Cereal Butter Prawns

Name: Cereal Butter Prawns
Yield: Serves 4
Cuisine: Singaporean
Ingredients: 1 tablespoon chicken bouillon powder; 2 tablespoons cornflour (cornstarch); 2 tablespoons plain (all-purpose) flour; 1 teaspoon caster (superfine) sugar; 1 egg, whisked; 1 tablespoon milk powder; 1 teaspoon salt; 15 curry leaves; 1 cup (105 g) Nestum cereal (see Note) or quick oats; 2 birdseye chillies, sliced; Vegetable oil, for shallow frying, plus 1 tablespoon extra; 30 g (1 oz) butter; 500 g (1 lb 2 oz) raw prawns (shrimp)

Preparation info

Serves
4

Difficulty
Easy

Appears in

Chinese-ish

By Joanna Hu and Rosheen Kaul

Published 2022

About

If you associate the word ‘cereal’ with Weet-Bix, Nutri-Grain or Froot Loops, then cereal butter prawns might sound like a pretty horrid concept. In reality, this crunchy, buttery, aromatic savoury dish is another Singaporean zi char favourite. To achieve the crunchy coating, it’s customary to use Nestum (a coarsely milled mixed-grain cereal) tossed through butter that has been spiked with birdseye chillies and aromatic curry leaves. It’s nice to stick to the original method by keepi