Crispy Ginger Prawns

Method

1. Dry the prawns properly. Rinse, then pat with kitchen paper and leave them spread on a dry towel for 10 minutes. Toss with the Shaoxing wine and salt and pat dry again. This sounds excessive and it is the difference between batter that grips and batter that puffs into an empty shell.
2. Mix the batter just before frying. Whisk the egg, then the cornflour, flour and baking powder, then the cold sparkling water, to the thickness of single cream. Lumps are fine; overmixing is not.
3. Make the sauce and reduce it. Heat the oil in a wide pan over medium, fry the ginger for 2 minutes until fragrant and just starting to colour at the edges, then the garlic and chilli for 30 seconds. Add the soy sauce, rice vinegar, sugar and water and simmer 3 to 4 minutes until syrupy and sheeting off a spoon. Take it off the heat.
4. First fry at 175°C. Dip prawns in the batter, let the excess drip, and fry in batches for about 2 minutes until pale gold. Drain on a rack. Prawns need very little time; you are cooking the batter more than the prawn.
5. Second fry at 195°C, 45 to 60 seconds per batch, until deep golden and rattling.
6. Toss off the heat, briefly. Return the sauce pan to a low heat for a few seconds to loosen, take it off, tip in the prawns and scallions and toss for no more than 15 seconds. Serve at once.

Variations

• Deep fried prawns. Stop after the second fry and serve with a dipping sauce rather than tossing, which is the plain version on the menu. Sixteen large prawns is the usual portion.
• Crispy ginger chicken. 600 g chicken thigh in 3 cm pieces, first fry 4 minutes, second fry 90 seconds.
• Crispy ginger tofu. 500 g firm tofu, pressed hard and cubed, battered and fried the same way.
• Milder. Leave out the fresh chilli entirely. The dish is about ginger heat rather than chilli heat, and it works completely without.

Notes

• Julienne the ginger, do not grate it. Fifty grams sounds like a lot; it is the point of the dish, and visible strands are what tells you this is ginger prawns and not sweet and sour. The same rule applies to ginger beef.
• Reduce the sauce before the prawns arrive. A thin sauce soaks straight into the crust.
• Prawns overcook in seconds. A loose C is right, a tight O is overdone. If in doubt, pull them early; the second fry finishes them.
• Not a dish that keeps. Eat it immediately.

Ingredient substitutions

• Sparkling water keeps the batter light, but plain cold water works. The batter will simply be slightly denser.
• Rice vinegar can be cider vinegar or white wine vinegar, both sharper, so use a little less.
• Shaoxing wine substitutes with dry sherry.