Lemongrass and Chilli Prawn Salad

What a wet and wild weekend it was here in Sydney! Friday night had me conjuring up notions of comfort food like delicious casseroles and soups and pasta, though mind power won over and I settled on making a very healthy prawn salad, with lemongrass and loads of chilli to give it a warm boost for the cold evening ahead.

 My Lemongrass and Chilli Prawn Salad

How lucky are we in Australia and New Zealand to have an incredible supply of seafood? We've got Sydney Fresh Seafoods here in Potts Point and the guys there know their stuff, and are pretty "house proud" when it comes to their display too. It takes them around three hours every morning to build the ice display and they have to keep it topped up during the day. They have a great seasonal variety and everything is so fresh, and if you're hungry they'll cook you up your choice of fillet. Friday's is the busy day for fish and chips here - I wish everyone had access to this place!

And so to prawns ... there a number of varieties available here in Aus and I like banana prawns. I find that sometimes the tiger prawns especially can be a bit strong flavour for me, so when I make a solo prawn dish, I'll choose the banana prawn. Here's a great site that gives you more detail on Aussie prawns (well, Queensland specifically) - interesting to know that the "King Prawn" isn't named that for it's size!

Something worth mentioning is that the cost of this meal was around $10 per head. The prawns were $22kg, so I got around 600gms which is plenty for two people.

The key to this recipe is getting all your ingredients ready in advance because the cooking only takes a couple of minutes. That means have the table set in advance, and make sure everyone's finished their TV shows or phone conversations because when you start cooking it's ready to serve in a matter of minutes and the prawns are best served straight from the pan.

I made my spice paste from scratch, I prefer the flavour as I can control what I want to stand out in any particular dish - in this case lemongrass and chilli. But you can always purchase a paste if you're pressed for time, or can't find any fresh ingredients. But the world being the way it is now you can pretty much get any nation's products either at your local supermarket or green grocer - and Thai ingredients are really easy to come by. FYI, my husband's mum grows most of these ingredients and she says they grow like weeds in the NZ climate - especially the lemongrass. Apart from the green mango which I used in the salad itself, I haven't used too many hard to find ingredients, so I hope you can make this fresh.

Here's the blow-by-blow with pics ... Take your selected herbs (aromats), finely chop these and then and grind them into a paste. I used a pestle and mortar as my blender is packed away - it takes a bit of work but it smells great. You just have to take a break and a sip of wine to give your arm a rest ;-)

Mixing the Lemongrass and Chilli Paste

If you're using a pestle and mortar it can be quite useful to add a teaspoon of raw sugar to give a bit of friction at the start and make the paste come together easier. You don't want to add salt as you'll be adding fish sauce later and you'll end up with a dish that's just too salty. 

Finished Lemongrass and Chilli Paste

The finished paste should be smooth and should be well, a paste! You'll end up with about 1/4 cup or so of paste.

Once you've got your paste made you get on to shelling your prawns. Messy as it is, I enjoy this job! For this recipe you need to keep all the shells, heads and all, so don't throw them away. Peeling is easy, twist the head, peel off the legs and the main shell will come off. Then de-vein them, last thing you want is poo in your salad!

 Keep the prawn shells

Wash, dry and slice all your green vegetables and put these aside in a bowl ready to dress. After this, you can prepare your rice noodles, I used rice vermicelli. All you have to do is put the noodles in a bowl and cover with hot water and leave them - no cooking required at all.

Slide green mango, cucumber and spring onions

On to the fun part, cooking the prawns. Set a wok onto a high heat and add plenty of vegetable oil. Add the prawn shells and cook until the heads turn orange and the oil is fragrant. Tip the wok on it's side to drain the shells, and remove the shells leaving the prawn infused oil in the wok.

With this recipe if you're left with too much oil, drain this through a sieve lined with a paper towel and you have delicious prawn infused oil to add to other meals (not for cooking with though, just for adding to the final dish, like pan fried snapper or scallops).

