Crispy tiger prawns with honey and garlic sauce: A new household favourite
This was the first of what will be many times that I cook this dish – It was an instant hit in our household. The cornflour and egg mixture creates a chewy crunchiness when you deep-fry it with the prawns and the honey and garlic sauce is wonderfully sticky and caramelises from the heat of the wok.
The recipe is from Kylie Kwong’s Simple Chinese Cooking and is pretty much spot-on. My only additional tips are to serve with spring onions, freshly sliced cucumber and make sure you pat the prawns dry with a paper towel before you add them to the cornflour mixture (this ensures no extra water goes into the mixture so your prawns will become nice and crispy!)
Here’s the recipe:
Ingredients:
10 large raw tiger prawns, peeled and de-veined (leave tails intact)
3 teaspoons cornflour
2 teaspoons water
2 teaspoons light soy sauce
1 egg yolk, lightly beaten
1 teaspoon sesame oil
Vegetable oil for deep-frying
1 Spring onion (green onion), sliced on the diagonal (for garnish)
For the honey & garlic sauce:
2 tablespoons honey
2 tablespoons shao hsing wine or dry sherry
2 garlic cloves, finely diced
5 teaspoons light soy sauce
Method:
1) Blend cornflour and water until dissolved
2) Add prawns, soy sauce, egg and sesame oil and mix well
3) Combine honey & garlic sauce ingredients in a bowl and set aside
4) Heat oil on high heat in a wok until the surface shimmers slightly
5) Deep-fry half the prawns for 1 minute
6) Remove with a slotted spoon and drain on kitchen paper
7) Repeat with the rest of the prawns
8) Drain the oil from the wok (you can save it for later in a jar)
9) Wipe the wok clean with kitchen paper
10) Heat the same wok to moderate heat and add the honey & garlic sauce ingredients
11) Simmer for about 1 ½ minutes
12) Add the prawns till they are hot and just cooked through
13) Garnish with spring onion and serve immediately. Serves 2-3 with steamed rice
Love prawns and your recipe makes it even more delicious ! I use dry sherry too for sauteed dishes and stews. Your prawns are fabulous for lunch! Thanks for sharing. Happy Holidays!
Sounds delicious! Picture looks great too.
Oh, this sounds so good, and I know I will use the honey garlic sauce on other things too!
I’m not a seafood fan, but this sounds awesome!
what a great recipe! the shrimp look incredible in the photo. the sauce sounds really good too!
mmm…. yummy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Thanks for visiting my blog!
I love prawns esp with lotz garlic. You should try Prawn ala bie fong tong
Cool thanks for the tip…i’ll look it up!
I love it when I stumble upon a recipe that becomes an instant hit. I can see why these would be a hit in your house!
Yummy! These sound amazing!
oh lord these look marvelous! going to try these tonight I just bookmarked this, thanks for your comment on my blog and leading me here, just posted a shrimp recipe wished I made this already instead wow!
Oh please tell me how it goes!
That just looks fantastic. I can eat prawns anytime, anyday.
You know how sometimes you’ll go to a site and see the food and get really, really A: Inspired or B: Jealous?
Well, I’m kind of A and B right now.
lol thanks for the great compliment rich!
D
An excellent recipe Jenny! I’m eager to give this one a try… thanks!
Love it looks so good…will become a fav. here as well, as soon as I make it!
Crispy, honey, garlic! You sold me with just the title, this sounds so delicious I can’t wait to try it! Thanks
Looks so scrumptious!
This sounds delicious!
Hi there, I saw you on Cherryteacakes blog and loved your blog name so I came on over to check your blog out. These prawns look delicious. I love prawns and I love garlic, so I can see how this could easily become a hit with me! Nice to “meet” you!
Hi there! Thanks for visiting!…must mean the blog name works, which is good feedback
Do let me knw if you get around to making it!
what a lovely looking dish! thank you for sharing this.
These sound delicious! I can only imagine the explosion of wonderful flavors and textures you would get from biting into one of these prawns! Thanks for sharing
!
This sounds delicious. Beautiful photography throughout your site!
honey and garlic sounds great together: that must have been really good! thanks for stopping by. Giorgia
That looks pretty damn good right now. The messier, the better. I love when food gets stuck to your fingers. :-p
Wowww these prawns look soooo delicious!!! I can’t wait to dig in with my fingers.. oh wait, it’s only a photo
I’m sure you got to enjoy them though!!
If I don’t get to visit your blog until the new year (because I’m going away for the holidays and therefore will be offline), have a MERRY CHRISTMAS and happy holidays and HAPPY NEW YEAR!
Hi Kimba, hope you had a very merry xmas and fun nye! x
Jenny! This is a fabulous recipe and your photo is gorgeous too. You can almost eat those prawns of the screen! Kudos my dear…
Amazing… love this dish. Kids are not prawn fans so I am going to try with chicken or scallops – love it! Beautiful recipe!
Oh yum! I love garlic sauce. And with the prawns I bet the flavors were outstanding.
Delicious!
I was planning our holiday celebration meal and saw a recipe for honey-garlic meatballs. But now you’ve made me re-think my plan.
Yummy!
Oh, this looks fabulous. I can totally see why this will be a regular in your household, it looks so flavorful and delicious!
I love that your webpage is snowing, by the way
I like how you season the batter w/the soy sauce and sesame oil in this recipe. And the honey-garlic sauce sounds like something that can be used in many other dishes. This recipe is a keeper!
Great photo!
I’ve been using cornstarch for shallow pan frying for a while and love how it makes a thin but crispy coating and you can still taste what’s underneath the coating. Much lighter tasting than the usual flour.
i love how that shrimp looks, with the bits of stuff stuck to it
We are a shrimp loving family:) and I think this recipe will be a hit with us too. Thanks for sharing! You have a wonderful blog. Keep it up!
I am immediately adding this to the recipe box! I love shrimp and the glaze sounds fabulous!
I can never get enough of prawns!! Thanks for the recipe!
Best,
Veronica
This looks like something we would love! I especially love sweet and heat together!
This looks amazing.
This looks amazing! Bookmarking this one right now! The honey and garlic sound like a perfect combination!
Ooooo, that sounds like it would be a new favorite for me as well! I’ll have to try it!
I can see why this was a hit – will definitely be trying out your recipe on some scampi I bought today !
I can see why this would be a new favorite. The photo looks amazing. I love the flavors of soy and honey together!
What an excellent good looking dish. My husband loves shrimp and definitely love your recipe.
Thanks for sharing,
Best wishes,
Roxana
I’ve never cooked much Chinese food up until now, but these look really tasty, I’m going to have to give them a try. Beautiful photography too!
You need no advice, your blog is great! You can cook for me anytime!
Thanks everyone for the all the positive comments! Sorry I couldn’t reply to all of you individually (xmas/NY time has been crazy) but I read them all with a smile on my face
Thanks again! x
Oh my !!!!! The prawns look absolutely delicious .
Wow, this sounds amazing! Thanks for the comment on my blog. Question…do you have any idea what I can do with Sweet Rice Flour (i.e. glutinous)? I just bought a bag of it and was hoping it was possible to use it for something savory…
thanks amy! hmmm…rice flour… have not cooked with rice flour before but I reckon you could make some home made rice noodles with them if you found a recipe online…also could make some nice asian desserts with that? If I come across something I’ll let you know!
Sounds great! And I happen to know the local shop is having a sea food sale:)
Wow! I can’t wait to try this! I have been looking for a honey garlic sauce. Your blog is beautiful and I aspire to take photo’s as beautiful as yours
My mouth is watering!
I’m writing a grocery list and planning to make these this weekend! Can’t wait to try them.