Udang Nestum (Cereal Prawns)

This week was one of those crazy work weeks where there was no time to breathe, the days were nonstop meetings, and by the end of the week I was absolutely fried. Staying focused for "strategic planning" meetings without cutting someone or hugging yourself and rocking back and forth in your chair, moaning “Bored…bored…bored…boredboredboredbored” isn’t easy! I know, I know--Those of you who have jobs outside the corporate world would drown in the corporatespeak overload. As much as you think you won't go there, you do! I catch myself spewing out words like "leverage", "ROI" and "value proposition" way too often. And yes, I hate myself for it every time those words tumble from my mouth. 

My friend Becky (I’ve told you about her amazing food before. Did you go get her cookbook yet?) and I had planned to have brunch together Saturday morning, because it had been a while since we’d hung out and caught up. Rather than going out somewhere we decided to make food for each other, drawing from our respective “death meal” lists.

If you’re someone who is focused on food and cooking, and can think of no better way to spend a Saturday than sitting on the floor with cookbooks scattered around you, interrupting one another when you find something you Want. To. Make. Now, then you probably have an idea of what I’m saying.  We all have our mental list of “this would be one if the food items I want included in my last meal on this earth.” Naturally, those lists are nuanced, depending on the person. Mine involves a naked Ryan Reynolds, assorted farm animals and a jar of peanut butter.

But I digress…

Becky and I have our own lists of favorites, and when we spend time together we inevitably get to, “Ohmygod I have to make _____________ for you!” Saturday, we picked a couple of the dishes we knew the other had never tried and gave it a go. Becky made the most amazing lamb and mint meatballs with a creamy tomato and fenugreek sauce. They were melt in your mouth gorgeous and reminded me of butter chicken, even though they didn’t have a ton of dairy in the sauce. If you ask her nicely, she may even give you her recipe.

For my contribution, I made a street food dish I tried during my last business trip to Singapore, called Udang Nestum, or Cereal Prawns. Fried prawns, mixed in a caramelized, buttery, chile-blasted, curry leaf spiked sauce with bits of Nestum Cereal. Nestum is a Nestle product sold in Southeast Asia, and is similar to cream of wheat. It has a vanilla-y, malted aroma to it. It sounds a bit strange but it will knock your socks off. It’s hard to find in the US (I’ve relied on friends traveling to and from Singapore on business to procure it), but I finally managed to find a link here and figured since the ingredients are obtainable, I’d share the recipe with you. For frying the shrimp, you can sub in other flours for the cornstarch. I prefer cornstarch because I think it adds more crunch to fried foods on its own than it does mixed with other flours.

Oh, I realize indian lamb meatballs and Indonesian cereal prawns aren’t the most traditional breakfast food, but we accounted for that too. Just make a pot of coffee, fry an egg and put it over your cereal prawns (I guarantee you will be a convert forever), and add some gossip. It’s brunch!

Thanks, Becky, for taking photos while we cooked! Thanks also for destroying my New Years diet.

Cereal Prawns

Serves 4

Ingredients:

1 lb. prawns (Note from Marc: Becky schooled me on this one: Try to find prawns from the US, wild if possible, to avoid all of the antibiotics and crap pumped into foreign and farm-raised shrimp)

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp white pepper

1 egg, lightly whisked

1 cup corn starch

2 tbsp butter

2 salted duck egg yolks 
(Note from Marc: You can buy salted duck eggs at any Asian market)

3 red thai chilies, sliced thinly, diagonally (Note from Marc: If you don’t love the heat, you can substitute milder Fresno chiles)

50 g curry leaves

2 Tbsp granulated or palm sugar

50 g Nestum cereal original

Peanut oil (for frying shrimp)

Directions: 

1. Peel and devein shrimp, leaving the tail intact.
2. Mix salt and pepper into the shrimp and let it marinate 30 minutes.
3. Heat cooking oil in a wok. Dip prawns in egg and dust with cornstarch.
Deep-fry prawns in hot oil for 3-4 minutes till golden.
Drain on paper towel and set aside for later use.
4. Melt butter in a wok. Add mashed salted yolks into hot butter. Stir-fry for a couple of seconds.
5. Add curry leaves, sliced chilies, sugar and Nestum cereal.
Quickly stir-fry for 2 minutes, till cereal changes color, getting somewhat light and crunchy.
Toss in fried shrimp. Mix well and remove from heat.

