#ewew cooks Prawns with Own-Made Fresh Chilli Paste

One day, my neighbour sent me a photo through whatsapp of the prawn dish she made with her own blended chilli paste (the same neighbour who taught me to make a big batch of chilli paste and freeze it).  It looked delicious enough to make me want to replicate her dish.

So I asked her what went into her dish.  She told me she added a bit of taucu (a paste made from preserved fermented yellow soybeans) and blended it with her chilli paste.  That sounds easy enough, I thought, so I set out to cook this prawn dish with my own-made chilli paste.

Ingredients:

20 large prawns, deshelled & deveined 

1 onion, peeled & finely chopped

3 cloves garlic, peeled & minced

3 stalks spring onions

6 tbsp chilli paste

1 tbsp taucu (or salted soybean), mashed

6 tbsp water

Oil for sauteeing

A drizzle of light soy for colour

Preparation:

Deshell and devein the large prawns (by making a slit along the back of the prawn) but leave the tails intact. Finely chop the peeled onion and garlic cloves.  Cut spring onions into 2-inch lengths and finely chop some of it for use as a garnish later.

Method:

Saute finely chopped onion in 2 - 3 tbsp of oil until soft and translucent before adding the chopped garlic.  Fry the aromatics until fragrant.

Add in the blended chilli paste (you can follow my recipe or use your own version) and another 2 - 3 tbsp of oil and fry over low heat until aromatic (chilli pastes or sambals are unfortunately very good absorbers of oil).    You will be able to smell the fragrance of the chilli paste when it's ready or (as they say) tumis sampai pecah minyak (saute until the oil separates) but it'll take at least a good 10 mins before that happens (patience is key when you want a well-cooked paste).  It's quite shocking to see the amount of oil used for cooking sambal outside...but since this is home cooking, use less oil lah when we can (even though that would mean we may not be able to see the oil separating from the paste).

When you feel the chilli paste is almost there (by the smell and the darkened colour of it), add in the taucu. You can choose to buy the soybeans whole or in paste/minced form.  I asked my dry goods seller which one tastes better and he says the whole soybeans is more fragrant.  Ok, I'll take his word for it (+ he has never steered me wrong before...heheh!).  After all, if I need it minced or in paste form, I can just chop it up with a knife.

Once the paste has come together, it's time to put in the prawns.  As you can see, I left the tails intact (a much prettier presentation) but you can certainly choose to deshell everything for easier eating.

Flip and stir the prawns around until they turn pink and opaque and are cooked through.  At this point, I poured in about 3 - 4 tbsp of water just to help with the cooking of the prawns and to create a little sauce.  I also drizzled in a bit of light soy for colour and taste.

When the prawns are about done, add in the spring onions and toss them quickly into the prawns.  It should take barely a minute to soften.  If the chilli paste gets a little dry, add in a bit more water (another 2 - 3 tbsp) just before you plate up.

Finished with a sprinkle of chopped spring onions (just because I had extras), this prawn dish with own-made fresh chilli paste is rather tasty with firm, fresh prawns that have a very slight hint of heat from the chilli paste and light saltiness from the taucu. ^o^

Having made this successfully, I ended making this dish again for our hoi nin lunch on the second day of the Lunar New Year when my sister-in-law asked me to make a dish with the balance large tiger prawns she bought (and it so happens I had some frozen chilli paste in my freezer).

Once you have a made/stored chilli paste ready, it's pretty easy to whip up any dish that requires it to be cooked with a chilli paste.  Because I used only fresh red chillies (and not many at that), it isn't spicy at all. Even children can handle the heat level of this dish but feel free to use more chillies (or bird's eye chillies) if you like it spicier.

The taucu gives the prawns its salty base but I used only 1 tbsp, so the saltiness is quite muted.  If you like your food more savoury, you can bump that up to 2 tbsp...your call! ;)

My neighbour's version had additional glass noodles in the mix.  I thought it was an odd pairing at first but still followed suit but had to abandon the idea quickly when my glass noodles (which I blanched in hot water earlier and left sitting on a dish thinking it was meant to be stir-fried with the prawns) clumped together and became a mushy blob.  I later learned from my neighbour that she steamed hers together with the prawns and chilli paste (and from choiyen.com also when she made something similar too with her steamed prawns with glass noodles).  Ah, now I know how to treat the glass noodles if I wish to include it.

Anyway, thanks to my neighbour who inspired this dish and showed me that we can freeze chilli pastes which I found so useful that I do that now regularly.  Imagine the convenience at your disposal when you can just reach out into your freezer and grab a tub of freshly blended chilli paste to cook any dish you want.  That's pretty awesome and convenient, don't your think? ^.^