Vietnamese prawns

A recipe from cooking-ez.com

For 4 people, you will need:

• 1 400 g prawns
• 2 1 sprig thyme
• 3 1 shallot
• 4 1 teaspoon ginger
• 5 2 tablespoons fresh coriander (cilantro)
• 6 10 g red chilli
• 7 2 cloves garlic
• 8 2 tablespoons soy sauce
• 9 2 tablespoons water
• 10 2 tablespoons Vietnamese fish sauce (nuoc mam)
• 11 1 lime
• 12 3 tablespoons sesame oil
• 13 pepper
• Total weight: 735 grams

Times:

Preparation	Cooking	Start to finish
44 min.	10 min.	54 min.

Step by step recipe

1	Shell 400 g prawns (for this recipe it doesn't much matter whether they're cooked or raw). Remove the dark "thread" (the gut) from each prawn as this can give a bitter taste. To do this, split the prawn along its back...
2	...then gently pull out the gut and discard it.
3	Prepare all the prawns like this.
4	Rinse 1 sprig thyme, chop 1 shallot, chop 1 teaspoon ginger into small pieces and chop 2 tablespoons fresh coriander (cilantro) .
5	Remove and discard the seeds from the chilli, then chop finely. Peel 2 cloves garlic and chop very finely.
6	Prepare the sauce by combining in a bowl: 2 tablespoons soy sauce, 2 tablespoons water, 2 tablespoons Vietnamese fish sauce (nuoc mam) and the juice of 1 lime. Add the chopped garlic and chilli and a little pepper.
7	Heat 3 tablespoons sesame oil in a frying pan (or, ideally, a wok) on high heat. When good and hot, tip in the shallots, then the prawns and sauter (fry while tossing gently) until lightly caramelized (3 or 4 minutes).
8	Add the thyme, ginger and coriander. Mix well and cook for 1 minute.
9	Pour in the sauce and leave the liquid to reduce by about half.
10	Discard the sprig of thyme and serve without delay on a bed of white rice, for example. This dish looks attractive served in small individual bowls.

Remarks

Try replacing the coriander with lemon balm if you can, which gives an even more subtle flavour.

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