This is super spicy and totally delicious. I have basically copied a dish from one of our favourite Asian restaurants in Sydney, easy to make and the Szechuan flavours are amazing. When you eat this you pick out the prawns & cashews with your chopsticks and leave the rest - do not eat the dried chillies or peppercorns!!

Kung Pao Prawns

Ingredients

750g fresh raw king prawns, peeled & deveined (or use chicken thigh pieces or tofu puffs)

¼ cup rice flour or cornflour

1 ts each of Garlic & onion powder

Salt & pepper

Oil for frying, I use grapeseed or rice bran oil

A big handful of whole dried chillies

1.5cm piece of ginger, finely chopped

3 cloves of garlic finely chopped

2 Tbsp Szuchuan peppercorns

Big handful of cashew nuts

Shallot stalks, white part only

Instructions

Heat oil in a large heavy based frypan or wok.

Mix the rice flour, garlic powder, onion powder, salt & pepper in a large bowl.

Toss the peeled & deveined prawns in the flour mix.

Shake off excess powder and shallow fry the prawns in the hot oil in 2 batches. If you put them all in at once they go soggy instead of crispy. Drain on paper towel. Drain wok and wipe out with paper towel.

In a clean frypan or wok heat some more oil and on a low heat fry the dried chillies until fragrant then remove.

Fry ginger, garlic, Szechuan peppercorns, shallots and cashew nuts.

Add the cooked prawns & chillies at the end and fry until hot.

When you serve this dish the idea is to pick out the prawns and cashew nuts and leave the rest – don’t eat the chillies and Szechuan peppercorns!

Delicious served with rice and wok fried greens (with sesame oil, ginger & oyster sauce).