A recipe from the encyclopedic ” The Food of Sichuan” by Fuschia Dunlop. A perfect way to celebrate Chinese New Year.
Ingredients
- 250 g peeled raw prawns fresh or frozen and defrosted
- 300 ml cooking oil
- 1 celery stick cut at an angle into diamond shapes
- 10 dried chillies deseeded, cut into 2cm sections
- ½ tsp whole Sichuan peppercorns
- 2 garlic cloves peeled and thinly sliced
- An equivalent amount of ginger peeled and thinly sliced
- 5 spring onion whites cut into 1cm slices
- 75 g fried or roasted cashew nuts
- For the marinade:
- ¼ tsp salt
- 1 tsp Shaoxing rice wine
- 2 tbsp potato starch
- 1 tbsp egg white
- For the sauce:
- 3 tsp caster sugar
- ¼ tsp potato starch
- 1 tsp Shaoxing wine
- 1 tsp light soy sauce
- 2½ tsp Chinkiang black rice vinegar
Servings:
Instructions
- With a sharp knife, make a slit lengthways, through the thickest part. Put in a bowl, add the marinade ingredients and refrigerate, ideally for a few hours. Snip the chillies in half or into 2cm sections and shake out the seeds as far as possible.
- Cut the spring onion whites into 1cm slices. Cut the celery at an angle into diamond shapes. Mix the sauce ingredients with one and a half tablespoons of cold water in a small bowl.
- Heat the oil in a seasoned wok to 150C/300F (hot enough to produce a notable, though not violent,sizzle around a test prawn). Add the prawns, separating them with long cooking chopsticks or tongs, then add the celery.
- When the prawns are half-cooked, remove them and the celery with a slotted spoon and set aside.
- Carefully pour off all but about three tablespoons of the oil from the wok and return to a high flame. Add the chillies and Sichuan pepper and stir-fry briefly until the chillies are fragrant. Add the garlic, ginger and spring onion whites, and stir-fry until fragrant.
- Tip in the prawns and celery and stir-fry until just cooked (test a prawn to make sure). Give the sauce a stir, pour into the wok and stir to thicken and coat the prawns. Finally, stir in the cashew nuts and serve.
Share this Recipe
Powered byWP Ultimate Recipe