Those Blardy Prawns

i love seafood. especially crustacean & shellfish.
perhaps it stemmed from a family that limited such indulges to festive/ red letter days (cos they are pricey) & largely cos my dad ain't one of their biggest fans.

i love my prawns whole, ie head & shell. in fact, i tend to ingest them whole too (save for the pointy bits in the head and the tough bits in the tail). i guess that provides some form of calcium intake and may even save some moolah on buying calcium pills.

this is a version that is adapted from the familiar ketchup prawns that most mums would whip up. what's different is that it's a whole lot more prawny, pastey and spicy, just the way i like it. sure to give u a cholesterol kick too but hey once in a while...should be ok lah.

ingredients

• half kg prawns (i used banana prawns...any medium sized proawns will do)
• 2 chopped tomatoes
• garlic (finely chopped)
• ginger (finely chopped. ratio of ginger to garlic = 1:2)
• ground pepper
• ketchup/tomato paste
• chilli sauce (optional)
  
• chopped chilli
• chopped spring onion (as garnish)
  
• 2-3 tbsp dark soy sauce
• sugar (to taste)
• fish sauce/salt (to taste)
• 5 tbsp chinese cooking wine
  

recipe

• trim off legs, eyes and feelers of prawns. when you snip off the front part of the head, you'll cut into the head. that's good cos you'd want the prawnliness to be extracted from those exposed heads
• brown garlic, ginger and reduce tomatotes in same pot at mid heat
  
• add in prawns, stir and let cook till 60% cooked
• add pepper, ketchup/tomato paste, chilli sauce, soy sauce, sugar, fish sauce
• once prawns are alomost cooked, turn heat down and add cooking wine
• close lid and let simmer till prawns are all cooked and gravy is reduced
• add garnish & serve