Vietnamese Prawn Salad
I am obsessed with Asian flavors and I recently acquired a bottle of fish sauce.
This recipe was inspired by my mother who loves prawns, with or without the shell. She adores shell fish actually and instead of making a curry I wanted to show off a little yesterday and make her something that’s easy to digest and is full of vegetables.
I tried to emulate unique flavors that she’s not used to and even though she wasn’t particularly thrilled about the long brown Asian vermicelli, she did give the dish a nod on flavor. I am happy with that.
This prawn salad is a warm dish and was made in a frying pan. You can also pretty much substitute the vegetables to suit what you have in your fridge, it will be fine.
Did you know: Vermicelli is made from refined flours or rice. It is a very thin noodle and it’s high in carbohydrates.
Ingredients
100 g Brown Rice Vermicelli (I use the Peacock brand from Dischem)
1 tbsp sesame oil
1 tsp olive oil
3 cloves of garlic, diced
Ginger, cut in big rounds; peeled and finely sliced.
2 tbs fish sauce
1/2 cup rice vinegar
1 tbsp maple syrup (you can use sugar/honey/stevia)
2 large red chilies, sliced
2 carrots, sliced
1/2 punnet baby marrow, sliced
1 punnet mushrooms
Handful of fine green beans, whole
1/2 cup coriander
1 1/2 cup of fresh bean sprouts
3 stalks green onion, chopped
1 lime
3 cups of prawns, peeled and de-veined
Method
In a large bowl, soak the vermicelli in cool water and set aside.
Heat 1 tsp olive oil in a very hot pan
Fry ginger, garlic and 1 sliced red chili for about 1 minute.
Add all the vegetables, excluding the mushrooms into the pan and flash fry for 2 minutes.
Lower the heat to medium and add maple syrup, fish sauce, and rice vinegar.
Throw in mushrooms.
Strain vermicelli and using your fingers massage the sesame oil into it.
Pour your vegetables over the vermicelli and cover it.
Using the same pan - don’t add oil - raise the temperature of your stove to medium-high and place the prawns down individually on the hot surface.
Fry for about 2 minutes, turn over and repeat.
Divide your sliced green onion and add one half to the prawns. I usually add the bottom bits of the green onion and save the top for garnish.
When your prawns are pink, shovel them over your vegetables and vermicelli.
Garnish with fresh sprouts, more coriander and leftover green onion.
Slice the remaining red chili over your dish or leave it out if you don’t want it to become too spicy.
Squeeze lime juice over the entire dish before serving.
