Tuesday, June 12, 2012

Singaporean Cereal Prawns

There's was suddenly a thing for Singaporean cuisine.  You'll see Singaporean restaurants sprouting here and there.  One of their famous dish is the Cereal Prawns.  The sweetness of the Nestum Cereal Drink (Nesvita), the saltiness of the salted egg, the delicious aroma and taste of the roasted curry leaves on the prawns are surprisingly a perfect blend.
 
It was my first time to try curry leaves and wow they taste good.  I was chowing down the roasted curry leaves like peanuts =) FYI, curry leaves are not at all the same as the curry powder that we use to make chicken/beef curry.  These are leaves from the curry tree.  They look like bay leaves and are available fresh and dried.  (Found curry leaves in the fresh herb section of Rustan's).



We had a lot of fresh frozen tiger prawns and Nestum from Zamboanga.  So I guess I was just lucky, can't find Nestum here in Manila.

Found a lot of versions for this recipe so I combined 3 different recipes and made my own version

Here it is

Ingredients:
1/2 K prawns
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp white pepper
1 egg lightly whisked
2 Tbsp flour
2 Tbsp corn flour
1 Tbsp milk powder
2 Tbsp butter
2 salted egg yolks, mashed
3 red chilies, sliced thinly
50g curry leaves
50 g Nestum Cereal or Nesvita

1. Peel the body of the prawns, butterfly and devein, leaving the heads and tails.  Season prawns with salt and pepper.  
2. In a bowl, combine flours and milk powder, set aside.  In another bowl, lightly whisk the egg.  
3. Coat prawns with egg then dredge it in the milk and flour mixture.  Pan fry then set aside when cooked.
4. Melt butter in a wok.  Add the mashed egg yolks.  Saute for a 30 seconds.
5. Add curry leaves, chilies and saute until you can smell the aroma of the curry leaves.
6. Add the Nestum, saute and mix very well until Nestum changes its color and has a crunchy texture.  Make sure not to burn it as they burn really fast.
7.  Toss back the prawns in and combine well with the cereal.  Remove from heat and serve while it's hot.

Enjoy



Monday, June 11, 2012

Chicken & Mushroom Risotto and Seafood Risotto

Risotto, one of my favorites.  Takes a lot of effort to cook ('cause you have to keep on stirring it) but definitely worth it.
Made these few months back.

                                          Chicken and Portobello Mushroom Risotto
  Who doesn't love portobello mushrooms?  This is an all time favorite at home =)

                                                             Creamy Seafood Risotto
I usually don't add cream when cooking risotto because stirring the risotto often produces a creamy texture already but by adding cream to this seafood risotto made it perfect.