Ebi Mayo — Prawn Mayo, Made with Dish Symphony No.3

Prawns, potato starch, mayonnaise, lemon.

Drop them straight from the oil into the cold sauce and there is one short hiss, and the coating sets in exactly that shape. Bite in, and under the crisp shell the prawn is still hot.

Dish Symphony No.3 is a blend of ten spices built on Chinese five-spice. One of the ten has nothing to do with Chinese cooking: peppermint. A single thread of that coolness runs behind the sweetness of the mayonnaise. The tingle of huajiao cuts the frying oil at the end. So the powder never goes into the oil — it dissolves into the sauce, which never sees the stove.

Twenty minutes from the first cut. Devein the prawns, rub them with salt and potato starch and rinse them. Once that is done, all that is left is to fry and fold.

Total time: about 20 min

Ingredients (Serves 2)

• Dish Symphony No.3: 1/2 tsp
• Prawns (shell on, headless): 12 (about 200 g)
• Lettuce: 3 leaves (optional)
• Lemon: 1/4
• Mayonnaise: 3 tbsp
• Condensed milk: 2 tsp (1 tsp sugar works too)
• Ketchup: 1 tsp
• Lemon juice: 1 tsp
• Potato starch: 3 tbsp (for the coating)
• Potato starch: 1 tsp (for cleaning the prawns)
• Salt: 1/2 tsp (for cleaning the prawns)
• Salt: 1/4 tsp (for seasoning the prawns)
• Sake: 1 tsp
• Oil for deep-frying: as needed

On a day when there are no shell-on prawns, peeled ones work too. Clean them the same way — rub with salt and potato starch, rinse, then pat dry. Black tiger or vannamei, either is fine. Vannamei have thinner bodies, so cut the frying time to 1 minute.

The salt used for cleaning gets rinsed away. The salt that seasons the dish is only the 1/4 tsp in the marinade.

Preparation

1. Peel the prawns, leaving the tails on. Cut a shallow slit down the back and lift the vein out with a skewer or a cocktail stick.
2. Put them in a bowl, scatter over the salt (1/2 tsp) and the potato starch (1 tsp), and rub for about a minute. When the starch turns grey and cloudy, rinse it away under running water. The dirt and the off-smell on the surface of the prawns come away with it.
3. Pat each prawn dry with paper towel, one at a time. Water left here turns the coating into lumps of dry powder that fall off while they fry.
4. Scatter over the salt (1/4 tsp) and the sake (1 tsp) and leave for 5 minutes.
5. In a bowl, combine the mayonnaise (3 tbsp), condensed milk (2 tsp), ketchup (1 tsp) and lemon juice (1 tsp), then add the Dish Symphony No.3 (1/2 tsp) and mix. This never goes near the heat.
6. If you are using lettuce, tear it into bite-sized pieces by hand and lay it on the serving plate.
7. Cut the lemon into wedges.

Instructions

1. Press the seasoned prawns with paper towel once more to take off the surface moisture.
2. Spread the potato starch (3 tbsp) on a tray and turn the prawns in it to coat them all over. Once coated, tap them lightly in your hand to knock off the excess. A thick coating drinks oil and turns heavy.
3. Heat the frying oil to 180°C and slide the prawns in down the side of the pan. Only put in as many as will cover half the surface of the oil at a time. Any more and the temperature drops, and the coating drinks oil.
4. Fry for a minute and a half without touching them. When the coating has set and they float, turn them and fry for 30 seconds more. Prawns tighten the longer they cook, so stop at two minutes.
5. Lift them out and stand them against a rack, and let them drain for just 30 seconds. Piled up, the ones underneath steam and the coating goes soft.
6. While they are still hot, tip them into the bowl of sauce and fold them through in 10 seconds, turning the bowl as you go. Mix for longer and the coating drinks the liquid out of the sauce, and the crispness is gone.
7. Serve, with the lemon alongside. Squeeze it over if you like — it is good with nothing squeezed over it at all.
8. Taste at the end and adjust the salt. Dish Symphony No.3 is salt-free, additive-free and 100% plant-based, so shaking more over later will not move the seasoning.

Straight out of the oil is when it is crispest. Once folded through the sauce, the coating drinks the liquid as time passes, so keep the walk to the table short. On a day when you make a big batch, hold some prawns back before folding and dress them just before eating.