Florence Tan's Deep-Fried Sour Prawns

Following my excitement once I received the cookbook
Secret of Nyonya Cooking by Florence Tan 

tonight I made one of her recipes, which is

Deep-Fried Sour Prawns (Shrimps)

Fried Dish, 20-minute preparation

 10-minute cooking

Serves 3-4

Ingredients:

500 grams large prawns (shrimps), remove center part of shell, feelers and legs removed

(I used the ready-to-buy prawns that already cleaned with tail on)

3 tbsp thick tamarind juice, extracted from 100 grams

or 1/2 cup tamarind pulp and 3 tbsp of water

(I used 1 heap tsp of tamarind puree and dissolve it in 3 tbsp of water)

1 1/2 tsp of thick soy sauce (I used sweet soy sauce)

1 tsp of salt

2 tbsp of sugar

 500 ml / 2 cups of cooking oil

Garnish:

1 spring onion (scallion), cut into thin strips of 5-cm length.

1 red chili, cut into thin strips

 (I only used spring onion)

Method:

Marinate the prawns (shrimps) in tamarind juice, soy sauce, salt and sugar for 4 hours in the refrigerator.

 Heat the cooking oil and deep-fry the prawns until cooked. (I shallow fried the prawns).

Garnish with spring onion/scallion and red chili before serving.

 Once I sprinkle the garnish (spring onion), the smell of cooked prawns and that spring onion kind of 'blended' and produced beautiful smell.

This dish is yummy, of course as per the title the prawns has sour taste to it, but for me it is a bit salty, perhaps next time I should reduced the salt to just 1/2 tsp, this could be just for my taste bud.

Chef Florence Tan's note:
Prawns / shrimps can be pan-fried with 60 ml or 1/4 cup of cooking oil if desired.  Fry the prawns/shrimps for 3 minutes, then pour in the marinade and cook until the sauce thickens.
Likewise, Spanish Mackerel can be cooked this way, but do not add the marinade.  Omit sugar in the marinade.

,,, Enjoy ,,,