thebigfatnoodle

Friday is for fish (and speedy cooking): sweet and sour prawns in under 30 minutes

Posted by thebigfatnoodle on September 23, 2011 · 6 Comments 

Friday is for fish (and speedy cooking): sweet and sour prawns in under 20 minutes

Sweet and sour prawns in under 20 minutes

Whenever my friends and I talk about food, nothing divides the group more than when we discuss what goes into a ‘sweet and sour’. I’m firmly in the anti-pineapple camp but that’s because my husband makes a wicked pineapple dipping sauce which we have with our sweet and sour, not in it!

Tonight, we decided to have sweet and sour prawns with rice, and as we’re going away this weekend, this dish is a great way of using up any odd bits of vegetable still left in the fridge.

My only gripe is that it’s actually very difficult to get decent prawns here without paying a ridiculously exorbitant amount of money. What the supermarkets call prawns are really small shrimp. I can’t really say that the prawns we bought today were particularly sweet either. Good thing I was cooking them with a sweet and sour sauce then. Unfortunately buying prawns in the UK is always a bit hit and miss… can’t complain, mustn’t grumble though…

Best thing about making this dish? The fact that it’s another one of my 30 minute kitchen-to-table recipes… in fact if you work fast, you can actually make this in about 20 minutes tops!

I’ll be back on Sunday with what I hope will be a lovely sweet treat so till then, have a brilliant weekend!

So small they really shouldn't be called prawns at all

Sweet & sour prawns (feeds 2-3)

200 grams fresh prawns, peeled, de-veined and sliced into it halfway along its length

1 cup, french beans, topped, tailed and cut into half

1 carrot, peeled and sliced

3 cherry tomatoes, quartered

½ red pepper, cut into squares or strips

½ orange pepper, cut into squares or strips

1 red onion, peeled and cut into quarters

1 thumb sized piece of ginger, peeled and pounded/minced

2 cloves of garlic, peeled and pounded/minced

1 red chilli, sliced (de-seeded if you don’t want to make your dish spicy)

The same sauce works a treat with chicken or pork too

Sweet & sour sauce

2 tablespoons soy sauce

1 tablespoon sweet soy

2 tablespoons Chinese rice vinegar (you can use any vinegar eg red wine vinegar/cider vinegar, white/malt vinegar etc)

1 tablespoon tomato puree

½ – 1 freshly squeezed lemon

2 tablespoons shaoxing rice wine

1 teaspoon sugar

150 ml chicken stock

1 heaped tablespoon cornflour (mixed with 3 tablespoons cold water in a small bowl)

1 tablespoon vegetable oil

1 spring onion, sliced thinly

Pineapple garnish

In a mortar and pestle, pound ½ cup of fresh pineapple chunks with a pinch of salt, a small hot chilli, 2 teaspoons of fish sauce, 2 teaspoons of sugar and 1 teaspoon of chinese rice vinegar (or whatever vinegar you have).

Get your wok nice and hot!

In a wok or deep fry pan, heat your vegetable oil and start frying your onions, turning them frequently so they don’t brown too quickly.

Fry the onions for about a min before adding the carrots and minced garlic and ginger.

Fry this for another minute before adding the rest of your vegetables. Fry for another minute.

Add your prawns, give it a quick toss and then pour your sauce.

Fry everything for about 3 minutes, during which time your prawns will have curled up and turned pink.

Last of all, pour in your cornflour mixture and keep stirring until your sauce thickens and becomes glossy.

Serve it with plain boiled rice garnished with some spring onions.

My 30 minute quick and easy, Friday is for fish dish 🙂 Sweet and sour prawns

Lots of love

thebigfatnoodle