Gong bao prawns with cashew nuts

Mouse
Aug 7, 2024
2 min read

A classic Sichuan Chinese recipe by Fuchsia Dunlop from The Guardian Sat 9 Nov 2019

Delicious with plain jasmine rice and beansprouts

Planning

Prep 30 mins

Marinate 2 hours

Cook 30 mins

Serves 4 - just halve quantities for two

Ingredients

250g peeled raw prawns, fresh or frozen and defrosted
300ml cooking oil
1 celery stick, or other veg of choice
10 dried chillies, deseeded, cut into 2cm sections
½ tsp whole Sichuan peppercorns
2 garlic cloves, peeled and thinly sliced
An equivalent amount of ginger, peeled and thinly sliced
5 spring onion whites, cut into 1cm slices
75g fried or roasted cashew nuts

For the marinade

¼ tsp salt
1 tsp Shaoxing rice wine
2 tbsp potato starch
1 tbsp egg white

For the sauce

3 tsp caster sugar
¼ tsp potato starch
1 tsp Shaoxing wine
1 tsp light soy sauce
2 ½ tsp Chinkiang black rice vinegar

With a sharp knife, make a slit lengthways down the back of each prawn, through the thickest part. Put in a bowl, add the marinade ingredients and refrigerate, ideally for a few hours. Snip the chillies in half or into 2cm sections and shake out the seeds as far as possible. Cut the spring onion whites into 1cm slices. Cut the celery at an angle into diamond shapes. Mix the sauce ingredients with one and a half tablespoons of cold water in a small bowl.

Heat the oil in a seasoned wok to (hot enough to produce a notable, though not violent,sizzle around a test prawn). Add the prawns, separating them with long cooking chopsticks or tongs, then add the celery. When the prawns are half-cooked, remove them and the celery with a slotted spoon and set aside.

Carefully pour off all but about three tablespoons of the oil from the wok and return to a high flame. Add the chillies and Sichuan pepper and stir-fry briefly until the chillies are fragrant. Add the garlic, ginger and spring onion whites, and stir-fry until fragrant. Tip in the prawns and celery and stir-fry until just cooked (test a prawn to make sure). Give the sauce a stir, pour into the wok and stir to thicken and coat the prawns. Finally, stir in the cashew nuts and serve.