Salted Egg Yolk Prawns: 555 is Not Just a Weird Repetition of A Number. It Also Means Laughter

Ha is the number 5 in Thai. So it’s not a typo if someone answers 555 to you, like I thought it was when it happened to me years ago!

During Chinese New Year, sometimes it may seem like we overindulge in seafood. But the real reason is because their names have auspicious meanings. For example prawn in Cantonese is Har like laughter, fish is served because it symbolizes abundance.

Salted Egg Yolk Butter Prawns

This is one of my absolute favourite prawns from any seafood restaurant. One can easily cook this at home too. Here’s my recipe. And oh.. better be careful though. You’d end up eating more rice than you promised yourself because the gravy is just so good.

Recipe serves 2

Prep time: 30-40 mins

Cooking time: 20 mins

Ingredients:

4 extra large tiger prawns, with shells (I like them because the meat is sturdy)

6 sprigs of curry leaves (yes it’s a lot but it gives such a beautiful fragrance)

4 tbsp dried shrimps, pounded

4 rose shallots, sliced

4 cloves of garlic (bruised)

4 salted egg yolk, mashed

2 bird eye chillies, sliced

1 inch of butter

6 tbsp of evaporated milk

Salt and sugar to taste

Steps:

1. Fry curry leaves until they become fragrant in medium heat with 3 tbsp of oil. Then add dried shrimps. Fry until the grounded dried shrimps turn golden.

2. Continue by adding shallots. When they brown, add garlic followed by bird eye chillies. After 2 minutes of folding and stirring, add salted egg yolk, butter and evaporated milk.

3. Do a quick taste test, add sugar and salt to balance. Then finally add the tiger prawns. They should cook for another 5-7 minutes in medium heat. I personally like to do 4 minutes one side and the rest on the other.

4. Before serving, fish out as much of the curry leaves as you can because I don’t think some people enjoy seeing so much curry leaves being plated 🤷🏻‍♀️?