For best results, you should leave the prawn shells on. To eat them, take a bite of a whole prawn and remove the shell with your teeth and tongue, then spit it gently into your rice bowl or remove it from your mouth with chopsticks.

INGREDIENTS

Serves 2

Prep 30min
Cook 15min

500g tiger prawns, thawed if frozen
½ tsp salt
1tbsp Shaoxing wine
1tsp finely chopped fresh ginger
1tsp finely chopped garlic
1tsp chilli bean paste
1tsp chopped salted chillies
3tbsp water
¼ tsp dark soy sauce
2 spring onions, green parts only, finely sliced
1tbsp finely chopped red pepper
1tsp sesame oil
300ml groundnut oil for cooking

METHOD

Cut the heads off the prawns, and take off their legs. Poke out as much as possible of their dark veins with a darning needle. Rinse the prawns, then mix with the salt and Shaoxing wine and set aside. Heat the groundnut oil in a wok over a high flame until it reaches 180C/350F. Shake the prawns dry. Tip them into the wok and deep-fry for less than 30 seconds, until they are pink and are partially cooked. Remove from the wok with a slotted spoon and set aside.

Pour off all but three tablespoons of the oil, and return the wok to the hob over a medium flame. Add the ginger, garlic, chilli bean paste and chopped salted chillies and stir-fry until the oil is fragrant and stained a deep red by the chillies. Add the water and dark soy sauce and bring to the boil. Add the prawns and then cook over a high flame to reduce the sauce, stirring constantly. When the water in the sauce has evaporated, add the spring onions and red pepper to give them a lick of heat. Smell the fragrance of the onions after a few seconds, then remove the wok from the heat, stir in the sesame oil and serve.

Revolutionary Chinese Cookbook: Recipes From Hunan Province by Fuchsia Dunlop (Ebury Press, £25). Available from Times BooksFirst, 0870 1608080, for £22.50, including p&p.

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