Stir-fried Prawns and Sweet Pork

[Red Bigot]

Stir-fried Prawns and Sweet Pork (serves 6)

This recipe is from the Christine Manfield book : SPICE (p126)
Andrea made this recently using "lop chong", sweet Chinese pork sausage instead of the red-cooked sweet pork.
There is a lot of preparation, but then the cooking time is short, so a good recipe for a dinner party where you can prepare ahead and have minimum cooking time.

Nonya Spice Paste
12 large dried chillies
1 TBS belacan (Malaysian shrimp paste)
12 red shallots, sliced
2 stalks lemongrass, chopped (or cheat and buy a jar already chopped)
6 fresh kaffir lime leaves, shredded
3 cloves garlic, chopped
75 ml vegetable oil
2 TBS salted soy beans, mashed
3 tsp fish sauce
25 g palm sugar, shaved (or use the soft thai style)
Dry-roast the chillies and belacan, separately, over gentle heat until fragrant. Blend chillies, belacan, shallots, lime leaves, garlic and half the oil to a paste in a food processor. Heat remaining oil in a frying pan and cook paste over moderate heat for a few minutes until it begins to colour and become fragrant. Add remaining ingredients and fry for another minute or two. Spoon into a jar then cover with a a film of oil. Cool. Refrigerate for up to 1 month.

Sweet tamarind dressing
100 ml tamarind liquid ( 1 part pulp to 4 parts water, simmered and strained, or use concentrate diluted as per normal use)
20 ml sugar syrup (equal quantities of castor or brown sugar and water, boiled for 4-5 minutes)
20 g palm sugar
75 ml strained lime juice
25 ml fish sauce
2 tsp Ginger juice (ginger chopped and blended with a little water in a food processor and strained through a fine sieve), or just use finely grated young ginger.
Whisk all ingredients together to make dressing.

Main recipe (serves 6)
30 green king prawns (shelled, leave tail, clean and butterfly)
300 g Chinese sweet pork (or 250 g lop chong), cut into small, thin slices
60 ml vegetable oil
1 tsp sesame oil
6 red shallots, finely sliced
1/4 cup Nonya Spice paste (see above)
1 red capsicum, finely sliced
12 snowpeas, cut in half lengthwise
12 baby bok choy, blanched
1 cup Thai basil leaves (or less to taste)
Heat oils together in a wok and fry shallots for 2 minutes until coloured, then add spice paste and stir over high heat until bubbling.
Toss prawns, pork, capsicum, snowpeas and blanched bok choy with paste.
Add the sweet tamarind dressing and continue to toss over high heat to cook ingredients quickly - all up cooking should only take a few minutes.
Stir in basil, then serve immediately.

Yum! This one is actually a fairly tough call for a red wine, but the 1998 Rufus Stone Heathcote Shiraz had enough fruit to cope Ok, but was mostly drunk before and after eating this dish rather than during, just enjoy the flavours of the food.

[Maximus]

Brian,

Love the sound of the dish. I'd love to try it out (accurate to the recipe), but some of those things (like the shrimp paste) I'd have no idea where to source. Can be frustrating actually.

The recipe seems to be comprised mainly of the pork/prawn combination with paste and dressing, with a small amount of vegetation; the capsicum, snow peas and bok choy. Could more veges be added to this to perhaps make it a bit more nutritious? You also mention it serves six, I presume as a main meal size for six hungry adults? Could it be made into a chow mein of sorts (how will the addition of noodles, or even rice, impact?)?

Cheers,

[Nayan]

Brian,

Love the sound of the dish. I'd love to try it out (accurate to the recipe), but some of those things (like the shrimp paste) I'd have no idea where to source. Can be frustrating actually.

Max,

I did a stint as guest chef at place on the Banks Peninsula back end of last year and had to find some, more specialised, ingredients; which, I agree, is not easy on the South Island. After a lot of hunting around I found these places. Only made it to the third one though:

Big T Supermarket
306 Cashel Street
Christchurch
0-3-365 0168

Oriental Warehouse
317 Cashel Street
Christchurch
0-3-366 4427

Asian Foods Warehouse
300 Manchester Street
Christchurch
0-3-365 4972

Best of luck in your culinary adventures.

[Red Bigot]

Brian,

Love the sound of the dish. I'd love to try it out (accurate to the recipe), but some of those things (like the shrimp paste) I'd have no idea where to source. Can be frustrating actually.

The recipe seems to be comprised mainly of the pork/prawn combination with paste and dressing, with a small amount of vegetation; the capsicum, snow peas and bok choy. Could more veges be added to this to perhaps make it a bit more nutritious? You also mention it serves six, I presume as a main meal size for six hungry adults? Could it be made into a chow mein of sorts (how will the addition of noodles, or even rice, impact?)?

Cheers,

Max, part of a large capsicum, 2 snow peas and 2 baby bok choy plus 2 shallots, 2 chillis, garlic and some basil per person is actually a reasonable amount of vegetables in this dish, I think there is adequate nutrition here and the dish looks nice with this amount of vegetables. You could probably add a few more snow peas and maybe a little more capsicum if you use two small ones, or more if you are inclined to vegetables rather than protein, the sauce can cope.

Certainly serve with rice, we sometimes do, sometimes don't, we aren't big on carbs, noodles may make the dish presentation look "less special".

The size of the serving depends a bit on the size of the prawns you use, but 5 per person plus about 50 g of pork seems a reasonable size serve.

Andrea cut this down for two people, I think we had 6 medium prawns each.

[Maximus]

I did a stint as guest chef at place on the Banks Peninsula back end of last year and had to find some, more specialised, ingredients; which, I agree, is not easy on the South Island. After a lot of hunting around I found these places.

Nayan, you're a champion! Thanks for the invaluable info.

Max, part of a large capsicum, 2 snow peas and 2 baby bok choy plus 2 shallots, 2 chillis, garlic and some basil per person is actually a reasonable amount of vegetables in this dish, I think there is adequate nutrition here and the dish looks nice with this amount of vegetables. You could probably add a few more snow peas and maybe a little more capsicum if you use two small ones, or more if you are inclined to vegetables rather than protein, the sauce can cope.

Brian,

You're right, not 'nutritious' was poor word selection by me. It certainly sounds very hearty (and healthy) but I guess I was looking for some underlying 'vegetation' - all part of my new eat more veges regime. I guess apart from the classic stirfry and dishes that use vegetables as sides, I haven't come across many recipes that incorporate a good amount of vegetable matter and still come off tasting alright (apart from a couple of vegan recipes I know). I'll definitely be making this one thanks to Nayan's helpful input above, and will report back.

Cheers,

[RedVelvet]

i will certainly give this one a go also. It sounds too good to not try it and living in Sydney there is no excuse with regard to difficulty finding ingredients.

Brian,

I would certainly be inclined to put a big young shiraz against this recipe. I find the fruit dominant and big young Shiraz's tend to sit nicely with spicy asian food. The 98 Rufus Stone Heathcote Shiraz is one of my favourites to take when we go out to have Korean BBQ. Just right!