Flower Drum’s twice-cooked king prawns with soy sauce (si yow wong ha)

With this recipe, the key to success lies in the timing.

Serves 6

Prep

15M

Cook

Total

20M

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It’s best to deep-fry the prawns until they’re partially cooked, so the prawn shells take on a distinctive fragrance. The other point to remember is the timing – have all your ingredients ready or premixed. It’s all about split-second cooking so the prawns cook through but remain succulent. Should you decide not to deep-fry the prawns, you can stir-fry them instead. To devein the unshelled prawns, insert a thin skewer where the body joins the head and tease the vein out.

Ingredients

For deep-frying: vegetable oil

12 uncooked prawns, unpeeled, deveined

To serve: finely chopped spring onion

Prawn seasoning

1½ tsp light soy sauce

¾ tsp dark soy sauce

60 ml Shaoxing wine

2 tsp caster sugar, or to taste

Method

Main

1.For prawn seasoning, combine ingredients in a bowl, mix well and set aside.

2.Half-fill a large wok with vegetable oil and heat over high heat until almost smoking (about 240C). Add prawns in batches (be careful, hot oil will spit and bubble up) and deep-fry, turning occasionally, until shells turn red (1-2 minutes). Remove with a slotted spoon and drain on paper towels.

3.Return wok to medium-high heat with 1 tbsp frying oil, add prawns and prawn seasoning and stir-fry for 30 seconds to combine, then serve hot topped with spring onion.