I haven’t ever really embraced prawns into my cooking life, I am not sure why, because I love them, and every time I eat them it reminds me how healthy, delicious and versatile they are!
So I sat down with the intention to create a salad dish that featured the prawn.cook more prawn. This subsequently took me down memory lane to my most consequential prawn experience. This experience was one that took me back to Vietnam, on a scooter-led street food tour (which at the time I was terrified about) for the reasons being:
a. riding on a scooter in the chaos of Vietnam, driven by a stranger that speaks minimal english
b. eating street food, in questionable cooking environments, and varying “food safety and hygiene practices”
After considering the worst and best case scenario of this situation, I decided that life is far too short to pass up on such a “real” vietnamese food experience, and prayed to god that I wasn’t going to get sick and spend the rest of my holiday in the fetal position.
It was during this excursion, that I met the delightful coconut prawn. They were served on their own, with a peanut dipping sauce on a knee-height plastic table that required some skilful squatting. After an entree of deep fried frog leg, which I politely declined, needless to say I let out a sigh of relief when I saw the familiar prawn on my plate wrapped in a crunchy coconut blanket. It was divine, and I wanted a whole bowl to myself. This is where the inspiration for my coconut crusted prawn salad with red curry dressing was drawn from, and now my wishes have come true, I can now have a whole bowl to myself!
I love asian cuisine, particularly asian-fusion, the abundance of fresh herbs and vegetables, complexity of flavours, colours, the sweet-sour punch your in the face tastes that leave you wanting more. This coconut crusted prawn salad with red curry dressing ticks all my boxes for a fulfilling, healthy and tasty dish.
This salad has a real crunch factor to it, I have incorporated the delicious coconut prawn with a medley of crunch-based vegetables such as red cabbage, bok choy, bean sprouts and green beans. The addition of brown rice pulls the salad together and soaks up the delightful red curry dressing. Topped with coconut chips and fresh coriander, your tastebuds and your tummy will feel satisfied with this healthy asian inspired salad.
A few pointers:
- The prawns cook very quickly, If you accidentally burn or overcook the coconut on the prawns, be sure to change the oil as it tints the oil, and can affect the nice golden colour you are trying to achieve with the prawns.
- Depending on how spicy you like your dressing, feel free to add extra red curry paste, I put 2 tablespoons in mine and it was a mild/medium heat. The dish can look a little less attractive once the dressing has been drizzled over it, so feel free to serve it looking pretty, and let your salad eaters help themselves to the dressing!
- For shallow-frying, I tend to use rice bran oil, peanut oil or olive oil, depending on what I have in the pantry. Peanut oil is fantastic for asian-styled dishes and Pic’s do a great peanut oil you can find at New World supermarkets. These oils have a high smoke point- which means they can be heated to high temperatures without burning, and do not lose their antioxidants and good fats.
- For the dressing:
- 150mls coconut milk
- 2 tablespoons red curry paste (1 if you prefer it less spicy)
- 2 tablespoons lime juice
- 1 teaspoon soy sauce
- 1 teaspoon fish sauce
- 1 teaspoon of organic maple syrup
- For the prawns:
- 16 raw prawns, de-veined
- ½ cup panko breadcrumbs
- ½ cup long thread coconut
- 1 egg
- ½ cup flour
- Himalayan salt & cracked pepper
- For the salad:
- 1 cup of brown rice- I cheated and used Uncle Ben’s 90-second packets!
- 1 small bokchoy bulb washed and thinly sliced
- ½ cup finely sliced red cabbage
- 1 good handful of baby spinach leaves
- 1 small shallot finely sliced
- ½ punnet of washed bean sprouts, cut into halves
- A good handful of raw green beans, washed, ends trimmed and cut into halves
- Handful of washed coriander
- 4 tablespoons of coconut chips
- Start by preparing the dressing, combine all ingredients and shake or whisk well to emulsify, set aside out of the fridge or the coconut will harden.
- Prepare all vegetables by washing, remove the fibrous ends of the beans and cut into halves, and finely slice red cabbage and bok choy. Cut the beansprouts into halves and remove the coriander leaves from the stalk, discard stalk.
- Prepare your coating station for the prawns, set up a shallow bowl with flour, and a good few grinds of Himalayan salt and cracked pepper. Fill the second bowl with ½ cup long coconut thread, and ½ cup panko breadcrumbs and a third small bowl with one whisked egg. Dip your prawns into a shallow bowl of flour to coat, then the egg, followed by a good dousing in the coconut panko mixture, shake to remove excess and place on a plate.
- In a frying pan, pour enough extra virgin olive oil to cover the base of the pan and provide enough coverage to shallow fry. Cook your prawns in manageable batches, for about 1 minute per side or until golden brown and the tails turn orange, watch them carefully as they do tend to cook quickly and it is easy to burn them. As the cook, place them on a paper towel lined plate to absorb any excess oil.
- Prepare each of your plates with the salad ingredients, rice on the base, followed by your fresh ingredients and coconut chips. Drizzle over some of the red curry dressing and place 4 prawns on top of each salad. Drizzle another good measure of dressing over the prawns, top with fresh coriander, season with Himalayan salt & pepper and serve!
Mexico- a vibrant colourful city with mexican cuisine as the heart and soul of its’ culture, social structure and tradition. Mexican cuisine incorporates mesoamerican, european and spanish elements, but is based on age old techniques and cooking methods incorporating the mexican staples, such as corn and chilli peppers, avocado, tomato, pumpkin, and spices such as cocoa and vanilla. 