Finally,
it’s Lunar New Year’s Eve today!!! In Taiwan, reunion dinner on New Year’s Eve
is such an important part of Lunar New Year as all family members need to come
back home having a huge feast together to celebrate the coming new year. At reunion
dinner we usually have various kinds of cuisines cooked with chicken, pork,
beef, whole fish, seafood…(anything I miss here?) As it’s a big day,
home kitchen starts to operate in the early morning and keep busy until everyone
sits on the table at night. Therefore we desperately need some quick and easy
recipes for Lunar New Year feast to have less hassle, and I found Minced
Prawns Lettuce Wraps 生菜蝦鬆 is actually simple to prepare, fast to cook, looks festive, and tastes
so appetizing that every guest would love. This is also a popular restaurant
dish in Taiwan, you would be surprised how easy it is to make at home.
There
are two key ingredients (apart from prawns) to make this dish: You Tiao油條(fried dough stick) and water chestnut荸齊. You Tiao can be bought at Chinese grocery stores but I found crisps is
a great substitute while water chestnut can be replaced by pear or apple as
well. (I prefer apple to have a crisp, sweet taste.) Even you are not familiar
with Asian cooking, try this recipe, you would totally love it.
Adapted
from E.G. Kitchen’s original recipe, I made these minced prawns lettuce wraps with Tyrrells Naked crisps
and royal gala apple. They are more easier to get at UK’s supermarkets and have
similar taste of You Tiao and water chestnut.
Ingredients
-150g
king prawns.
-little
gem lettuce, peel and use kitchen scissors to cut into round shape like a bowl.
–Tyrrells Naked no salt crisps, crushed into very small pieces.
-1/2 royal
gala apple, remove its peel and chop into small cubes.
-2 tbsp
finely chopped spring onions.
-1 tbsp
minced ginger.
-Salt
and white pepper to taste.
-Fried
shallots or fried onions to garnish. (optional.)
To
Prepare Prawns
-Rinse
prawns in cold water and drain on kitchen paper, ensure you remove the excess
water as this step will give your prawns the best possible texture.
-Use a
toothpick or knife to remove the digestive vein.
-Roughly
chop into small pieces.
-Marinate
minced prawns with the following ingredients for 10 minutes before cooking.
Ingredients
to Marinate Prawns
-A pinch
of salt
-A pinch
of white pepper
-1/2 egg
white
-1 tbsp
cornflour if you have, otherwise plain flour.
-1 tbsp
vegetable oil.
Method
-Heat
oil in a pan over medium heat, stir fry marinated minced prawns, when prawns
look 70%-80% opaque (not fully cooked), then remove the prawns to set aside.
-Heat
the same pan over medium heat to fry chopped spring onions and ginger until
fragrant.
-Add
prawns back in, season with salt and white pepper, stir until fully cooked.
-Mix
prawns with crushed crisps and apple cubes, scoop the mixture into an
individual lettuce bowl, garnish with fried shallots or onions.
-Enjoy!
