King tiger prawns with tamarind and gula melaka

When travelling in Sarawak, Malaysia, Audra Morrice cooked up this dish to make the most of big local prawns. Rich with onion, chilli, tamarind, herbs and gula melaka (coconut palm sugar), it’s fresh, colourful and packed with flavour.

King tiger prawns with tamarind and gula melaka. Credit: Audra's Eat, Roam, Relish

• serves

  4-8

• prep

  10 minutes

• cook

  10 minutes

• difficulty

  Easy

Ingredients

• 1 tbsp (20g) tamarind pulp, soaked in 150 ml of warm water for about 30 minutes
• 2-3 tbsp cooking oil
• 4 cloves garlic, finely chopped
• 1 medium red onion, peeled, halved, thinly sliced
• 2 large red chillies, finely sliced on the diagonal
• 1 heaped tbsp shaved gula melaka (plus more to balance if required), melted in 1 tbsp water (see Note)
• 8 large tiger prawns, heads intact, butterflied through the back shell and deveined
• 1-2 fresh turmeric leaves, finely shredded
• Small bunch Vietnamese mint, leaves picked
• Squeeze of lime juice
• Thai or sweet basil leaves, to serve

Soaking time: 30 minutes.

Instructions

1. To prepare the tamarind puree, macerate the soaked tamarind with your fingers then press through a sieve as much puree as possible. Then add another 2 tablespoons of water into the remnants of the pulp. Squeeze through with your finger and set the puree aside aside.
2. Heat a wok over high heat. Add 2-3 tablespoons of oil. Add the garlic, onion and chilli and cook until fragrant and blistered. Add the gula melaka and tamarind puree and cook down till a little syrupy.
3. Add prawns, heads and all. Toss to coat in the sauce and allow to caramelise. Add the turmeric leaves and Vietnamese mint leaves and toss to combine. Deglaze with the extra tamarind water if required and cook until the prawns are just cooked. The finished dish should be glossy and look like you just want to dive into the dish!
4. Serve with Thai or sweet basil and a squeeze of lime.

Note

Gula apong, which I used when cooking this dish during my travels, is a product made from the reduction of Nipah palm sap. You will only find it in Sarawak. It has a sweet-salty, very earthy flavour that works so well in both sweet and savoury dishes. Gula apong isn’t easily found in Australia so in this recipe I’ve used gula melaka (coconut palm sugar) with a touch of salt instead, to recreate that balance of sweet-savoury. In the event you can’t find gula melaka, you can substitute with dark brown sugar.

Cook's Notes

Oven temperatures are for conventional; if using fan-forced (convection), reduce the temperature by 20˚C. | We use Australian tablespoons and cups: 1 teaspoon equals 5 ml; 1 tablespoon equals 20 ml; 1 cup equals 250 ml. | All herbs are fresh (unless specified) and cups are lightly packed. | All vegetables are medium size and peeled, unless specified. | All eggs are 55-60 g, unless specified.