Prawn with Spring Onions & Cucumber Sticks

I've seen this served in restaurants
& I thought I'd give it a try.

Prawn ½ kg
Spring Onions Chopped in 2" Section
Cucumber Chopped in 2" Section
Ginger
Chopped Spring Onions into Pieces

Cut a section in the middle of prawn (shell off & cleaned), then insert the spring onion & cucumber in the mid-section & repeat for all the prawns. Yes, it takes a bit of time but should be quicker once you get the hang of it. Soak stuffed prawns inside hot boiling prawn stock*.

*Add all prawn heads in a pot
plus old ginger, pepper & salt, then bring to boil.
It makes very rich prawn stock.
So next time don't throw the
very useful prawn heads!

A quick 10 minutes dip before taking all the prawns out & put aside. Heat up wok & add chopped spring onions, garlic plus some prawn stock. As the sauce thickens, add the prawns back into the wok & stir fry for another 5 minutes.

Serve 4

Ultimately, I served my Prawn Dinner with

1. Sweet & Sour Prawn
2. Prawn with Spring Onions & Cucumber Sticks
3. Prawn Head Soup
4. Cucumber Pickles

Sweet & Sour Prawn

Prawns from Kota Marudu continues...

After a week, I remembered that I still have another 1kg of prawns from Marudu. Well, I decided not to do a rush job for this one & made it into a classic chinese style cooking.

Prawns ½ kg
2 Chopped Tomatoes
1 Chopped Green capsicum
Salt & pepper

Sauce:
Tomato Sauce
Sugar - 1 Teaspoon
Vinegar - 2 Chinese Spoon
Cornstarch

First, add constarch & salt to prawns plus a little water for the prawn batter. Deep/shallow fry the prawns for 7 minutes & put aside on a paper towel to absorb all oil.

As for the sauce, add garlic on a hot cooking pan with minimal oil. Add tomatoes/capsicum & stir. Then, add tomato sauce/sugar/vinegar/constarch (diluted) & allow the sauce to thicken.
Add some water if needed. When the sauce is ready, put all the prawns in for just a quick toss and turn before serve.

Serve 4

Crabs & Prawns (Shellfish)

Sabah is blest with an abundance of seafood. It's a waste if you're from this region & you don't like eating seafood. With Kota Kinabalu booming with tourism, it's only natural that the cost of eating seafood or eating out for that matter increases.

But one don't have to pay a premium if you buy your own seafood & cook 'em yourself :o)

Recently, I went to Kota Marudu & bought 2 kg of mud crabs (ketam bakau) & 2 kg of fresh prawns (udang kapas). You can buy them from the stalls along Marudu, Pitas highway. It was a real bargain! RM6 per kg for the crabs & RM18 per kg for the big prawns. Fresh & much cheaper compared to the ones around Kota Kinabalu. What a seafood galore I'd in the kitchen!

Mud Crabs

Best way to do this is to steam 'em
but clean thoroughly first.
The easiest way to kill crabs
without a hassle
is to soak them in ice water.
5 minutes would do the trick.

Another tip:
Never buy any crab that was
caught on a full moon!

Steamed Prawns with Soy Sauce & Ginger

As soon as I reached home,
I did a 20 minute steaming session
with the crabs and prawns in
a single steamer at the same time.
Yummy! All for the cost of RM30.