I recently took the kids to a Chinese cafe to try out some Chinese food – the only thing they ate was rice and prawn toasts, which they LOVED. We simplified an already straightforward sounding BBC recipe and tried making them at home: using a food processor you blitz prawns, cornflour, an egg white, garlic and spring onion, spread the mixture on bread, press on to sesame seeds then fry. They are crunchy, delicious and authentic tasting!
My kids were ‘busy playing batpowder’ (whatever that means) so only helped a little – cutting bread in to (vague) triangle shapes and operating the food processor.
I strongly believe every second counts when ‘cooking with kids’ – somedays they might want to get really involved, other days they give just 10 seconds of their time and other days completely refuse. But it is all experience and it is good for them to see the process!
You could prepare the prawn paste in advance if you want to save time later, and store any leftovers in the fridge. Allow around 25 minutes to make the prawn toasts, depending on how much the kids get involved (or not!) The toasts are great with sweet chilli sauce, for dipping. We ate them with strawberries, a bit of an odd combination but we like both so why not.
Prawn toasts (serves 4 as a snack or part of a meal)
4 pieces of bread, crusts removed
1/2 cup of cooked prawns i.e. pink!
2 spring onions (white bit only)
1/2 clove garlic
1/2 white of an egg
Dessert spoon of cornflour
Sesame seeds
For frying – vegetable or sunflower oil
Put all the ingredients apart from the sesame seeds and oil in a food processor and blend until they are a paste. Cut each piece of bread in to four triangles. Spread the prawn mixture on to one side of each of the bread triangles and press down. Fill a wide bowl or plate with sesame seeds and press each triangle in to it, so a layer of sesame seeds stick to the prawn paste.
Fill a saucepan with around 1/2 inch of sunflower or vegetable oil and once hot (but not smoking) plop in the breads for about 30 seconds on the plain side and around 1 minute on the prawn and sesame side until deep golden (this will vary a little so use your own judgement). Use a slotted spoon to turn them over if you have one, otherwise a tablespoon will work (just make sure any excess oil drips off after they are cooked!) Eat.
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