Pissed Drunk Ginger Prawns The Size of Your Palms

This is one of the dishes served during our reunion dinner for CNY eve this year! I am proud to say that this dish was not prepared by me but by my dad who is quite a foodie himself. This is my dad's ginger prawns with Chinese Shiao Xing wine. The prawns were the size of my palms uncooked, I kid you not!

My dad went to the whole seller's market in the wee hours of the morning of CNY eve to get these prawns and they were sold for RM50/kg; 1kg yields approximately 15 shrimps so you can imagine the size of these mammoth crustaceans. I was quite impressed with them when my dad showed me his loot from the whole sale market. I couldn't wait to sink my teeth into them! And when I did, I was just in shrimpy heaven.

To cook them, my dad decided to let their natural flavors steal the show. And to lend a little helping hand, he only used some ginger, garlic and Shiao Xing wine to cook them with a bit of dried wolfberries/goji berries for color. The dish turned out reddish color in the end because some of the prawns' roe - it was divine. :)

Dad's Ginger Prawns with Chinese Wine
20 prawns
2 cloves of garlic, minced
2 tablespoons of finely shredded ginger
1/4 cup of Chinese cooking wine (we use Shiao Xing)
1 tablespoon dried goji berries/wolfberries
a pinch of salt, pepper and sugar
1 tablespoon oil


Method:
1. Heat up the wok with 1 tbsp oil until it is really hot and do a quick saute on the prawns until it is half-cooked. This process takes less than 3 minutes in total and when it's done, put the prawns aside. The reason for this step is to give the prawns a little wok-hei before adding it into the ginger and wine mixture. You could also forgo this step but it does give another layer of complexity to the dish.

2. In the same wok, heat the remainder of the oil and saute the garlic, ginger and goji berries until fragrant. You need to work on very high heat and very quickly to avoid burning the garlic and ginger. Add the prawns back into the wok and season with a pinch of salt, pepper and sugar. Toss to saute the prawns for 3 minutes.

3. At the very end, add the Chinese cooking wine in by pouring it in swirls around the prawns. Add 3 tablespoons of water and cook on high heat for 1 minute and no more! If you overcook the Chinese wine, it will give a little bitter flavor to the dish. Serve it hot!

Two prawns was all it took to fill my tummy. I couldn't even finish my rice!