Grilled Lemongrass Prawns (Tom nuong xa) : AFF Indochina

I am not exactly crazy about prawns like some people are but I do eat the occasional prawn. So when I saw this recipe, I decided to expand on my repertoire as you hardly find any seafood in my post list. You see, I prefer to eat chicken anytime :) So boring hah...hah...

To tell you the truth, I wasn't very confident about the marinade. Imagine that. I should have been more worried about grilling the prawns (first time, you see). The marinade is a mixture of lemongrass, olive oil, honey, fish sauce, curry powder and spring onions. A rather strange mish mash of ingredients or so I thought. I wasn't sure what sort of curry powder to use, so I simply whacked my Alagappa meat curry powder hah..hah...

The marinade smelt funny. Imagine fish sauce and curry powder. Add to that olive oil and honey. And spring onions? But sometimes marinades do smell weird in their raw state but become spectacular once cooked. I should have bought bigger prawns but since I already had a packet of frozen prawns in the fridge, I didn't bother. My prawns are of the small variety and it was a challenge to skewer the prawns with the lemongrass. It was just as well that the lemongrass I bought were skinny. Note to self : cut the lemongrass stem at an angle to make it sharp.

Skinny lemongrass skewers for tiny prawns.

I wasn't even sure how long to grill the prawns and I simply tembak 10 minutes hah...hah...My oven is a microwave with convection function and it has two grill functions. I have since misplaced my oven manual and I can't remember the difference between Grill 1 and Grill 2. So I tembak again. I chose Grill 2. And it worked. Grill 2 for 10 minutes and my prawns were done just right. It must be my lucky day :)

Some of the lemongrass slices were burnt. But I like the burnt taste.

It was time to eat and I was pleasantly surprised that the prawns were very tasty. The marinade was very good and there was quite a bit of heat from the curry powder. Just as well that I missed the chilli paste. This had better be worth it, I told myself when I was struggling to skewer the prawns. At that time, I was pretty sure that I would not repeat this dish. Well, I will happily tell you that I was so wrong! But there will be bigger prawns for the next grill :)

Grilled Lemongrass Prawns

Recipe Source : Quick & Easy Vietnamese Cooking for Everyone (page 17)

Ingredients (makes 4)

- 12 prawns, shelled and deveined

Marinade :

- 2 tbsp chopped lemongrass

- 1 tbsp olive oil

- 1 tbsp honey

- 1 tbsp fish sauce

- 2 tsp curry powder

- 2 green onion/spring onions, finely chopped

- 1 tsp chili paste (I omitted by accident but the curry powder was already hot enough)

4 stalks lemongrass

Method :

1. Combine all marinade ingredients and marinate prawns for 15 minutes.

2. Cut lemongrass into 10" (25cm) lengths.

3. Skewer the prawns with the lemongrass.

4. Grill or broil prawns.

5. Serve immediately.

I am submitting this post to Asian Food Fest - Indochina hosted by Kelly Siew Cooks.

This post is also linked to Cook-Your-Books #13 hosted by Joyce of Kitchen Flavours.