Tamarind Prawn/Shrimp (Assam Prawn)

Assam (Tamarind) Prawn is one of my favorite Malaysian dish and requires minimal ingredients to cook! I found recipe for the Assam Prawn HERE, followed it and it turned out great! It’s been a long time since I’ve had some Assam Prawns and yesterday’s dinner of jumbo juicy assam prawns left me wanting to cook more!!!!!!

Tamarind pastes are hard to get in Western countries. However, you should be able to get some at any Asian stores selling either South East Asian or Indian food stuff. I got my block of tamarind from a local South East Asian grocery store. I forgot how much I paid for it, maybe less than $2.

ASSAM PRAWN RECIPE

Ingredients:

• 300gm Prawns, Shell On
• 4 Tbsp Assam (Tamarind) Paste
• 4 Tbsp Water
• 2 Tbsp Sugar
• 1 Tsp Salt
• Oil for Frying
• Dash of Dark Soya

Method:

Mixed Assam paste with water then add sugar, salt and dark so sauce. Add prawns to it and let it marinate for about 20 minutes. After 20 minutes, take the prawns out and sieve the rest of the Assam juice if available but it should be no more than 2-3 tbsps of thick gravy left. Discard the Assam pulp/pits.Heat oil in pan over medium high heat and fry the prawns till they are cooked. Remove the prawns once they are cook and set aside. In the same pan, pour in gravy and cook it until thick. Then toss the prawns into the gravy and coat it well.

June’s comments: All I had were shell on shrimps without the shrimp heads, which I deveined. After marinating the shrimps, I remove them from the marinate for frying and set the marinate aside along with the Assam pulps. I saved 1/2 of the Assam pulps, added about 2-3 more tablespoon of water to the marinate mixture as I like my Assam Prawns to have more gravy. Assam prawns are usually on the drier side. Enjoy!!