Some of you may remember that I bought a whole lot of pek hay (seawater prawns), over 5 kilos of those lovely crustaceans, from my favourite fish & seafood stall here.
The other day, my missus cooked some of them again…
…which means that all in all, we have had them for three times now.
The first time, she stir-fried around 20 of them in sesame oil and lots of garlic…
…her favourite recipe whenever she cooks those giant freshwater prawns or udang galah.
The second time was when we boiled some 20-30 of them to add as one of the ingredients in our Sarawak laksa…
…that day and of course, we used the stock, including what we got from boiling the shells and the heads for the lovely laksa broth. Needless to say, with those added, the broth was extra tasty, so sweet and delicious.
This third time around, she took out another batch of around 30 of them – these were bigger than the ones we had the previous two times and after removing the heads and the shell, she dipped them in some Korean batter (bought from the Korean Store in town), coated them with bread crumbs and deep fried them…
Of course, that was so very delicious!
The prawns were so fresh – so very sweet, firm and succulent…
…and with the batter and all, the tail was so crispy we just ate it all up. I’m sure if my missus did not remove the heads and the shell, we could have done the same with those.
There were so many, enough for two meals and at the end of the day, there were still some left so we just enjoyed snacking on them just like that as we reckoned they would not be so nice anymore if we kept them in the fridge till the next day.
I did mention a few times that we would buy the smaller (and cheaper) ones of these pek hay for chor liao (use as ingredient). I did not buy any that day as I had bought so much already but yes, we did set aside some for this purpose when stir-frying vegetables, for instance. We just need to add a few…
…and that will bring the dish to a whole new level – extra sweet, extra nice. You just can’t go wrong with prawns, I tell you…and that sure beats adding a whole lot of factory-produced sauces and msg or whatever flavouring in an effort to make your dish taste better.
The fish & seafood stall is located to the right of CCL FRESH MINI MARKET against the wall at that end of the block to the right of the Grand Wonderful Hotel (2.309601, 111.845163) along Jalan Pipit, off Jalan Dr Wong Soon Kai (formerly Jalan Pedada).
...STILL CRAZY AFTER ALL THESE YEARS! 
You don’t eat the heads?
They’re the best bit, man!
I know they’re high in cholesterol, but once in a blue moon is okay one.
He he… I also like crab roe, again I don’t eat this very often so worry about cholesterol lah. Just makan
We do, especially those udang galah, freshwater prawns. These seawater pek hay, it depends on how we cook them…and who cleans them.
I remove the bitter shit sac inside but I try to keep the whole head intact but there isn’t all that much in the head…not like the freshwater ones. They are not called tua thow hay (big headed prawns) for nothing!
Ya, I was watching a health show on TV – they said the cholesterol is all in the head and the roe – the rest of the prawn is fine.
I like prawns done in any way, be it steam if fresh, coated and deep fried or stir fry with vegetables. It makes the whole dish tasty, that is for sure. Your missus deep fried prawns looks so good.
Yes, it was VERY nice – we sure enjoyed it cooked that way. Lots more in the freezer – bet my girl will ask for a second round.
So far, we do not steam prawns so well – we’ve tried, either with the big freshwater ones or the giant tiger prawns from Sabah – the so-called drunken prawns but we did not do as well as how they do it in the restaurants. No msg, maybe…
This is one thing I miss about Malaysia, the cheap prawns. I remember first when I saw them near the Giant where we live, I bought like 5 kgs
…and my friends over there find our prices here so shockingly cheap and they say that theirs are not all that fresh usually.
I had prawns when I was in Auckland – I dunno why but they seemed so bland, quite tasteless…not so nice, not like the ones we have here.
I think my fave would be in the Sarawak laksa.
All good. Can’t go wrong with prawns!