Salted Egg Yolk Prawns 蒜香黃金蝦 is a Singapore and Malaysian dish that has started a big salted egg yolk trend. The most popular is the salted egg yolk fish skin. They’re so addictive! I see it at all the Asian supermarkets with varying degrees of spiciness. You can find salted egg yolk flavoured potato chips too! I really like the rich sandiness that it adds to food. In the kitchen, besides prawns, you can add salted egg yolks to tofu, chicken wings, fried rice, lobster and crab.
I’m not from Singapore or Malaysia, but I believe that adding curry leaf to salted egg yolk dishes is a must. I have seen curry leaves at grocery stores but at the time I wanted to make this dish, they didn’t have it. And in Hong Kong style versions of this dish, they don't use curry leaves. So it might be an ingredient that is not readily available outside of Southeast Asia. But even without the curry leaves, the dish was still very delicious!
A lot of people ask…should I use fresh or frozen prawns? For me, I generally use fresh prawns when I blanche them and dip them in a chili soy sauce (白灼蝦). I find them very expensive and so I want to be able to appreciate their natural taste! I don’t like to stir-fry with the shell on because I feel like you waste yummy sauce on the shell that I have to peel off. And that gets my fingers all sticky which gets everything messy. If I don’t use my fingers, then it takes me forever to slowly bite off the shell. When I made my Prawns in Sweet Soy recipe, I used fresh prawns with the shell peeled off. It was a bit more work and you’ll need to use double the amount of prawns because fresh prawns will shrink tremendously without their shells.
Frozen prawns are usually all treated with STPP or sodium tripolyphosphate. It allows the meat of frozen shrimp and prawns to stay firm and retain water content. When you cook these frozen prawns, there is virtually no shrinkage. STPP is a GRAS (generally regarded as safe) additive. They can also make the prawns al dente in texture which is a good thing when making stir-fries, wontons, shrimp dumplings and spring rolls. So, the answer is….if you don’t mind peeling off the shell even if the sauce is on the shell or taking off the shell before cooking and just use double the amount of prawns, then fresh is the way to go. But if you’re like me, then frozen prawns are your best bet for this dish. Although I try to eat fresh, sometimes I just want things easy.
I used frozen prawns for my Salted Egg Yolk Prawns 蒜香黃金蝦 recipe and it was pretty simple and quick to make. The batter is light and crispy and the sauce went perfectly with it. Make it with rice, congee, noodles or as an appetizer. As I’m typing this post, I’m thinking that Salted egg yolk prawns would be great to put on top of Singapore Fried Rice Noodles! You can check out that recipe here.
If you like to deep-fry once in a while, consider getting a digital thermometer. I can now accurately determine the temperature of the oil before putting my food into it. Now, it’s so easy to get perfect results each time. No more guessing when the oil is ready. If you’re interested, check out the one I got from Amazon.
AstroAI Digital Laser Infrared Thermometer ( Not for Human) , 380 Non-Contact Thermomètre Infrarouge, Temperature Gun with Range of -58℉~716℉ (-50℃～380℃), Red, Cadeau
(As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases)
Salted Egg Yolk Prawns 蒜香黃金蝦
Ingredients
- 500 g Tiger prawns
- 4 Salted duck egg yolks
- 1 bulb Garlic , chopped
- 1 Egg
- 1 tbsp Shaoxing wine
- 3 tbsp Butter
- 4 tbsp Cornstarch
- 3 tbsp Oil for frying garlic
- 600 ml Oil for deep-frying
- ½ tsp Salt
- ½ tsp Sugar
- 1 stalk Green onions , chopped
Instructions
- Remove the prawn shell except for the tail
- Butterfly the prawns (make a deep cut on the backside of the prawn without cutting through to the front so that the prawn meat can open up like a butterfly)
- Devein the prawns
- Add 1 tbsp shaoxing wine to the prawns and mix well
- Separate the egg yolk from the egg white
- Add the egg white to the prawns and set the egg yolks aside
- Mix the egg whites with the prawns with your hands but be careful with the tail shell.
- Add 4 tbsp of cornstarch to the prawns, mix well with your hands and set aside
- Chop 1 stalk of green onions and set aside
- Chop 1 bulb of garlic into small pieces
- Heat 3 tbsp of oil using medium heat in a small pot and add chopped garlic
- Cook the garlic until it turns a golden colour and remove from heat
- Heat 600 ml oil to 150˚C or 300˚F. Add prawns one by one. Do not overcrowd to prevent them from sticking to one another.
- Fry for approx. 1-2 minutes or until light golden colour
- Rest the fried prawns on a cooling rack until all the prawns have been fried once
- Increase the heat on the oil and wait for the oil to get to 175˚C or 350˚F
- Put the prawns back into the oil for a second time until the colour is a golden colour. Should take around 1 minute to fry
- Remove from heat and rest them on a cooling rack
- In a pan or wok on medium heat, add 3 tbsp butter. Stir until melted
- Add 4 salted egg yolk into the melted butter, flatten with your spatula until the egg yolks have broken apart. Mix well with the butter until foamy
- Add the egg yolk to the butter mixture and keep stirring until smooth
- Add the fried prawns and fried garlic into yolks and stir-fry quickly
- Add ½ tsp salt and ½ tsp sugar and mix well
- Remove from heat
- Sprinkle with chopped green onions
- Serve
Leave a Reply