Glass noodle and prawn salad with spiced fried prawns
- Prepare
- 30 mins to 1 hour
- Cook
- 10 to 30 mins
- Serve
- Serves 4
- Dietary
- Dairy-freeEgg-freeNut-free
A Malaysian-inspired dish flavoured with homemade tomato sambal, or use a ready-made version if you’re short on time.
Ingredients
For the tomato sambal
- 150g/5½oz fresh red chillies
- 3 whole garlic cloves, peeled
- 4 tbsp vegetable oil
- 3 tbsp tomato purée
- 1½ tsp salt
- 4½ tbsp dark brown sugar
For the noodle salad dressing
- 2 fresh red chillies
- 1 banana shallot, roughly chopped
- 4 fresh makrut lime leaves, stems removed
- 50g/1¾oz tinned anchovy fillets, including the oil
- 1 lime, juice only
- 1 tbsp dark brown sugar
- 3 tbsp tomato sambal (made above) or other chilli sauce
- 1 tbsp fish sauce
- 1 tsp tamarind paste
- 3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
For the noodle salad
- 150g/5½oz mung bean glass noodles, soaked in just-boiled water for at least 10 minutes
- 30g/1oz fresh basil, leaves picked
- 30g/1oz bunch fresh mint, leaves picked and roughly chopped
- 30g/1oz bunch fresh coriander, roughly chopped, stems and all
- 300g/10½oz pre-cooked, peeled small cold-water prawns, fully defrosted if frozen, and excess water gently squeezed out
- ¾ cucumber, seeds removed and cut into 1cm/½in cubes
For the spiced fried prawns
- 1kg/2lb 4oz shell-on whole raw prawns
- 4 tbsp vegetable oil
- 2 fresh red chillies, finely sliced
- 4 spring onions, finely sliced
- 3 tbsp light soy sauce
- 110g/3¾oz tomato ketchup
- ½ tsp chilli powder
Method
To make the tomato sambal, use a handheld stick blender or a high-speed food processor to blend the chillies, garlic and oil together into a fine purée.
Heat a small, non-stick saucepan over a medium heat. Add the chilli-garlic mixture to the pan and stir-fry for 10 minutes, turning the heat down a little if it starts to splutter too much.
Add the tomato purée, salt, sugar and 80ml/2¾fl oz water to the pan and stir-fry for 2 minutes just to dissolve everything. Remove from the heat and leave to cool. Once cool, decant into sterilised jars to store.
To make the noodle salad dressing, blend all the dressing ingredients together in a small food processor. Set aside.
To make the noodle salad, drain the mung bean noodles and place into a large mixing bowl. Roughly tear the basil leaves into the noodles.
To allow the flavours to come together, thoroughly mix in the remaining ingredients along with the dressing at least 15 minutes before you want to eat this salad. If making this recipe in advance of when you want to eat it, hold off from adding the cucumber until 15 minutes before serving. The cucumber releases water after a while, which will make for a very watery salad!
To make the spiced fried prawns, de-vein the prawns by sticking a toothpick through the second shell joint from its tail and pulling up through the flesh. The vein will become loose, so all you have to do is to pull out the rest of it from the prawn. Use a pair of scissors to trim off each prawn’s two long feelers and also snip off the very sharp end of the prawn’s head.
Heat the oil in a large non-stick wok over a high heat. Add the chillies and half the spring onions and stir-fry for 1 minute. Add the prawns and stir-fry for 5 minutes or so until nearly all of the shells have turned red. You can leave the wok for 20 seconds at a time before stirring, to allow the prawns to cook.
Add the soy sauce, ketchup and chilli powder to the wok and stir-fry for a further 1 minute or until the sauce thickens. Garnish with the remaining spring onions and eat immediately.
Serve the noodle salad in a serving bowl and the prawns on a separate plate it bowl and serve family style at the table.
