Fragrant Southeast Asian prawns

Photography and styling by Tamara West

These prawns are full of Thai flavour with kaffir lime leaves, lemongrass, lime and fish sauce, and you can get them on the table faster than a Thai takeaway. Thinly sliced chicken can be used instead of, or as well as, the prawns if you prefer. You can also use soy sauce instead of the fish sauce. It is important to taste, taste, taste and add more acidity (lime), heat (chilli), sweetness (sweet chilli) and saltiness (fish or soy sauce) as you like to create a harmonious balance of flavour.

Ingredients

1 ½ Tbsp	Sweet chilli sauce
2 tsp	Fish sauce, or soy sauce
1	Lime, juice, large
1 tsp	Sesame oil
1 Tbsp	Oil
2	Garlic cloves, chopped
2	Kaffir lime leaves, finely shredded
1 stalk	Lemongrass, finely chopped
1	Red chilli, or green chilli, chopped
150 g	Snow peas, sugar snaps or chopped snow beans
36	Raw prawns, shelled with tails left on, thawed (Main)
1 handful	Basil leaves, small
1 handful	Fresh coriander, small

Directions

1. Mix sweet chilli sauce, fish sauce, lime juice and sesame oil together and set aside.
2. Heat oil in a large frying pan or wok on high heat. Add garlic, kaffir lime leaves, lemongrass and chilli and fry one minute.
3. Then add snow peas and prawns and fry a further 2 minutes, before adding sweet chilli mixture.
4. Toss everything in the fry pan or wok together for a further 1-2 minutes until prawns are just cooked and everything is hot through.
5. Lightly toss through herbs just before serving.
6. Serve with plain steamed rice or coconut rice, see below, and slices of fresh cucumber and tomato.

Tip

To make coconut rice, cook rice as you would normally but in a mixture of half coconut milk, half water, a pinch of salt and 1 inch of sliced ginger. Discard ginger after rice is cooked.