One of the Penang Nyonya dishes is Assam Heh or Tamarind Prawns. I first learned about this dish from my mom. My mom was from Alor Star, Kedah and thus a lot of her cooking has been influenced by the Nyonya in Penang. I guess any dish that tasted good would be adapted in a family, and in this case my mom. It has became my favorite because of how delicious it is and how easy it is to cook. Tamarind is a common item used in a Malaysian household. And I would love to share with you this easy Tamarind Prawns recipe. The used of tamarind made this dish a Nyonya dish (incorporation of Malay ingredient into Chinese cuisine).
I finally found a quick and easy way to get rid of my ripen banana instead of use it for banana cake. That is to make banana fritters, it's easier, less thing for me to wash, and can use as little as one banana! I don't know about you, but I hardly left with 3 ripen bananas that nobody wants to eat. It will either be one or two and that was not enough to make banana cake or muffin. So, I adapted my recipe from Isha's kuih kodok. And since I only have two black banana looking at me instead of three, this is what I did,
I bought a thin Thai rice stick noodle recently just because it caught my eyes. Was thinking to probably fry mee siam with it since it's very thin. Then, not sure what happen it became Pad Thai. I guess I needed to use the lime that I bought last week. I have the tendency to buy limes and then I have no idea what to do with it. Normally it just sat in my refrigerator and turned bad!
All I know was Pad Thai needed to have fish sauce, tamarind juice and sugar and I have all of those so I was all set for my Pad Thai experiment.
So here sharing with you my imprompto version. If you like your pad thai really sweet, just add more sugar. Drizzle more fresh lime juice for a more sour taste.
This recipe has been with me for 19 years. I was asked to prepare a dish in the final day of my secondary school cooking class. At that young age, I knew nothing about cooking, let alone came out with a recipe. Thus, this recipe was courtesy of my mom. I recalled I really enjoyed the cooking class but have completely no idea how I ended out in that class (Maybe we have an option of cooking or sewing?). Anyway, Janet, if you are reading this, do you still remember? I remembered we made yam ring together because you were my partner. I think you helped me cooked this dish too because I remembered you mixing the shrimps with curry powder? Correct me if I'm wrong! It is ages ago!
Recipe is posted at Allrecipes.com. I posted this recipe in 1999 when allrecipe.com was just launched. I received a very negative review in 2003 and I was telling myself, I can't believe she ruined this for me. Come on, who is going to try a recipe with a one star rating, at least I won't. Then, recently I found out I got another review and it was 5 stars!! How happy that made me and kudo to him to give this one star recipe a try and loved it! So, calling all readers, if you tried this recipe of mine and loved it and is a member of allrecipe.com, PLEASEEEE go and give me a good review okay? Preferably 4 stars and above lah....hahaha....show a little love or support for me leh. *so thick face*
Okay, I took the trouble to snap step-by-step pictures here. This recipe is very easy and you should have all the ingredients at home. I made this again because I want to post a picture at Allrecipe with the intention to entice or seduce more people to give this a try. :P Please do go to allrecipes for the complete recipe.
Click next for step-by-step pictures guide:
Looks good or not? Want to eat or not? What if I tell you, you can make this too! Want to learn the secret or you already know?
I made my har mee with thinly sliced pork slices, tofu pok, shrimps of course, fish balls, kangkong, hard boiled egg and spaghetti noodle (if you look closer enough, you might spot it). Then top with crispy shallots and can I say it was super delicious!! The secret is the Delimas Prawn Noodle Paste! You got to try it to believe it! If you like the curry laksa, this is even better, very authentic, just like having a bowl at the hawker store, might even taste better than some. I made a mistake by adding a little of my super spicy chili because the broth is spicy in itself, so I was sweating while eating it, but so shiok man. This paste got the thumb up from me and even my high expectation hubby!
Note: If you try making the prawn mee before, you know it's pretty time consuming. But with this, your can have a delicious bowl of prawn mee in less than 30 minutes. One package yields about 4 bowls.
