Inauthentic prawn toast

This prawn toast recipe is special: it's an Asian-Australian version of the beloved yum cha classic. It's also an ode to hot summers spent eating plentiful fresh prawns with lemon wedges. There's a little nod to the strong Italian influence in Melbourne via the guanciale that you fold through the prawn mix for gloriously salty, porky morsels.

Inauthentic prawn toast Credit: Kitti Gould

• serves

  4

• prep

  10 minutes

• cook

  5 minutes

• difficulty

  Easy

You should always have a stash of seafood in your freezer, in case you want to whip up something delicious on a whim. Highly perishable seafood is often processed and snap-frozen on the boat, preserving it at its peak. It's incredibly cost-effective and convenient.

Ingredients

Confit garlic

• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 2 garlic cloves, finely minced

Prawn paste

• 120 g raw prawns, peeled and deveined
• 20 g guanciale or fatty pancetta, finely diced
• 40 g minced pork
• 4 cm piece ginger, grated (5 g)
• 1 tsp cornflour
• 2 tsp fish sauce
• ½ tsp ground white pepper
• ½ tsp salt
• 20 g dill sprigs, finely chopped, plus extra to garnish
• zest of ½ lemon
• 2 cups (500 ml) vegetable oil
• 4 slices white bread
• lemon cheeks, to serve

Instructions

1. In a small frying pan, warm the olive oil, then add the garlic. Fry over low heat until the garlic is soft, then remove from the heat and allow to cool.
2. Place the prawns, guanciale, pork mince, ginger, cornflour, fish sauce, white pepper and salt into a food processor and blitz to form a paste. Transfer to a bowl and add the confit garlic oil, along with the dill and lemon zest. Stir well to combine.
3. Cut each slice of bread into four triangles. Spread the prawn mixture thickly over each triangle and set aside.
4. In a large, heavy-based saucepan, heat the vegetable oil to 180°C (use a food thermometer to check the temperature). Deep-fry the prawn triangles in small batches, until golden-brown (prawn side down for 1 ½ - 2 minutes, then turn and cook for a further 1-2 minutes). Remove from the oil using a slotted spoon to a serving plate.
5. Garnish the prawn toasts with dill sprigs and serve with the lemon cheeks to squeeze over.

Photography by Kitti Gould.

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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.

You should always have a stash of seafood in your freezer, in case you want to whip up something delicious on a whim. Highly perishable seafood is often processed and snap-frozen on the boat, preserving it at its peak. It's incredibly cost-effective and convenient.