Skip to content
Open menu Close menu

Feed your appetite for cooking with Penguin’s expert authors

penguin logo

Prawn Tamarind

Created by chef Van Tran, this vibrant prawn dish features a mouthwatering tamarind sauce. Think zesty lemongrass, crushed garlic and a touch of sugar.

Introduction

This dish dates back to our first supper clubs. Once our stall was going strong on Broadway Market we began hosting pop-up supper clubs in local restaurants. These were great fun to cook for, as the guests would take pleasure in each dish as it appeared. This recipe shows how a good sauce can make a dish. With sauces, cooks can let their imagination run free and Anh is always coming up with new concoctions.

Read more Read less

Ingredients

For the Tamarind Sauce:
20g seedless tamarind pulp, cut from a slab
4 tbsp hot water
2 tbsp sugar
2 tbsp fish sauce
1 tsp finely chopped lemongrass
For the Prawns:
150g fresh prawns, peeled
1 tbsp vegetable oil
1 tbsp crushed garlic
1 tsp chopped shallot
To garnish:
2 spring onions, sliced
A few sprigs coriander

Method

In a small bowl, soak the tamarind pulp in just enough hot water to cover it, for 10–20 minutes, until it becomes soft. Strain the juice into a mixing bowl. Stir in the sugar, fish sauce and lemongrass or if you want a slightly sourer or sweeter sauce, adjust the quantities according to taste.

To cook the prawns, heat the 1 tbsp of oil in a frying pan or wok and sauté the crushed garlic and chopped shallot. Stir in the prawns, turning them frequently. When they start to turn pink, add the tamarind sauce and let simmer for a couple of minutes.

Garnish with slices of spring onion and sprigs of coriander.

Comments are closed.

newsletter

Subscribe to The Happy Foodie email newsletter

Get our latest recipes, features, book news and ebook deals straight to your inbox every week