Cereal Prawns is one of the most popular dishes to order at a zi char or tze char restaurant. Zi char is a Hokkien term meaning “cook and fry”, and familiar to Singaporeans and Malaysians. It’s basically a restaurant where you order a bunch of dishes for the table family-style kind of round table, and everyone gets a bit of everything.
1. Mix all ingredients for the cereal mix. Stir until all combine 2. In another bowl, mix the ingredients for the shrimp batter, except for the cooking oil. Stir until it becomes somewhat thick. 3. Heat the oil in a pan over medium heat. Once the oil is hot, dip the shrimp into the batter and fry them until both sides turn golden brown.
4. Heat the pan again and add butter. Cook until it melts. 5. Add garlic, curry leaves, and red chili peppers. Cook until fragrant. 6. Pour in the cereal mixture, then stir and cook until the butter is absorbed, and the cereal takes on a toasty, golden shade. 7. Add the fried shrimp and stir until the cereal sticks to them. Your cereal shrimp is ready to be served!
– The bigger the size of the prawns the better for cook because it need less time and step for pre-cooked. I recommend you cook them without the heads and shells. My kids prefer the latter because it’s easier for them to eat. – Don’t use oats, ever. Raw oat is thick and chewy, right? Does it crisp up after it’s fried in butter? No, it doesn’t. It just turns into a soggy mess. When you see recipes that use oats, run! – What you should use is Nestum cereal, which is flakes of baked flour with a milky fragrance. Nestum comes out of the bag crisp, and it can absorb some moisture without going soft. Hence, curry leaves fried with Nestum cereal are dry and crunchy. Likewise, deep-fried prawns that have a bit of moisture would crisp up nicely but don’t dry out. If you’re in Indonesia. You can change the nestum with Energen’s original taste, they look similar.