Recipe
Easy Stir-Fry: Prawns in Chili Sauce & Ketchup
Prep Time:
Cook Time:
Yield:
Have you ever questioned yourself the difference between shrimp and prawn? Do you say shrimp or prawn? For me, I have always been using the term prawn. I have this idea that shrimp is slightly smaller than prawn. They both apparently are quite similar looking, but, in reality, they are not that similar. Anyway, this has been in my head for quite a while and until recently, I decided to look up the differences between shrimp and prawn.
Based on the research that I have done on the internet, I have learnt that not only shrimp and prawn are not alike, the term of shrimp or prawn is used because of difference in culture too. In the UK, prawn is used to refer to both prawn and shrimp, while shrimp is a common term use to refer to both shrimp and prawn in the US. According to Wikipedia, both are decapod crustaceans, meaning they have exoskeletons and 10 legs. They are found in fresh and salt water. Appearance wise, they could look pretty similar. However, a number of the differences are: prawn is slightly larger than shrimp. Apart from that, it was found that prawn’s legs are longer than those of shrimp’s. Prawn has transparent shell compared to more pigmented/coloured shell of shrimp.
After all, I don’t really think that they are so different from each other. I guess, for me, it’s probably just a matter of term used that makes us thing both are different. Anyway, I guess, prawns are probably what I normally buy and I don’t really check if they are prawns or shrimps. For a seafood lover like me, prawns or shrimps, they are fine for me, I love both!
You probably recall the post about my visit to a fishing port in Kuala Perlis, Malaysia. There are 2 photos of prawns that were freshly caught. When I looked at them again, I really wish I could get those fresh salt water prawns here! I craved for the one of the dishes that my mom made when I was back home. Well, I could have bought some big fat prawns from the fish market but I didn’t as they cost a bomb! So, without much choices, I resorted to frozen ones and I think they were farmed. Anyway, that aside, I got my prawns and I was happy that at least, I could recreate the taste of home. (Yes, I still feel homesick!)
This simple dish, I call prawns in chili sauce and ketchup. To be honest, it is such a humble dish that you only need to have a few ingredients. But, taste wise, it is so delicious that I think I ended up eating more than 10 prawns!! So, that’s the revenge of not having prawns for quite a while (actually just a few weeks!). I am pretty sure for seafood lovers (or prawn/shrimp lovers), you will love this!
One thing about this recipe, I leave the heads and shells on for one reason – better taste! As I deep fried prawns before cooking them again in the sauce, I think all the flavours of the prawns were captured in the shells. I did trim away the legs, pincers, antennal scale, antenna, and rostrum of each prawn. And of course, deveined them! For those who are not comfortable to leave the heads and shells on, you can still make this, but, I think the taste will be slightly different.
Easy Stir-Fry: Prawns in Chili Sauce & Ketchup
Prep Time:
Cook Time:
Yield:
Ingredients:
For the Easy Stir-Fry: Prawns in Chili Sauce & Ketchup:
1kg tiger prawns, shelled on
2cm piece ginger, thinly sliced
3 spring onion
1 onion, cut into wedges
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 chilli, sliced (optional)
2 tbsp sunflower oil
Sauce:
2 tbsp ketchup
3 tbsp Maggi chilli sauce
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp dark soya sauce
1 tbsp soya sauce
2-3 tbsp water
Method:
1. In a wok and deep frying pan, heat up enough vegetable oil to cover prawns when frying. When it is warm, shallow fry prawns in batches for about 5-6 minutes or until pink. Repeat until the whole batch finishes, set aside.
2. In a new pan, pour over 1 tbsp spoon of the vegetable oil. Under medium heat, put in garlic, onion and ginger. Cook until soft. Mix all the ingredients for the sauce and add into the pan. Stir well.
3. Add in cooked prawns, spring onions and cut fresh chili (if using). Cook and stir for another 5 minutes. Serve hot.
Term prawn and shrimp are sometime making people confused. In Canada, we use both. I always say prawn for larger size and shrimp for small ones.
Canadian English is totally confusing too LOL. We accept both British and American spellings. Some people write American English, some uses British spelling.