Salt and Pepper Soft Shell Crab with Chile, Lime and Palm Sugar Dressing

SNOW! We have Snow!!! 

Snow means working from home. Working from home means I can work AND cook. Working and cooking means I can try new recipes from the cookbooks that have been arriving in the mail, calling my name and torturing poor David. And let's be honest....nothing says "I love you" quite like the gift of crabs.

It seems like everyone released a cookbook this fall, and there are some incredible new publications on the market. None of them were more greedily anticipated in this house than Teage Ezard’s new book, “Gingerboy.”

If you read this blog (thanks to both of you who do), you know I’m a huge Ezard fan. An Australian celebrity chef and owner of multiple restaurants, his food is the Asian-influenced, sweet/salty/spicy goodness that never ceases to pull me in. When I read about Gingerboy coming out, I scrambled to get my hands on a copy.  Well worth the effort to procure it from Australia, it is a GORGEOUS book, with beautiful pictures and recipes that will make your mouth water. Cocktails, small plates, shared plates and desserts are the format, ranging from very simple to the recipes I love where there’s a little more time investment required.

Last night my friend Becky threw an impromptu potluck, anticipating the snow (which didn’t arrive until late last night where we live). We made this soft shell crab dish as our contribution and it was a hit.  Hope you like it too!  My next attempt will be his Smoked Baby Chicken with Tomato and Eggplant Sambal. Stay tuned…

Just a note: the only adjustments we made to this recipe were to add more chile to the dressing to make it a little more atomic hot and using a bit more of the peppersalt blend than called for in the recipe. Delicious!

Thanks to Becky Selengut for styling and shooting the photo while I slaved over the hot stove. I have to do EVERYTHING around here!!!

Salt and Pepper Soft Shell Crab with Chile, Lime and Palm Sugar Dressing

Adapted from Gingerboy, by Teage Ezard

Serves 4 to share

Chile, Lime and Palm Sugar Dressing

170g light palm sugar, grated

1 Tbsp water

200 ml lime juice

4 Tbsp fish sauce

2 red bird’s eye chiles (thai chiles), finely chopped

½ tsp chile powder

3 garlic cloves finely chopped

3 kaffir lime leaves, finely chopped

Salt and Pepper Soft Shell Crab

6 soft shell crabs, quartered and cleaned

3 tsp salt and pepper mix (recipe below)

150g (1 cup) plain flour

750ml (3 cups) vegetable oil

Garnish

1 large handful coriander (cilantro)

3 garlic chives, finely chopped

1 red bird’s eye (thai) chile, thinly sliced (optional)

1 iceberg lettuce, finely shredded

Method

Chile, lime and palm sugar dressing Place the palm sugar and water in a saucepan over low heat and bring to the boil, stirring until the sugar dissolves. Remove from the heat, add the lime juice, fish sauce, chile, chile powder, garlic and kaffir lime leaf. Set aside to allow the flavors to infuse.

Salt and pepper soft shell crab Place the crabs on paper towel for 15 minutes to absorb any excess liquid. (Note from Marc: Because we bought ours frozen, we found it useful to squeeze the excess water from the crabs between layers of a towel to help it crisp up.)

Mix 2 teaspoons of the salt and pepper mix with the flour in a large bowl. Dust the crabs with the seasoned flour until completely coated.

Heat the oil in a wok to 180 degrees Celsius (350 degrees Farenheit) – you can test if the oil is the right temperature by dropping in a cube of bread; if the bread browns in 30 seconds the oil is ready. Deep-fry the crabs for 1-2 minutes. Drain on paper towel. Lightly season with the remaining salt and pepper mix.

To Serve

Combine the cilantro, garlic chives and chile, if you like it hot, in a large bowl. Add the crab and gently toss. Drizzle the dressing around the outer edge of four shallow serving bowls, place a neat pile of lettuce in the center of each plate and top with the soft shell crab.

Salt and Pepper Mix

1 tablespoon black peppercorns

1 tablespoon Sichuan peppercorns

2 tablespoons white peppercorns

1 cinnamon stick

2 whole star anise

100g sea salt

Method

Toast all of the ingredients in a wok for 2-3 minutes, or until a nice aroma is being released. Set aside to cool.

Transfer the salt and pepper mixture to a mortar and pestle and pound into a find powder. Pass through a fine sieve.

Store in an airtight container for up to a week.

Makes 1 Cup