Halloween Edition: Cooking With Gruesome Ingredients

The hallmark of an outstanding Malaysian hawker is his low threshold for BS.

This is a true story of a grown man approaching his favourite Char Koay Teow hawker:

Friend: Uncle, can I have one Char Koay Teow, no cockles, no cili for me?

Hawker: (Gets red in the face, takes a deep breath and bellows) How to make Char Koay Teow like that? I don't know how. You teach me lah! I cannot, I cannot (shakes his head and dismisses what he thinks is a low-life patron, who happens to be my friend 😄)

Friend: Ok sorry uncle, ok everything can.

Hawker: Sure ah..ok lah, you wait 30 minutes

Friend: Yes uncle..

Even though he got schooled that day, he faithfully returns to this No BS hawker every time he craves Char Koay Teow.

Malaysians love food so much they would endure public humiliation, bad service and unsanitary environment to indulge their cravings.

But if we had it our way, we would teach restaurants how to cook their own food..seriously, over the years I've heard customized food like this:

❌ No onions

❌ No scallions

❌ No garlic ("because eating garlic make me have needs: - it's true, that's what the guy said)

❌ No beansprouts (that's me)

❌ No veggie (also me casting a blanket statement to prevent getting beansprouts)

❌ No MSG (hahahahaha..yeah right)

I thought I'd be a bit silly and do a Prawn Pasta based on some of the ingredients we find quite gruesome in the spirit of Halloween.

These are my favourite aromatics to work with but I can imagine can be quite turning off to some.

This recipe consists of the simplest base aromatics, just garlic, shallots and little bit of chopped chives.

First fry some sliced shallots until they turn translucent.

In a separate pot, boil angel hair pasta with some salted water.

Attend to the wok again and add garlic slices. Fry until fragrant.

Then, add marinated prawns and fry them on both sides until they are about 80% cooked.

Add pasta into the mix, pour a bit of dark soy sauce (I used Kicap Tamin) and if you like it HOT, sprinkle some chilli flakes.

Add some pasta water to continue to cook the angel hair in the wok or if the mixture gets too dry

Turn off the flames and add chives.

Serve in a communal bowl and garnish the top with leftover chives.

So glad to have found such juicy, succulent prawns.

Happy Halloween!

Recipe serves 2

Prep time: 10 minutes

Cooking time: 10 minutes

Ingredients:

10 large prawns, deveined and marinated in garlic powder, white pepper, salt and paprika

2 shallots, sliced

3 garlic cloves, sliced

2-3 tbsp of finely chopped chives

1 1/2 tsp of Kicap Tamin, dark soy sauce

2 tsp chilli flakes (optional)

Salt to taste

Enjoy the video!

#prawnpasta #pastarecipe #pescatarian #quickpasta #halloweenrecipe #halloween