Prawn & Asparagus With Spicy Sauce

Photo: Emily

Ingredients

400 grams raw prawns, shelled& deveined

2 bunchs asparagus, cut lengthwise into 3 parts

3 shallots, thinly sliced

3 teaspoons garlic cloves (1 ½ garlic paste)

1 teaspoon cm thick ginger (¼ ginger paste)

3 kaffir leaves (lime leaves)

1 1/2 teaspoons crushed fresh chillies

1 teaspoon fish sauce

1/2 Juice from lime

Brown sugar to taste

Preparation

Blanched asparagus with a little salt. Set aside.

Pound together ginger & garlic with a little salt to form a paste. Skip this step if you used ginger & garlic paste from the jar.

Heat wok with 2 tbps of oil on medium flame.

Once the oil is heated, add shallots and saute until golden brown.

Add ginger, garlic paste and kaffir leaves and saute until aromatic.

Turn down the flame to low, stir in chilli paste, fish sauce into the wok mixture to combine. Cook on lowest possible flame for 1 minute or until the oil separates from the sauce. (Please be careful of the splattering oil as you add in the chilli paste & fish sauce).

Stir in prawns to coat with the mixture.

Once the prawns are cooked, toss in asparagus to combine. At the stage, taste the sauce. Since fish sauce is added, I don’t think salt is required. However, I add some brown sugar to mellow down the spiciness of the dish.

Before serving, squeeze some lime juice over the dish. Best served with rice