Thursday, March 11, 2010

Deep Fried Mantis Prawn (Squilla Mantis, lai lui har) with Flour Recipe – Shaolin Mantis Anyone?

During the seventies, no one would want to eat mantis prawns and they are often discarded by fishermen. The craze of eating mantis prawn started after a few pioneer seafood restaurants began introducing mantis prawn dish. I remember catching mantis prawn in Butterworth beach during low tides. I would look for mud holes with bubble coming out which is the mantis prawn hideout in the sand. Then I would start digging around the mud funnels. Then I would throw a few pebbles into the hole and when the mantis prawn comes out to investigate, I would catch it. The best way to cook it then is to throw it into my mom’s charcoal fire! Those were the good old days!

Ingredients
Mantis prawns, shelled, 300 gms
Flour, corn flour, rice flour in equal portion to make up a cup
Pepper, 1/ 2 teaspoon
Salt, 2 teaspoon or to taste
Cumin, ½ teaspoon
Coriander, ½ teaspoon
A little baking soda

Mix flour, corn flour, rice flour, pepper, salt, cumin, baking soda and coriander thoroughly. Heat up oil for deep frying in wok. Coat mantis prawn with flour and deep fry to 2 minutes the most. Drain away excess oil and serve!

11 comments:

tuti said...

i always read this as eating praying mantis. >.<"

fufu said...

i miss prawn/shrimps very much... couldnt find any fresh one here >< all frozen and from africa T.T

cleffairy said...

=( I like mantis prawns, but they dun have much meat. :( Better to use them as stock for prawn mee...

Christine said...

yummy!

Velva said...

How interesting. I like your story about you caught the mantis prawn in the good ol' days. I guess this was a treat that needed to be discovered. Thanks for sharing.

mNhL said...

Have to use so many type of flour to fried? I love to eat mantis prawn too. Especially 'kong po' style.

Pete said...

Tuti: Fried praying mantis, nice! ha ha ha!

Fufu :wow, have to import all the way from South Africa!

Cleffairy : It is good for prawn mee stock, agree!

Christine : Can you get his type of prawn in your place?

Cheryl : It looks totally different from shrimps...will snap a photo if I come across this prawn in the market.

Molly : Agree, kids like it very much!

Manglish : Ha ha, this one bought from the wet market, small. All the big ones, restaurant sapu aledy! LOL!

Velva: Real interesting to catch them!

Mnhl : I mix these three flour so that it will stick well to the prawns and also make it crispy. Sometime I cook kong po style also.

Unknown said...

Thank you for sharing this lovely recipe ..I love prawns and will try this :)

smallkucing said...

Eat syok wor but see the shell, i geli to shell it. To me it looks like lipas

Sushma Mallya said...

looks delicious...

no-1 said...

瀨尿蝦 is spelled Lai Liu Haa.