Inspired by the kilos(!) of fresh prawns and flavoursome papaya I ate throughout the whole Sunshine Coast and the Thai flavours that were also widely used, comes this quick, sunny, cheery creation that makes a good starter, or mix it with some salad greens for lunch.
Ingredients
1
Olive oil
24
Prawns, shelled (I leave the tail on) (Main)
1
Papaya, skinned, deseeded and cut into strips (Main)
1 handful
Mint leaves, shredded
Chilli caramel sauce
200 g
Palm sugar, shaved
100 ml
Water
2
Chillies, small, hot (or use 1 for less heat), deseeded and finely sliced
2 Tbsp
Fish sauce
3 Tbsp
Lime juice
Directions
Coat the prawns with a little oil and roast in a roasting dish in a hot oven for 3-4 minutes.
Place some papaya on each plate, top with prawns, some mint and a good drizzle of caramel chilli sauce (see below).
Chilli caramel sauce
Simmer the palm sugar and water in a saucepan for about 5-8 minutes until it begins to turn into a light brown caramel. Then watch it closely and take it off the heat just before it becomes dark brown (scrape the sides of the saucepan occasionally to stop crystals from forming).
Stir through the chillies and leave to cool a bit before adding the fish sauce and lime juice — adjust the flavours, adding more to suit.
This chilli sauce is one I adapted from Teage Ezard’s book Lotus Asian Flavours. I make it up and use it to drizzle over all sorts of things. For speed you could use a good-quality store-bought sweet chilli sauce – Culley’s Thai sweet chilli sauce is my fave.
