VEGGIE - Prawn & Asparagus with Spicy Sauce

By Aemelia

Ingredients

• 400 g raw prawns, shelled & deveined
• 2 bunches asparagus, cut lengthwise into 3 parts
• 3 shallots, thinly sliced
• 3 garlic cloves (1 1/2 tsp garlic paste)
• 1 cm thick ginger (1/4 tsp ginger paste)
• 3 kaffir leaves (lime leaves)
• 1 1/2 tsp crushed fresh chillies
• 1 tsp fish sauce
• Juice from 1/2 lime
• Brown sugar to taste

Details

Adapted from fussfreecooking.com

Preparation

Step 1

1. Blanched asparagus with a little salt. Set aside.

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

3. Heat wok with 2 tbps of oil on medium flame.

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

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

6. 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).

7. Stir in prawns to coat with the mixture.

8. 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.

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

Emily’s note: For those who are chilli-averse, replace chilli paste with tomato paste but add in some sliced mild chilli. This way you can have the chilli flavour without much of the burning sensation.