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Slow Cooker Chili Prawns
Ingredients
Method
- Combine ginger, shallots, garlic, scallions, sambal oelek, sugar, vinegar, and catsup in slow cooker. Cook on high for one hour.
- Add the prawns. Cook for another 15 minutes.
- Add the egg and sesame oil, turn off the heat, and keep the lid on for another 5-10 minutes.
- Season with fish sauce if needed.
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These chili prawns are just one of those spicy dishes that showcase chili more for its flavor rather than its heat. It's sweet, its a bit tangy, it carries that fresh seafood taste of prawns. . . it really is a lot more than spicy.
This Malay-inspired recipe is in essence very simple. It's just supposed to have prawns and chili, leaving you with much liberty in choosing your other ingredients.
Cider vinegar for some tang to enhance the fresh taste of the prawns. Limes would work. As will some tamarind paste. Even plain white vinegar should get the job done. I just went for cider for some fruitiness that will go well with the natural sweetness of seafood, and not for its acidity exclusively.
Brown sugar for some sweetness to balance the heat from the chilis. I went for brown mainly to get a deeper-colored sauce but white is totally fine. Honey, maple syrup, corn syrup, any sweetener you have is a definite go.
Some tomato catsup to serve as an emulsified base for all those flavors to come together. Want some interesting substitutes here? Try plum sauce, orange marmalade, or even coconut cream. As long as you've got chili and prawns, any unique flavor addition you could work into the recipe should be worth considering.
I've used Sambal Oelek for the chili part of this dish. It's an Asian chili condiment easily available at the specialty section of most supermarkets. You could use habaneros, jalapenos, pretty much any chili you have available just as long as you're practically familiar with its level of heat so you'll have control over the results.
Now for the aromatics to make the flavors a bit more complex. It's an Asian dish so having ginger, garlic, and shallots would certainly get you on the right track. These three should be enough but you could go further with some lemongrass, red onions, celery. . . your call.
Chopping these aromatics should be the only labor you'll have to put into this beautiful dish, so might as well chop them up finely. We want them to blend in unnoticeably into the thick sauce we'll have in the end. You can even get them into a food processor, blend them into a smooth paste much like a curry, and roast them a bit in some oil. Honestly, that would even turn out better – not only smoother but more flavorful too.
Get the catsup, vinegar, sugar, chili, and aromatics cooking in your slow cooker for about an hour on high. What we're looking for is a smooth sauce with all those ingredients softened considerably.
Next to go in would be the prawns. 10-15 minutes on a high heat setting should be enough to cook them. It shouldn't be hard to tell if they're done – they'll turn evenly pink all over. Never overcook your prawns so as not to get them tough and rubbery.
Beat an egg slightly in a bowl. Add it into the cooked prawns together with some sesame oil, put the lid back on, and turn off the heat. Let the residual heat in the pot ‘cook the eggs' for five more minutes or so. This will hold the sauce together and make it much smoother and richer.
Take a quick taste and season with some fish sauce if needed.
Slow Cooker Chili Prawns
Ingredients
Method
- Combine ginger, shallots, garlic, scallions, sambal oelek, sugar, vinegar, and catsup in slow cooker. Cook on high for one hour.
- Add the prawns. Cook for another 15 minutes.
- Add the egg and sesame oil, turn off the heat, and keep the lid on for another 5-10 minutes.
- Season with fish sauce if needed.
Slow Cooker Clam Puttanesca
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