Masterchef Inspired Recipe ? Prawns with Coconut & Chilli Sambal

Hello, my name is Emily. I’m a sambalholic. I love my sambal to be very spicy and pungent. I like to have it on my rice, noodles and sometimes in my soups. If I don’t have it frequent enough, I feel there’s a void in my life. 

When Adam made the prawn scotched eggs with coconut, chilli sambal on Masterhef, my attention immediately drew to the sambal side of things. After all this is what a sambalholic does!   I was delighted by the fact the recipe uses accessible ingredients and thankfully, no toasting of shrimp paste (belacan). As I once said before, I don’t want to smoke my neighbours out of their houses. 

Despite no shrimp paste, the coconut sambal still has all the favourable elements that a good sambal should have – spicy, salty, sweet & pungent.

This is the fourth time I’ve made it this month, needless to say, I really adore this recipe.   The original recipe calls for palm sugar and kecap manis, which makes a darker looking sambal than mine.  I have substituted palm sugar with brown sugar and excluded kecap manis all together (somehow this is one ingredient that always slips my mind when it comes to this recipe).  Also, I love kaffir/lime leaves with prawns so naturally, I added them to give the dish a light citrusy aroma.

Enjoy!

(improvised from The Masterchef’s Prawn Scotch Eggs with a Coconut, Chilli Sambal)  

500g shelled on prawns, deshelled and deveined

1 brown onion

6 cloves of garlic, peeled

1/2 inch thick ginger, peeled

1 tsp crushed chilli / 1 fresh chilli

3/4 dessicated coconut

1 tbsp brown sugar (to taste)

2 tbsps fish sauce (to taste)

3 kaffir leaves/ lime leaves, thinly snipped

1. Using a food processor, blend onion, chilli, garlic & ginger into fine paste. Add a little oil to ease the blending (optional).

2. Heat the pan with 2 tbsps of oil, saute the onion paste with kaffir leave until lightly brown on medium to low heat.

3. Add  brown sugar and fish sauce  into the pan mixture and cook for 5 minutes.

4. Stir in dessicated coconut and  cook for about 2 minutes. Remove the sambal from the pan.

5. In the same pan, add a little oil and pan fry the prawns  in 3 batches (Note: This is entire up to you but I have lightly salt the prawns) . Alternatively, you can grill the prawns on the BBQ.

6. Once the prawns are cooked, gently toss the prawns and coconut sambal in the pan. Best serve with Thai jasmine rice and sliced cucumber.