Nilasing na hipon

Prawns steeped in beer and then fried in their shells, with the marinade reduced into a dip.

Shellfish. Not vegetarian — contains shellfish.

Ingredients

• 800 g large prawns, shell on
• 330 ml beer
• 8 garlic cloves, crushed
• 2 tablespoons soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 100 g cornflour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 0.5 teaspoon black pepper
• 60 ml oil
• 2 siling labuyo, chopped

Method

1. THIRTY MINUTES IN THE BEER AND NO LONGER. Beer is acidic and prawn flesh is thin; an hour in it and the texture has gone soft and faintly mealy before the pan is even hot. The point is the flavour the shells take up, and half an hour does that.
2. Shells stay on. Snip down the back of each one with scissors and lift the vein out, leaving the shell in place -- that lets the marinade in and keeps the shell to crisp.
3. Marinate in the beer with the garlic, soy, sugar, salt and pepper, 30 minutes, in the fridge.
4. Lift the prawns out and DRY THEM THOROUGHLY on paper. Wet prawns steam in the pan and the cornflour slides off in sheets. KEEP THE MARINADE.
5. Toss them in the cornflour and shake the excess off. A thin even dusting, not a coating.
6. Fry in the oil over a high heat, 2 minutes a side, in two batches, until the shells are orange and crisp and the cornflour has gone gold.
7. Lift them out. Strain the reserved marinade into the hot pan and boil it hard, 5 to 6 minutes, until it has reduced by two thirds and gone syrupy.
8. Chillies in at the end of the reduction.
9. Serve the prawns with the reduction as a dip rather than pouring it over them, so the shells stay crisp. Eaten whole, shells and all.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under Philippines · All recipes