Prawn + sesame toast with spring onion purée

By: Darren Purchese
From: Chefs Eat Toasties Too
Makes: 4
Photographer: Brendan Homan

I have a thing for prawn toast. It reminds me of the takeaway Chinese food I had with my parents and sister when I was younger. Dad liked lemon chicken, Mum liked anything with king prawns, my sister Emma always had special fried rice and barbecued pork rib things, and I loved all of it – but especially prawn toast.

Ingredients

Quantity	Ingredient
20g	spring onions, white part only
80ml	light olive oil
250ml	chicken stock
1/2 bunch	chives, finely chopped
	salt flakes
	white pepper
180ml	sesame oil
200g	king prawns, peeled and deveined
1 tablespoon	peeled and finely grated fresh ginger
2	garlic cloves, finely grated
2	birds eye chillies, seeded and thinly sliced
1	egg white
2 tablespoons	soy sauce
1 tablespoon	sesame oil
4 tablespoons	sesame seeds
1 litre	canola or sunflower oil, for frying
4 slices	white sandwich bread, crusts cut off, each slice cut into 2 thick fingers

Method

To make the spring onion purée, grill half the spring onions on a hot barbecue or in a cast-iron grill pan to achieve a charred and smoky finish. Remove from the heat, allow them to cool, then chop the onions finely.
Setting aside a small handful for garnish, slice the remaining raw spring onions thinly.
Add the olive oil to a saucepan over low heat and gently sauté the sliced spring onions for a few minutes until soft. Add the chicken stock to the pan and cook for a few minutes until most of the liquid has evaporated. Remove from the heat and add the sliced, charred spring onions and half the chopped chives. Season with salt and pepper and transfer the mixture to a blender. Blitz until you have a textured purée, then blend in the sesame oil. Set aside in the refrigerator.
For the prawn mix, put the prawns, ginger, garlic, one of the chillies, the egg white, soy sauce and sesame oil in a food processor and blitz until you have a smooth mixture. Transfer the mixture to a bowl and add the remaining chives. Stir to mix well.
Spread the prawn mixture evenly onto the eight fingers of bread. Press the sesame seeds onto the prawn part of each slice and shake off the excess.
Heat the canola oil in a deep-fryer or deep saucepan to 180°C, using a thermometer to check the temperature. Fry one toast at a time for around 3–5 minutes or until you have a crisp and golden-brown crust. Remove the toast carefully with tongs and reserve it on a rack in a warm oven while you cook the remaining slices
Serve two fingers per person with the spring onion purée and the reserved sliced spring onion and remaining chilli, sliced.