Recipe: Kung Pao Prawns (宫爆虾球)

I believe most of us have tried Kung Pao Chicken before and love the complex sauce of salty, sweet, sour, and spicy flavours. The origin of this classic dish is from the Sichuan Province of south-western China and typically includes Sichuan peppercorns. Personally, I like the numbing effect of the Sichuan peppercorns and it makes the dish more authentic!! 😊

Today, I am going to cook this dish with a twist, by replacing chicken with prawns. The combination of the prawns and Kung Pao sauce were just so amazing!! Every time I cook a prawn dish, my son will just “patronise” me only eating one or two prawns. But with this dish, he had at least 4 prawns to go with his rice. Now who is the one who must sacrifice and eat less prawns? Me, of course! This dish is so good that your prawns will be gone in no time. So, get woking….

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Serves 4 persons

Ingredients:

12 to 16 big prawns deshelled and deveined

2 tablespoons oil

1-inch piece ginger, peeled and thinly sliced

1 onion, skin removed and quartered

1 small green bell pepper/capsicum, cut into pieces

10 dried red chillies

¼ teaspoon Sichuan peppercorn

2 tablespoons roasted peanuts/cashew nuts

3 stalks of scallions, use the white parts only

Kung Pao Sauce:

1 tablespoons soy sauce

1 tablespoon premium dark soy sauce

1 teaspoon corn starch

2 tablespoons chicken stock/water

½ teaspoon sesame oil

3 dashes white pepper

1 teaspoon Chinese black vinegar

1 tablespoon Shaoxing Wine

1 teaspoon brown sugar

Method:

  1. Mix all the ingredients for the Kung Pao sauce together, then set aside.
  2. Heat up a wok/pan and add the cooking oil.
  3. When the oil is very hot, add the ginger and give it a quick stir-fry.
  4. Add the onions, green peppers, scallions, dried red chilies and the Sichuan peppercorns. Stir-fry till they are aromatic.
  5. Add in the prawns and keep frying.
  6. When the prawns are almost cooked, add the Kung Pao sauce into the wok. Keep stirring until the sauce thickens.
  7. Lastly, add in the roasted peanuts/cashew nuts and mix them into the dish.
  8. Plate and serve immediately with steamed rice.

Notes from Mummy’s Kitchen:

  1. I retained the prawn heads and tails to enhance the taste of the dish. If you do not like them, you may remove them.

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Mummy's Kitchen

Hi! My name is Josephine Go. I blog at BeyondNorm.com in a segment called Mummy’s Kitchen. I love to use fresh and natural ingredients in my cooking to promote healthy eating. Some of my recipes may not be in line with the traditional methods of cooking to the extent that some of the ingredients are different, but hopefully new recipes are being created in my style. I certainly hope that what I do will help guide kitchen first-timers on how to cook their first meal as well as further equip kitchen veterans with new recipes. My loving husband and two wonderful children are my best guinea pigs and critics. They have enjoyed (or endured) the food that has been served to them for all these years. Mind you, I did not know how to cook or ever knew that I could cook till I got married. So there is hope for everyone. If I can cook, you can cook. You will not know how good or talented you are until you put your hand in the plough.

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