Serves: Makes 6 - Time:
If you’re up on culinary news you will have read about -or maybe even tasted-the famous lobster crumpets from Ottolenghi’s wonderful restaurant Rovi in London. While lobster may not be within everyone’s budget prawns are (and are easier to source) so it made sense for me to try and recreate those delicious crumpets with the cheaper option. These are basically Chinese prawn toasts with crumpets in place of sliced bread. I serve them with a salad and some soy sauce and sweet chilli sauce on the side for dipping.
Ingredients
- 410g raw peeled prawns
- 4 spring onions, trimmed and chopped
- 25g peeled root ginger, roughly chopped
- 1 large garlic clove, peeled and crushed
- 1 egg white
- ½ tablespoon soy sauce
- 1 teaspoon toasted sesame oil
- 1 teaspoon cornflour
- Small handful coriander leaves
- 6 crumpets
- 90g sesame seeds
- Vegetable oil for shallow frying
Method
- Put the prawns, spring onions, ginger, garlic, egg white, soy sauce, cornflour and coriander leaves in a food processor and blend to a smooth paste.
- Spread a generous layer of the prawn paste on top of each crumpet. At this stage you can chill the crumpets until you are ready to eat.
- Heat the oven to fan 150˚c, mark 3. Line a roasting tin with absorbent paper. Pour the sesame seeds into a dish and press each crumpet, prawn paste side down, into the sesame seeds. Tap off any excess seeds.
- Pour about 3-4 cm oil into a deep-sided sauté pan or deep frying pan (or you can use a deep-fryer). Heat the oil to 180˚c. Carefully lower two to three crumpets, seeded paste-side down into the hot oil and fry for two to three minutes until the seeds are golden. Carefully turn over and fry for one minute. Lift the crumpets out of the oil and drain on the paper. Keep warm in the oven while you fry the remaining crumpets. Serve as soon as possible with soy sauce and sweet chilli sauce on the side.
