Prawn cakes

By: Luke Nguyen
From: Luke Nguyen's Greater Mekong
Makes: 12
Photographer: Stuart Scott

On Friday and Saturday evenings, the grounds outside the Royal Palace turn into street-food heaven. Vendors sell all the local favourites: steamed duck embryo egg, snails tossed with lemongrass and chilli, fish soup with noodles, rice paper rolls, chargrilled pork sausage, dried squid, and of course cold beer to wash it all down. Locals hire bamboo mats and sit on the ground outside the palace enjoying the goods on offer. To see the royal family on one side of the wall, and the other side lined with street food and locals, is such a buzz. When pan-frying these prawn cakes, make them as flat and thin as you can before transferring them to the deep-frying oil.

Ingredients

Quantity	Ingredient
125g	tempura flour
200g	raw prawn meat, finely chopped
	vegetable oil, for deep-frying

Lime dipping sauce

Quantity	Ingredient
250ml	lime juice
1 teaspoon	freshly ground black pepper
1 teaspoon	sea salt

Method

Combine the lime dipping sauce ingredients in a bowl and stir until the salt has dissolved. Set aside.
In a mixing bowl, whisk the flour with 185 ml water to form a smooth batter. Add the prawn meat and mix again.
Heat 80 ml vegetable oil in a large frying pan over medium heat. In a wok, also heat enough vegetable oil for deep-frying to 180°C, or until a cube of bread dropped into the oil browns in 15 seconds.
For each prawn cake, add 2 tablespoons of the prawns mixture to the frying pan; as soon as the mixture hits the pan, flatten each cake, using the spoon or a spatula, to about 2.5mm. Fry for 1 minute, then transfer to the wok and deep-fry for 5 minutes on each side. Drain on paper towels.
Serve warm, with the lime dipping sauce.