Sweet and Sour Prawns Recipe

I don’t regularly cook seafood because it is a little bit pricey in comparison to red meat. Even if I buy the frozen option, the price for seafood can be double the price of a kilo of flank steak when bought from the butcher! There are cheaper fish options but I don’t want to keep on eating fish fillets of cod or haddock every time! So even if it’s a little bit pricey, there are times I want to have some prawns or salmon, too. So I just try not to buy the expensive meat pieces, cuts, or seafood all in a single month.
One of my favorite seafood dishes is sweet and sour. I usually cook this recipe with fish but because it’s been a while since we had prawns, I decided to use the sweet and sour recipe for prawns instead. The result ended up with a mildly tangy and sweet viand that I can easily eat because I used frozen peeled prawns for this. It would’ve been a lot better if I was able to buy fresh prawns. But for this recipe, the only easier (and cheaper) option available is the frozen variant.

Recipe:

800 g frozen peeled prawns
10 tbsp tomato ketchup
1 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp rice vinegar
juice of 1 lemon
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 small onion, chopped
1-2 tbsp fresh coriander leaves, chopped
1 egg
2 tbsp vegetable oil
2 tbsp soy sauce
2 tbsp oyster sauce
salt and pepper to taste
1 tsp cornstarch dissolved in 2 tbsp water
1/4 cup water
1/4 c red bell pepper, cut into thin strips
1/4 c carrots, cut into thin strips

Steps:

In a pan, put the oil in and when it is hot enough, add the garlic and cook until golden brown. Add the onion and saute until translucent.
Add the prawns and cook for about 2 minutes. Once the prawns start to turn orange, remove from heat and set aside (you have to do this to avoid overcooking the prawns).
Add the tomato ketchup, soy sauce, rice vinegar, lemon juice, sugar, water and oyster sauce a small bowl. Make sure to mix it quickly before pouring into the sauce pan. Wait for the mixture to start bubbling and make sure to reduce the heat to avoid burning the sauce. Have a look if the sauce is still too thick or starts to get burnt – you might have to add a little bit more water to dilute it.
Have a taste of the sauce and add more seasoning (salt and pepper) to adjust according to your taste buds.
When the taste suits your palate, add in the carrot and bell pepper strips. Get a small bowl and lightly beat the egg. Add the egg gradually to the sauce while making a small stirring motion on the sauce. This will prevent the egg from getting cooked as a whole lump.
When the sauce starts to boil, add in the prawns and cornstarch mix.
Stir in to mix the cornstarch and simmer for 2 minutes.
Remove from heat and garnish with coriander leaves.