Impress your loved ones this Chinese New Year with a restaurant quality dish that can be easily replicated at home with little effort to prepare. Inspired by the classic Yam Basket, Ann creates a unique seafood recipe where she fries prawns in a batter made of yam paste instead of the usual flour. These Deep Fried Prawns with Yam is as yummy as it sounds, offering a satisfying crunch that gives way to a savory juicy prawn with every bite.
Clean, devein and peel the prawns, leaving the tails on.
Make small slits at the bottom of the body, to about 1/3 the thickness of the prawn. This ensures the prawns do not curl up when they are fried.
In a bowl add the prawns, salt, pepper and sugar. Mix well to season the prawns, and set aside.
Preparing the yam
Boil about 500ml of water.
Peel and slice 200g of the raw yam into chunks, measuring about 10cm by 10cm and about 2cm thick.
Steam the yam chunks for about 15 to 20 minutes, or until they are soft.
In a bowl, add 1 tbsp of boiling water to 30g of the wheat starch and mix it in, knead it until it becomes a dough. This dough acts as a leavening agent for the yam batter.
Put the dough aside for about 5 minutes to go through the leavening process.
In a food processor, put the steamed yam, five spice powder, pepper, sugar, salt, butter.
Tear the wheat dough by hand into small pieces about 2cm by 2cm, add them into the food processor.
Blend the yam until it becomes a smooth paste.
Put the blended yam paste into a bowl and chill it in the freezer for about 15min, this hardens it and makes the pastry easier to manage later.
Shred the remaining 50g of yam into thin, small strips, and place the yam onto a flat plate or dish. It will be used to coat the prawns for added texture later.
After the yam pastry has chilled, remove it from the freezer.
Coat your hands with a bit of the remaining wheat starch, to prevent the yam pastry from sticking to your hands.
Take a small portion of the yam pastry and flatten it into a circle with your hands, approximately ½ cm to 1/3 cm thick.
Take a prawn and wrap it with the yam pastry, keeping the tail exposed.
Then coat each yam-wrapped prawn by rolling it over the shredded yam.
Repeat these steps for the rest of the prawns.
Frying the prawns
In a pot, heat the oil. It should be enough to completely submerge the prawns while frying. Use more oil if required.
Put the prawns into the oil, a few at a time. Do not put all the prawns in at once, as this will lower the temperature of the oil and the prawns may not be crispy.
Cook for 1 - 2 minutes, or until the yam pastry and shredded yam strips turn a golden brown color.
Once golden brown, put the prawns onto a sheet of kitchen towel to drain excess oil.
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