It's not only in pronunciation. Canada uses two measurements, metric and US measurements. When talking about weather temperature, we use Celsius. But it will be different for kitchen (oven), we use Fahrenheit.
Btw, do you like prawn balado?
Wow… I didn't know that in Canada it can get that confusing!!
I haven't tried prawn balado, have you got a recipe to share?
Here is the recipe http://indonesia-eats.blogspot.com/2008/08/all-ab… .Just substitute ikan tenggiri, petai and eggplants for prawn.
Cool, thanks! Will definitely try!
Mmmm….my favourite! I just love prawns. Whether it's called shrimps or prawns it doesn't matter to me as long as it looks like what's in your dish 😀
This is my favourite dish… 🙂 Do give it a try and let me know what you think?
Looks delicious! Here in Australia we refer to prawns being of the larger variety and shrimps being the small
That's exactly the same as how the term prawns and shrimps used here.
These look really delicious, and thanks for doing the research for us. I've been wondering what the difference is for a while. I've never cooked shrimp or prawns though, so now I'll have to search for how to clean them to remove the inedible parts.
It's fairly easy to clean them.. devein is the most important bit.
Lovely! I am a prawn lover too! This dish is so familiar, we can find it almost at every home in Malaysia. Can't resist the temptation of this simple yet delicious dish! 🙂
It's a real comfort dish.. my mom cooks it a lot with fresh salt water prawns back home.
I promise you I will make this dish. It looks amazing. I always knew there was a diff between prawns and shrimps, but I didn't know what it was! Hahaha! But I think in SE Asia, we usually call 'prawns', right?
yum… my mum used squids instead of prawns… must be the Kedah style of cooking,.. 🙂
It must taste really good with squids too! Do you parboil the squids first?
Kedah style of cooking is yummm..
yes … parboiled first
just cooked it over a month ago but the photo tak cantik… kena masak lagi sekali…:S
Ah ok!! Next time masak then share with us!
This is my favourite especially when the fresh water prawns are used 🙂 Looks fantastic!
Thanks! 🙂
I think simplicity is the best and this recipe says it all!
Thank you.. 🙂
I’m currently learning on prawn recipe. I’ll try this out soon. 🙂
I googled on the difference between shrimp and prawns too. Unless I have 2 of them with me, otherwise, I still cannot differentiate them.
I don't know if I have ever cooked shrimps.. Let me know once you try this!
Yeah, I think in SE Asia, we tend to call prawns than shrimps.. I think those that we get back home are prawns..
Let me know if you like it once you have tried this dish out!
I was also confused when I first moved to the US. All the prawns I see, they call it shrimps. In Singapore, shrimps are just Hei Bi (the dried shrimps). :O…
hahahha…so funny!
Yeah.. the dried shrimps… Hei Bi! I think that's the only time I hear shrimps.
I alway thought that prawns and shrimps are the same, and the terms are just being used in the UK and US differently!
This is a prawn dish that my mom makes often and it’s my all time comfort dish!
It is my favourite dish ever too!
I’m as confused as you too! Luckily, it is quite straight forward in Chinese. I had tried using the same seasonings before but with a little adjustment. Instead of dark soya sauce and soya sauce, I used oyster sauce. Your prawns look finger-lick’g good!! I feel homesick too. 🙁
Definitely less confusing in Chinese.. there's only one word represents prawn/shrimp and we use big/small to refer to the size.
Ah, cool, next time I should try with soya sauce..
I will lick the sauce off the shells. Good to the last drop 🙂
ehehhehe… same here!
The word “easy” drew me to this. A must-try, I think!
Give it a try and let me know what you think!
Prawns! I always thought it's shrimps in the US, like eggplant and aubergine.
Yup!! Exactly.. just like scallion and spring onion too..
I agree, I have been confused with shrimps and prawns. I call it prawns in Malaysia and now that I am in the USA, it has become shrimp…
I always use the term prawns… hehe
I have been wondering for the longest time too about shrimps and prawns.. but unlike you, i never got around to find out. Heh.
I make this dish often.. but sadly, i have to omit the chili sauce, otherwise the little ones can't eat. Perhaps i should whip up this dish with chili sauce just one time!
I use Maggi chili sauce, it's not that spicy..