Butter prawns: an old favourite that represents all cultures
This dish combines the best of Malay, Chinese, Indian, and western ingredients in terms of taste, aroma, and presentation.
Butter Prawns is a delicious local dish that you can order in almost any restaurant.
It combines the best of Malay, Chinese, Indian, and western ingredients and makes for a knockout dish in terms of taste, aroma, and presentation.
Every bite of the prawns reveals layer upon layer of complex flavours, making its buttery, salty, sweet, spicy, and garlicky mix of flavours an absolute palate-pleaser at any meal.
Other than the main attraction which is prawns, an important ingredient of this dish is curry leaf.
Highly aromatic in nature, curry leaf is widely used in southern Indian cuisine and Malaysian recipes. The exotic scent of these dark green leaves saturates coconut milk-based curries with a rich fragrance and perks up seafood dishes.
Another important ingredient is grated coconut, which adds amazing taste and texture to this recipe.
Ingredients
- 400 g prawns such as tiger prawns
- 1 tablespoon oil
- 3 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
- 3 sprigs curry leaves, use only the leaves
- 1-2 small bird’s eye chilies, pounded, optional
- 1 tablespoon oyster sauce
- 1 tablespoon Chinese cooking wine, rice wine preferred
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- 3 dashes ground black pepper
- 6 tablespoons grated coconut, dry fried until golden brown
Method
- When preparing the prawn, leave the head and shell on but chop off the eyes. Using a scissors, cut the legs off. Slit the shell down the back of the prawns to remove the veins. Pat dry.
- Heat some oil in a skillet, and pan fry the prawns until the shells turn white but the flesh is not completely cooked. Drain and set aside.
- Melt the butter, add the garlic, curry leaves and bird’s eye chilies (if using).
- Stir-fry for one minute or until aromatic.
- Add the prawns, oyster sauce, wine, sugar, black pepper and grated coconut. Cook over high heat for one to two minutes, stirring frequently.
- Dish out and serve immediately.
Note: This recipe was adapted from “The Food of Malaysia: Authentic Recipes from the Crossroads of Asia”.
This recipe can be found in Rasa Malaysia.
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Low Bee Yinn is a food blogger and cookbook author.