Salt & Pepper Prawns

My father can spot cheap seafood from about 50 miles away. Asking him what he wanted for dinner that night, i made the (error?) of mentioning that i might cook something with prawns. Immediately he lit up, excitedly telling me about the sale on prawns down at the local supermarket.

Well, right he was, so i grabbed 20 of the things and set about making salt and pepper prawns. This dish, like all of the best prawn dishes, is elegantly simple, consisting of just salt, pepper and cornflour. However the dry, crisp prawns marry so well with the salt and the heat of the pepper, making them absolutely delicious. If it wasn't for the quite salty Dan Dan Mian that i serve with this, i would have easily polished off the entire bowl.

Ingredients (Serves 4-5 as part of banquet)

• 20 large prawns, shelled and deveined with tails left on
• 2 tbsp sea salt
• 2 tsp black pepper, freshly ground
• 1 large japelino pepper or 2 birds eye chillis, sliced
• 1/3 cup corn flour
• Canoli oil, for deep frying

Method

Bring the oil to just below smoking point
Combine the corn flour, pepper and salt in a medium bowl.
Toss 5 of the prawns in the flour mixture and shake off excess flour.

(You can add more prawns at a time depending on the size of your fryer)
Transfer the prawns to the oil
Fry the prawns for 3 minutes or until just opaque

Remove with a slotted spoon and transfer to a plate with some absorbent paper
Repeat for the remaining prawns.

Add the chillis to the oil and fry for 30 seconds.
Transfer the chillis to paper towel.
Transfer the prawns and chillis to a serving bowl and serve immediately.
I think these go well with a swett chilli aioli.