Chinese New Year Recipes Part 3 - Simple Garlic Steamed Prawns 蒜茸蒸中 蝦

We are progressively getting stuffed to the brim with food! For dinner tonight one of the highlights was actually a very easy dish of steamed prawns drizzled in aromatic garlic oil, spring onions and XO sauce. Mom taught me this years ago but I've added my own twists since..

Dad bought some gorgeous, large Australian prawns from the wet market so i decided to keep the prearation simple to bring out the prawns' flavour.

Garlic Steamed Prawns 蒜茸蒸中蝦
serves 3-4

Ingredients
Prawns, large (roughly 15 pcs) 600g incl shell
Garlic, grated or finely chopped 6pcs
Spring onions, finely chopped 2-3 stalks
Corn starch 1 tsp
Salt 1/2 tsp
Oil 3 Tbsp
XO Sauce 1 tsp

Directions
1. Wash and de-vein prawns. You can choose to keep the heads or remove them like i did (great for making seafood stock!).

2. You can lay out the prawns on a dish anyway you like, but in my case i like to do them "scorpion" style not just because i think it looks more impressive, but for practical reasons. This way after the prawns are cooked the shape holds and keeps seasoning in place (see photos and you'll know why!). Here's how - lay prawn on cutting board sideways, curled and gently slice prawn into half, leaving the top and tail ends connected. Flip tail end over, carefully pull through the hole in the centre and voila! Lay neatly on dish.

3. Lightly sprinkle corn starch over prawns and spread out evenly. Set aside.

4. In a lightly heated pan, add oil and saute garlic until very mildly golden brown. Note that if you grated the garlic this process happens much sooner and you need to keep stirring quickly to avoid burning the garlic. Add in salt, stir in XO Sauce and remove from heat.

5. Sprinkle spring onions over prawns, then evenly spoon hot garlic oil mixture over prawns. I love the sizzling sound when the oil hits the spring onions!

6. Prepare for steaming! In a wok, add hot water and bring to a bubbly boil. Even better if you have a steamer but I do it the old-fashioned way. Place dish on steaming rack and steam on medium heat for 5-7 minutes depending on the thickness of your dish. Once done, carefully lift lid and make sure no water droplets fall into the dish.

7. Serve immediately, and if you like, just a very small dash of soy sauce on top.

This is extremely easy, quick and minimal preparation time! You can actually add much more oil to fry the garlic, then drain off the excess oil through a fine mesh and keep it covered for future use! Think vegetable stir-fry or even over steamed fish!

Eat up!

Official Photographer - Dad (very dedicated!!)
Sous Chef - Jack