Infuse the oil with the prawn shells

Here's what you're left with - a messy pan - yes and really rich and flavourful prawn oil, ready for you to add the lemongrass and chilli paste.

Prawn infused oil

Cooking the paste will splutter a bit, that's why a wok is great, it catches most of what you'd have to wipe up. Make sure you don't have the wok too high or the paste will burn, specifically the garlic which tends to cook quicker than the other ingredients. And if you've added any sugar to the paste when grinding it, this may also caramelise the paste too. It'll smell amazing at this point, so celebrate your great achievement and grab another glass of wine ;-)

You're now ready to cook your prawns to check that you have all of your other steps completed, that means sauce for the prawns, dressing for the salad, noodles ready, table set, serving platters out and people ready to eat.

Cooked lemongrass and chilli paste

Add the prawns to the paste and cook for a few minutes until just starting to cook through. Add the coriander root and stalks, and kaffir line and stir through along with the sauce ingredients.

 

Looking good!

Once you've added the sauce ingredients to the pan everything will come together quickly and the prawns will only take another minute to cook through. Taste the sauce and make sure it's got the right balance of sweet, salty and sour, adding any final touches. At this point you can add your rice noodles. I snipped mine with a pair of scissors into small pieces otherwise they tend to end up as one big clump in the pan. This is really an optional ingredient, but when you've got a hungry husband they really are the trick. This isn't a great pic, sorry, rushing a bit - or was it the wine?

Finished prawns

Mix all the salad greens together and pour over the dressing and serve up on a big platter or individual plates.

Thai style salad

Lemongrass and chilli prawns - finished!

Lemongrass and chilli prawns, and Thai style salad ready to eat

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Lemongrass and Chilli Prawn Salad

Prawns

600gms fresh (green) prawns, shells removed (retain shells)
80ml vegetable oil
1 stalk lemongrass, white root only, finely chopped
2-3 red chillies, long variety, finely chopped

2.5cm piece fresh ginger, finely chopped
2 large cloves garlic, finely chopped
1/4 cup coriander root and stalks, finely chopped
4 kaffir lime leaves, very finely julienned
2-3 tsp fish sauce
juice of 1lime
1 tbsp palm sugar (or raw sugar)
1 cup cooked vermicelli rice noodles, drained (optional)

(If using vermicelli rice noodles, add to a bowl and pour boiling water over. Leave to sit for 5 minutes and then drain.)

Salad

1 green mango, peeled and flesh fine julienned
2 small Lebanese cucumbers, seeds removed and finely sliced
2-4 spring onions, finely sliced 
12 cherry tomatoes, halved
1/2 cup Thai basil leaves, picked
1/2 cup coriander leaves, roughly chopped
2-3 tsp fish sauce
juice of 1lime
1 tbsp palm sugar (or raw sugar)
1/4 roasted salted peanuts, roughly chopped, to serve

Serves 2


Prawns: Mix lemongrass, chilli, ginger and garlic to a fine paste. Shell and de-vein the prawns, retaining the prawn shells and heads. Add oil to a wok and bring to a high heat adding prawn shells and heads and cooking for 3-5 minutes until oil is fragrant. Remove wok from the heat and remove prawn shells and heads, leaving remaining oil in the wok.

Add the paste and cook on a medium heat for 3-5 minutes until cooked through and fragrant. Add prawns to the wok with the paste and cook, stirring continuously for 1-2 minutes. Add coriander root and kaffir lime leaves and stir through. Add fish sauce, lime juice and sugar and stir through until prawns are almost cooked. Add vermicelli rice noodles and stir through until just heated, taking care not to over cook the prawns.

Salad: Add green mango, cucumber, spring onions, tomatoes, salad leaves, Thai basic and coriander leaves to a bowl. Mix together fish sauce, lime juice and sugar until sugar is dissolved. Pour over salad leaves and mix through.

To serve: Serve salad and prawns either on individual platters or add salad to a plate and top with hot prawns and sprinkle with peanuts. Serve with a chilled wine such as a Riesling or nice cold beer.


Bon Appetite!