Marco Polo Prawns

Marco Polo did a lot to bring Asian culture into Europe. Some of the cuisine he shared was noodles. Or pasta, if we want to call a wheat noodle by a name.

A feature of both Italian and Asian noodles is to finish the cooking in the sauce. That is different to the Australian version of pouring the sauce over the noodles on the plate.

Cooking is based around two pans (a wok and a saucepan), initially I used gas on the outdoor BBQ but with the advent of “induction” cook tops, this recipe uses a heavy flat based wok and a saucepan to minimise washing up.

Serves 2-3

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Green Beans

• about 20 green beans topped and tailed, then cut in half
• 2 teaspoons of fish sauce (not a stock just the standard bottle sauce) stirred through the beans and set aside in a microwave dish

Sweet Capsicum

• 2 red capsicums diced into 1 cm cubes
• a heaped desert spoon of brown sugar (not white or granulated)

Put both of them in a bowl at room temperature, stir and set aside covered while you peel the prawns.

Green Prawns

• 1 cayenne chilli finely chopped with seeds retained

In a bowl mix and set aside

• 2 heaped desert spoons of Tom Yum paste (not laksa, must be a good Thai brand like the one in the photo)
• 100 ml of coconut milk (coconut cream is too heavy for this dish)
• 100ml of coconut water (or replace with coconut milk if you want it to be creamy)

Fun time – peel the prawns and devein

• 300-400g of green prawns
• or a soft flaky fish like skinned Barramundi cubed up, may be more economical.

Noodles

• 1 “roll” of Raman wheat noodles (can be a heavier pasta but we are trying to make this a “light” dish.

 

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Cooking

Oil the wok with olive oil and set on 7/10 heat.

Tip in the caramelised capsicum and stir fry for about 5 minutes

Turn the heat to 1/10, cover and simmer.

Set the 2/3 water filled saucepan beside the wok and use 10/10 heat to boil

Transfer the capsicum to a covered serving bowl

Reoil the wok at 3/10 heat and cook the cayenne chilli and seeds to infuse the oil.

Set the heat to 7/10 and add the prawns, lightly tossing them with drizzles of oil to sear them.

Add the Tom Yum and coconut milk/water and simmer at 3/10 heat.

The water has boiled so add the noodles and 3/4 cook them.

Use tongs to haul the noodles out and cut them with scissors so short lengths fall into the prawn wok.

If the prawn dish looks too sticky, use a ladle to spoon the starch water out of the noodle saucepan until you are happy with the consistency.

Zap the beans in the microwave for about 2 -3 minutes (they should have some crunch).

Plate up with the flaked almonds as garnish on the beans.