Preparing Sesame Prawn Toasts

Sesame prawn toasts are a traditional Chinese Dim Sum starter. Ideal for using bread left over from the day before. It requires preparing a prawn paste for covering bread which is then deep fried. Serve with a sweet and sour sauce or soy sauce for dipping.

I’ve adapted what was one of Ken Hom’s signature dishes for the BBC. He was very clear that uncooked prawns had a better taste when it came to their use in this starter. The added egg binds the paste together and also puffs up the prawn paste when it is cooked. Some cornflower also helps just thicken up the paste too as earlier tests produced a paste surprisingly too runny for my fat fryer.

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Serves 4; preparation time: 30 minutes; Cooking time: 15 minutes – also includes chilling.

Ingredients:

• 400 g medium uncooked prawns, peeled, cleaned and deveined
• 1-2 teaspoons of salt
• 1 whole egg
• 2 green spring onions, finely chopped
• 2 – 3 teaspoons finely grated fresh ginger
• 1 tablespoon light soy sauce
• 1 teaspoon cornflower
• ¼ tsp ground white pepper
• 1 teaspoon sesame oil
• 6 – 8 slices day-old white bread and cut into two-bite size triangles or squares (3 inch by 1 inch is a rough size). ideally, the bread should be slightly stale!
  1 cup white sesame seeds – enough to fully cover the prawn paste when it is spread on the bread.
• approx. 15 fluid ounces of vegetable oil (groundnut or corn oil) for a wok or enough oil to deep-fry according to the manufacturer’s instructions.

Preparation of Sesame Prawn Toasts:

1. Put the uncooked prawns, salt, egg, chopped spring onions, ginger, soy sauce, cornflower, white pepper and sesame oil  into a food mixer with a blade. You can use a hand blender too. Just blitz until a smooth paste is created. If it is too runny, adding some more cornflower until it thickens and whizz again in the blender.
2. The paste will look like a pale gruel. It can be made up to 3 or hours in advance if kept in the fridge.
3. Take the bread pieces and cover with a liberal spread of prawn paste using a palette knife. This step cannot be done too much in advance as the bread becomes soggy. Keep producing the coated bread pieces. 
4. Sprinkle all of the bread pieces with sesame seeds.
5. Set up a deep fat fryer (350F/190C) or add oil to a wok which you heat up. A wok will need according to Ken Hom just 15 fluid ounces of vegetable oil. You know the oil is hot enough when you drop a piece of food in and it floats back up and starts frying.
6. With a deep fat fryer, put the basket into the oil and then lift up. Place the bread pieces, paste downwards onto the basket mesh. These will float to the top because the paste needs to be fully cooked. A basket will take a layer of bread pieces. Don’t have two layers as overcrowding will not help cook the pieces. Cook for 2 or 3 minutes until they are well toasted and golden-brown. 
7. They are done when you press them and they are firm with a slight give.