Three Easy Chinese Snacks

Sometimes I don't want the usual Chinese chow mein that I love so much. I want the starters. Especially on a Friday night watching a movie. Here are three ones for you to try:  Easy prawn toasts, duck and hoisin lettuce cups and pork and prawn balls with a sweet chilli dip. All quite easy too. The pork and prawn balls are a basic sui mai (dim sum) but without any fiddly dough wrappers. Still steamed and still delicious. Just quicker!

First the Prawn Toast

Ingredients:

200g raw king prawns
1 cm. piece ginger
1 clove garlic
1 tbsp. cornflour
1 tbsp. soy sauce
4 pieces bread (I used granary, but up to you)
(approx.) 4 tbsp. sesame seeds

Mix the prawns, ginger, garlic, cornflour and soy sauce in a food processor until a paste. Spread evenly on the bread and cut the bread into quarters. Put the sesame seeds on a plate and dip the bread, prawn side down into the sesame seeds.

Heat 1 tbsp. oil in a pan and when hot, add the toasts sesame seed side down. Cook for 2-3 minutes until golden and turn over to cook the other side. Drain on kitchen paper and serve hot!

 

Then, the Prawn and Pork Balls

Ingredients:

300g minced pork
200g raw king prawns
1 inch piece ginger, roughly chopped
1 clove garlic, roughly chopped
2 spring onions
1 tbsp. rice wine (sake)
1 tbsp. cornflour
1 tsp. sesame oil
salt & pepper
cocktail sticks
sweet chilli sauce
greaseproof paper, cut into 1 cm squares

Mix all of the ingredients in a food processor until well combined. Roll into balls (about1 inch) and put on a small piece of greaseproof paper in a steamer. Insert the cocktail stick, cover and steam for about 6-8 minutes, until firm. Serve with chilli sauce.


Finally, some Hoisin Duck and lettuce cups.

Ingredients:

1 Peking duck leg (recipe here)
4 spring onions, chopped
4 tbsp. hoisin sauce
little gem lettuce leaves.

Simply shred the duck meat and stir in the spring onions and hoisin sauce. Pile into lettuce cups and serve.


Note: The duck leg can be cooked the day before and shredded. The rest of the recipes all together take about half an hour to prepare and cook. The food processor really helps!