10g garlic (diced)
15g olive oil
10g soy sauce
1/8 tsp salt
1/4 tsp five spice

Needed kitchenware

Knife
Bowls (big and small)
Pan
Skewers (if wooden, soak in water for about 5 minutes before using to avoid burning)
Chopping board
Plates
Blender

Instructions

Asam Paste:

Place all ingredients for asam paste into a blender and blend until very fine.

You can chop up the vegetables into smaller chunks if you think your blender is not able to blend up the ingredients. Then set aside the asam paste.

Prawns:

Marinate prawns in a mixture of salt, asam paste and coriander seed powder for minimum 20 minutes.

Use skewers to hold 2-3 prawns per skewer

Place 2 tbsp of oil in a pan and set on high heat until smoking hot. Place prawns in to cook for 30 seconds per side. Set aside once cooked.

Vegetables:

Place 15g of oil in a pan and heat up gently on medium heat

10.

Add in the shiitake mushrooms and cook for a minute

11.

Then add in the onions, garlic, cucumber, and jicama in and stir fry until the jicama and cucumber has soften

12.

Once softened, add in the salt, five spice, and soy sauce and taste. Serve hot with the skewers.

Tip

In order to get great flavour, make sure pan is really hot before searing the prawns.

Cost-saving tips

Abbi

Head Chef