Butter Prawns – Malaysian Style

Butter Prawns - aka shrimp - are crunchy, spicy and fragrant with golden egg floss and crisp curry leaves. They are a specialty at Malaysian Chinese eateries and one of our family favorites.

If you’ve been reading this space for a while, you know that I have a very soft spot for a restaurant in Kuala Lumpur called Mei Keng Fatt. It is super casual (think plastic chairs and paper napkins) but the food is delicious. The menu includes all manner of Chinese dishes with chicken, beef, pork and even ostrich but the specialties are chili crab and butter prawns.

We went often on a Friday night and our order never varied: black pepper beef, chili crab, cashew chicken, baby kailan with garlic and butter prawns. We’d finish the meal with fresh mango served on a platter covered with crushed ice. Divine!

When we moved on to Singapore in 2007, we were disappointed to find that what the seafood restaurants there called butter prawns were a terrible concoction that substituted butter-fried oats for the egg yolk floss. Sure, that’s probably easier but it’s not the same! And their chili crab sauce seemed to be made with ketchup. What up, Singapore?

After moving back to KL in 2009, we frequented Mei Keng Fatt even more often because we'd missed it so! Also we figured our days in Malaysia were numbered and we wanted to take advantage of its delights as many times as possible before the next transfer. I don’t even want to guess how often we went (or picked up takeaway) between 2009 and 2012!

Butter Prawns – Malaysian Style

Now, of course, I have to make my own butter prawns. This recipe does take some time but none of the steps are hard. Just take it slow and you’ll get there. I promise it will be so worth it! This recipe is adapted from one on Malaysian Delicacies.

Ingredients

4 eggs

2.2 lbs or 1kg (weight without head and shell) large size prawns or shrimp

1 teaspoon fine sea salt

1 teaspoon sugar

1/3 cup or 40g cornstarch

1/3 cup or 75g ghee (clarified butter)

4 to 5 sprigs fresh curry leaves

8 hot chili peppers, chopped

1/2 cup or 120ml canola or other light oil

Method

Separate your eggs putting the yolks in a small bowl and one white in another. Put the other three whites in a sealed contain and put them in the refrigerator for another use. (I like to use mine for mini pavlovas or macaroons.)  Beat the yolks well. Beat the single egg white well. 

 

Wash and peel the prawns, leaving just the tails on. Sprinkle them with the salt and sugar. Add the well-beaten egg white to the bowl and stir well to distribute the salt and sugar and to coat the prawns with the egg white.

Sprinkle on the cornstarch with a small sieve, stirring well to coat. Set aside. 

To make the egg floss, heat a wok or large nonstick pan then add the ghee. Once the ghee is hot, pour in the beaten egg yolks in a very thin stream while stirring it continuously to get fine shreds of yolk. Since my pan is nonstick, I like to use a rubber-coated whisk for this. 

Keep stirring over medium heat until you have finished pouring all the egg yolks. 

It bubbles up but persevere and keep stirring until it turns into golden crispy floss.

Turn off the stove. Over the pan, spoon the egg floss into a sieve so the ghee drips back into the pan. 

Set the sieve over a bowl to keep draining or pour the floss onto some paper towels to drain. 

Add the canola oil to the pan. Lift the prawns one by one out of the bowl and add them in batches to the hot oil, cooking until they are golden and crispy on both sides. 

Remove them to a pan lined with newspaper and topped with clean paper towels.  Continue frying the prawns until they are all golden and crispy. 

Discard all but three tablespoons of the oil and heat the pan again over a medium flame. Add in the chopped chili peppers and curry leaves. 

You’ll want your vent hood on for this step to extract the spicy air from the chili peppers, if it wasn’t on already for the prawn frying. You'll notice there are no photos of this step. That's because I was coughing too much. Lesson learned!

Update: Found some photos of a prior time I made this and had the vent hood fan on! Truly it's one of our favorites. 

Fry until the curry leaves turn crispy and a bit darker, which takes just a minute or so. Add the prawns back in and give a few stirs to rewarm them all. 

Add most of the egg floss in and stir. 

Spoon the prawns onto a serving plate and sprinkle with the reserved egg floss to serve. 

Enjoy!

It’s Sunday FunDay and time to get ready for a lunar new year celebration to welcome  the Year of the Tiger with a delicious list of Chinese or Asian inspired recipes! Check out the list below. Many thanks to our host, Sue of Palatable Pastime. 

• A Day in the Life on the Farm: Tiger Salad
• Making Miracles: Shrimp Cakes
• Palatable Pastime: San Choy Bow
• Amy’s Cooking Adventures: Chow Steak Kow (Steak Stir Fry)
• Food Lust People Love: Butter Prawns
• Mayuri’s Jikoni: Kung Pao Cauliflower
• Sneha’s Recipe: Pork Chilli With Peppers
• Sizzling Tastebuds: Instant Pot Asian Style Veg Noodles

 

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