Wow your dinner guests with these easy salt-baked prawns. Besides prawns, the key ingredients are coarse salt and rice wine. The rice wine adds aroma and depth of flavour to the prawns.
Ingredients
- 8 large prawns (532 g)
- 180 g coarse salt
- 30 ml Chinese rice wine (bai mi jiu)
Steps
In a pan, heat the coarse salt and fry over high heat for 3 mins.
Remove ⅓ of the salt and set aside in a heat-proof dish, leaving the remaining salt in the pan.
Distribute the salt in the pan as evenly as possible.
Place the prawns in a layer over the salt in the pan, arranging them with tails in the centre of the pan.
Pour the rice wine over the prawns.
Add the salt that was removed earlier over the prawns.
Cover the pan and cook the prawns for three and a half minutes. Switch off the heat and let the prawns continue to cook in residual heat for another 45 secs. The prawns’ shells should turn orange and the meat should be opaque when cooked.
Remove the cover and serve in pan.
TIP
Avoid using a non-stick pan for this dish as frying the coarse salt will wreak havoc on the non-stick coating. To minimise damage to your frying pan, stir-fry the salt minimally. After use, wash the pan thoroughly with soap and rinse it well. Dry the pan and apply enough oil to coat the inside of it.
Photo: Hedy Khoo
Text: Straits Times