So, it was our anniversary a few days ago. As I’ve said before, we aren’t big on celebrations. We either go out for lunch or dinner and there ends our celebration. We aren’t big on giving gifts or writing sappy love notes on social media. Yeah, looks like we’ve become an old-boring-married-couple!
Now that reminds me of something… sometimes on weekends or may be weekdays, when we are at home at night just watching a movie or reading, I suddenly get panic attacks! The feeling of “old boring married couple” surfaces without any warning and I drag Jose out of the house saying, we are young and we should be out (‘doing what?’ he asks, ‘doing something… anything’, I reply) and he humors me most of the time.
But the irony is.. we end up going to the video shop and get more DVDs. If you’re wondering, we are still watching it on DVD (Netflix and Amazon Prime are not good for my binge watching behaviour).
Though I discarded “sappy notes” as old newspaper, a few sentences ago, it being our anniversary and all, I’m allowed to… may be indulge in a teeny tiny bit of sappiness.
So, we do go to places other than video shop, if it’s summer time, we may go get an ice cream at 12 in the night or we just go to our special place near the waterfront and listen to our fav music.
Ok, enough of that.
Now, back to our lunch conversation… since we were eating out quite a lot for the last few weeks, we (I can hear an echo in the background “you… YOU decided, not me) decided to skip the lunch/dinner plan for our anniversary.
Since eating out was ruled out, I decided to cook something special for our anniversary.
We both share an unconditional love for fried food. So I decided to combine two of our fav fried food recipes – Prawns Tempura and Dynamite Shrimp.
Though we love Dynamite shrimp, I’ve come across a few who aren't a big fan of the same. If, that’s the case this recipe works well for you too. I made Prawns Tempura with Dynamite sauce as a dip on the side. So, if you don't like the flavour of Dynamite shrimp, skip the sauce and just make the tempura. If you like it, then coat the prawns tempura with dynamite sauce.
I wouldn't say the dynamite sauce is exactly same as P.F. Chang’s, but it’s very similar. We had dynamite sauce as a dip and also coated the prawns with the sauce.
The tempura batter was spot on and ensured a crispy and crunchy Prawns Tempura. The sauce had a great flavour with well balanced sweetness, sourness and spiciness. Also, once you've cleaned prawns in hand, it hardly takes any time and effort to make this. This recipe is great for entertaining or for a special occasion.
Me and the previously referred “echo” were both happy with the whole thing. For a change, it was nice to hole up at home and have a quiet meal.
Here is the recipe…
Combine Plain flour and cornflour. Season with salt & pepper. Whisk together egg white and club soda…
Add flour mixture to the liquid mixture and gently fold in the batter. Coat cleaned prawns in plain flour (3-4) tbsp and shake off excess flour…
Dip the coated prawns in the batter…
Heat oil in a medium size frying pan and add the battered prawns to oil. Fry for 2-3 mins on each side or till it becomes golden brown in colour. Fry the prawns in batches and make sure you dont crowd the pan with prawns…
To make Dynamite sauce:
Combine all the ingredients listed under Dynamite sauce, with a fork or whisk, till everything is incorporated. Add more honey or chilli powder or vinegar to balance the sauce…
Ingredients
- 350-400 gms Prawns (measured after cleaning)
For Tempura Batter
- 3/4 cup Plain flour
- 1/4 cup Cornflour
- 1 Egg white
- 1 cup Soda water / club soda
- Salt & Pepper (to taste)
- 3-4 tbsp Plain flour
For Dynamite Sauce
- 1/4 cup Mayonnaise
- 2-2.5 tbsp Hot sauce / Chilli sauce
- 1.5 tbsp Tomato Ketchup
- 1/4 tsp Chilli powder
- 1 tsp Honey
- 1 clove Garlic (minced)
- 1/4 tsp Sesame oil
- 1/2 - 1 tsp Vinegar
Instructions
- To make Tempura Batter:
- Combine Plain flour and cornflour. Season with salt & pepper. Whisk together egg white and club soda. Add flour mixture to the liquid mixture and gently fold in the batter. Coat cleaned prawns in plain flour (3-4) tbsp and shake off excess flour.
- Heat oil in a medium size frying pan. Dip the coated prawns in the batter and add to oil. Fry for 2-3 mins on each side or till it becomes golden brown in colour. Fry the prawns in batches and make sure you dont crowd the pan with prawns.
- Serve hot with Dynamite sauce or sweet chilli sauce.
- To make Dynamite sauce:
- Combine all the ingredients listed under Dynamite sauce, with a fork or whisk, till everything is incorporated. Add more honey or chilli powder or vinegar to balance the sauce.
Notes
I guess you can also use fish fillet instead of prawns. Cut the fillet into thin strips or small cubes, according to your preference and follow the rest of the recipe.
If you want to serve it as dynamite prawns, add the fried prawns to the sauce and mix gently. Make sure the fried prawns are coated with the sauce.
Make sure you dont over cook the prawns.
