Sweet and Sour Prawn Balls

How to make this dish perfectly?

1. Crispy Coating

This prawn coating will stays crispy even after you tossed with the sauce. You will need these following ingredients to make the airy, crispy, non-greasy prawn balls.
Corn starch and Flour : Mix corn starch and regular plain flour with a bit of baking soda. Adding corn starch will keeps the coating crispy, plain flour with the help of baking soda will makes the fluffy batter that doesn't tear apart. Don't forget to break one egg white into the seasoned prawns before you dust it in the flour mix, to keep the coating flour mix stick to the prawns.

2. Homemade Sweet and Sour Sauce

This sauce recipe may look one more extra step. But trust me, the result will worth your effort!
Here is the simple ingredients to make the best homemade sauce, that doesn't make the prawn balls soggy.
Ketchup, vinegar, sugar, chicken stock, corn starch and salt to taste! I add tomato concentrate to bring extra colour and tangy flavour to the sauce. The key of this recipe is to reduce the sauce by half before you toss with the prawn balls and keep the sauce warm.

This sweet and sour sauce is a basic sauce that you can add in different varieties of stir fry dishes. You can make a large batch in store in air tight container, it last for a couple of week in a fridge. If you are a spicy food fan, you can create Thai sweet and sour prawns by adding a tablespoon of fish sauce and chopped fresh bird-eye chillies in the sauce mix.

3. Deep Frying

It's very important to fry with the high temperature oil to prevent the prawn balls from greasy and soggy. Temperature should be around 350 F and you can test with a wooden chopstick. If the oil bubbles are fizzing fast and steadily, its ready to fry. Fry until crispy light brown, you don't need to double fry or fry until golden brown as the prawns are cooked very fast.

• 297.67 g king prawns peeled and deveined ( about 300-350 gram )
• 0.5 Sweet onion cut in small cubes
• 0.5 Bell pepper cut in small squares
• Spring onions for garnish
• 1 tsp Garlic roughly chopped
• 0.25 tsp Salt
• 0.25 tsp Black pepper
• 1 Egg white

Coating Flour Mix

• 1 cup Corn starch flour
• 0.33 cup Plain flour
• 0.25 tsp Baking soda

Sweet and Sour Prawn Sauce

• 3 tbsp Ketchup
• 3 tbsp Sugar
• 3 tbsp White vinegar
• 1 tbsp Tomato concentrate/puree
• 0.5 cup Chicken stock vegetable stock or water
• 1 tsp Corn starch
• 0.5 tsp Salt

• First of all, pad dry the prawns with paper towel and season with simple salt and fresh ground black pepper. Break one egg white in, mix it well and set aside.
• In a mixing bowl add corn starch, plain flour and baking soda. Mix well to combine all ingredients evenly. Prepare the vegetables by roughly chop the garlic cloves and cut the onion and pepper in a small cubes.
• Dredge the prawns in the flour mix, press and dip gently to coat each prawns evenly. Transfer the coated prawns on the tray or pate and repeat the remaining prawns. Toss the excess flour out before frying.
• In a small sauce pan, add chicken stock, ketchup, vinegar, sugar, salt, tomato puree and corn starch. Stir well with medium heat until the sugar dissolved and the sauce has thicken slightly. Remove from heat and keep it warm.
• Heat the vegetable oil to high heat about 350°F, deep fry the prawns until crispy light brown. Remove from oil and transfer to paper towel.
• In a large wok/pan, heat 1 tablespoon of oil with medium-high heat, stir fry the chopped garlic for 10 seconds. Then follow with the onion and peppers continue fry for another 1 minute.
• Place the fried prawns back in the wok, pour the sweet and sour sauce in. Toss well to combine the prawns, sauce and vegetables evenly for 1-2 minutes.
• Remove from heat and sprinkle the chopped spring onions. Transfer to serving plate and serve immediately!