King prawns in pandanus leaves

King prawns in pandanus leaves

1. To prepare the sauce, Daniel Gendre of Aphrodite Restaurant
combines 150g red chili, three cloves of garlic, 30g ginger, 40g
galangal, 10g turmeric and seven pcs shallot, and finely crushes
the ingredients. He stir-fries the spices in 50ml cooking oil
until fragrant and then pours in 200ml chicken stock and allows
to simmer. He adds two sticks of lemon grass, 10g brown sugar,
150ml coconut milk, salt and pepper. He sieves the sauce and
keeps it warm.

2. To prepare the prawns for four servings, Gendre uses 16
king prawns (headless and cleaned) and marinates them with 1 tsp
lemon juice, 1 tsp Worcestershire sauce and sets them aside for
10 minutes. He cuts four to six pandanus leaves into two-
centimeter-wide bands and blanches them in hot water. He gently
wraps the king prawns in the leaves and secures with toothpicks
before deep frying them in hot oil. To make the rice, Gendre
melts 40g unsalted butter in a frying pan and stirs in 20g
roasted pine nuts and 400g cooked rice. He seasons with salt and
pepper and sautes for two to three minutes.

3. To serve, Gendre places one dome of buttered rice in the
center of a hot plate and arranges four king prawns around the
rice dome. He gently pours the spicy coconut sauce around the
dome and adds 10g sweet soya to the sauce and creates artistic
patterns using a toothpick. Finally, he tops the rice with 10g
leek, 10g red chili and four coriander leaves. (Maria Endah
Hulupi)