Name: Paper-Wrapped Prawns
Yield: Serves 4
Cuisine: China
Ingredients: 15 ml/1 tbsp cornflour/cornstarch; vegetable oil, for deep-frying; 16 tiger prawns/jumbo shrimp, peeled; 15 ml/1 tbsp oyster sauce; 5 ml/1 tsp ground black pepper; 5 ml/1 tsp caster/superfine sugar; 30 ml/2 tbsp sesame oil; 5 ml/1 tsp lime juice; 16 or more Chinese wafer pastry sheets; 60–75 ml/4–5 tbsp Kao Liang vinegar or sherry; 3–4 red chillies, finely chopped; a pinch of salt

Preparation info

Serves
4

Difficulty
Easy

Appears in

China

By Terry Tan

Published 2020

About

Unlike the inedible paper used for a similar Cantonese dish, the paper used for these parcels is completely edible. Sold as ‘wafer pastry’ in Chinese supermarkets, it is very delicate and needs deft and quick handling. The prawns are first seasoned with lime juice and oyster sauce then wrapped in the pastry and immediately fried to make them superbly crisp and light. Sesame oil is added to the vegetable oil to give a nutty fragrance.