Prawns Ceviche

Recently I managed to catch some private chefs cooking their dishes in a cooking competition organized by Channel 8 named 《食分高下》Simply Exquisite and wanted to put my hand on one prawn dish which won the hearts of the judges and yet it is a simple dish to prepare.

Ceviche is a kind of cold dish that is popular in the coastal regions of the Americas especially Central and South America. It uses different types of seafood like fish and prawns and me being a prawn lover, the choice was clear when I set out to prepare this dish.

The most interesting part of this dish that it doesn't require heat to cook the prawns whereas it uses the acidity of the lemon and lime juice to cook the prawns. But for my case, I pre cooked my prawns in hot boiling water for just a few seconds just to kill of any bacteria and let the acidity of the lemon and lime complete the rest of the cooking. (Unless you are using prawns that are really fresh, I guess to be safe its better to pre cook your prawns in boiling water)

It was a brand new experience for me as I rarely try preparing western food and due to that, the portion that I've prepared was small.

Ingredients:
4 pieces of medium to large prawns (deveined and sliced half)
Lemon Juice (2 lemons)
Lime Juice (15 limes)
Lime peel (skin of the lime)
2 Small Onions (Sliced)
Cucumber (Diced)
Tomatoes (Diced)
Cilantro for garnishing

Directions:
Place the prawns in a flat tray and pour in the lemon and lime juice (make sure that the liquid manage to cover more than half of the prawns
Pour in the lime peel and small onions and make sure they are evenly spread out
Place it for 15 minutes
Flip the prawns to the other side and let it soak for another 15 minutes
Make sure that the prawns are fully cooked inside and outside
Place the prawns and onions with just a small amount of the lime+lime juice (or a few droplets) in a bowl
Add in the diced cucumber and tomatoes
Garnish with cilantro and serve!

Home made prawns ceviche

 

After trying out the ceviche that I've prepared, I realized the lemon taste was stronger and that is probably my lemon juice was more than my lime. Besides that I suggest to use sea prawns rather than grey prawns. I believe that sea prawns are able to bring out the flavor of this dish!

Hope you enjoy and thanks for reading! =)

Creamy Butter Prawns

My first encounter with creamy butter was at Seafood Paradise located at Singapore Flyer a few years ago. The signature dish there is their "Creamy Butter Crab" and it is really really good!! If you never tried it before, you should really give it a try but.... the pricing is on the high side. It can cost you up to $100 for 2 person with dishes like a crab, a vege and another main (chicken, prawns or beef).

After browsing thru a few recipes regarding creamy butter, I decided to give it a try because I find that it is rather similar to the Cereal Prawns that I've cook earlier on.

Ingredients: (serves 2)

12 prawns

2 cloves of garlic (chopped) 

Butter

2 stalks of curry leaves

1 tbsp of sugar

1 chilli padi (cut)

1 cup of evaporated milk (preferbably full cream)

1 tsp of tapoica flour (for thickening of the sauce)

Oil for frying

Seasoning:

Salt

Black pepper

2 tsp Oyster sauce

3/4 tbsp Plain Flour

Directions:

Remove shell and devien prawns

Season it with a pinch of salt and black pepper

Add 2 tsp of oyster sauce

Sprinkle 1 tbsp of plain flour

Mix well and set aside for 10 mins

Heat wok under high heat and pour in oil

Once oil is hot, pour in prawns and fry for a minute until the prawns turn pinkish

Scoop up the prawns and drain off excess oil

Heat up wok under medium fire and put in butter
Put in garlic and stir fry till golden brown
Put in the curry leaves and chilli padi and continue to stir
Add in the prawns and stir fry for a minute
Pour in evaporated milk and let it simmer for a minute

Add in one tbsp of sugar and continue to let it simmer

Mix the tapoica flour with some water and pour it in (according to how thick you want your prawns to be)

Heat off and ready to serve!!

This is no doubt one of the best dish that I've cooked so far!! 2 thumbs up!! There is nothing much that I would change for my recipe but if I am going to cook it again, I will make sure I cook 20 of them!!

Cereal Prawns 麦片虾

Cereal prawns is one of a favorite dish among prawn lovers, this dish is available at most Cze Char stall in Singapore or Malaysia and a plate of it and cost up to $25SGD (maybe around 10 prawns only)!! Yeap, it is not a cheap dish and for me, I only ordered it when there is a big group of us eating or for a specific celebration or when there is someone is the group who loves eating prawns!!

Personally, I think that the dish is overpriced and that is why I decided to give this dish a run for its money! It is the second time I am cooking this dish and the first was a failure and that is why I didn't post it. I shall share with u my learning's and the end of this post.

You will be amaze that the ingredients for this dish is really simple but it is the cooking that requires some skills.

The main ingredients

Ingredients: (Serves 2~3)
12 medium prawns
A handful of curry leaves (around 2 stalks)
3 packets of 3in1 cereal
2 gloves of garlic
1 knob of Butter (40~50gram)
Oil for frying the prawns

Seasoning of prawns:
Salt and black pepper
Tapioca flour

Directions:
Devien the prawns and leaving the shell in-tact
Cut away the front portion of the head of the prawns
Clean the prawns with water
Marinate the prawns and a pinch of salt and black pepper
Coat a light layer of tapioca flour on the prawns
Set aside for 5 to 10 mins

Heat up wok and pour in oil
Deep fry the prawns for roughly 1 min or when you see that the prawns turn pink and crisp
Scoop up the prawns and drain the oil from it

Drain the oil from the fried prawns

Remove the excess oil from the frying of the prawns
Heat up the wok and put in the butter and the garlic
Fry the garlic till light brown and add in the curry leaves
Add in prawns and continue to fry for around 2 to 3 mins until you are able to smell the fragrance of the curry leaves
Turn off heat and pour in the cereal mix and continue to fry until all the prawns are coated with cereals
Dish out and serve!

Tasty!

Overall, my cereal prawns is pretty good but it find that it was rather sweet and that is probably due to the sugar inside the 3in1 cereal packets. So my advice is try to use maybe only 2 packets of the 3in1 and top up more plain cereal or just filter away the creamer and sugar of the 3rd packet of 3in1. And lastly, I will not use tapioca flour to coat my prawns cause it gave the prawns a sticky feeling. I will use corn flour or normal flour on my next try.

I hope you will give this a try cause it is pretty easy and you will feel satisfy knowing that you are able to cook 麦片虾 at home!! And the best thing is, the cost for this dish is less than $10SGD!!

*Note: If you want to add some crisp on your cereal, try pan frying your cereal mix (without oil) before adding it to the prawns.