Chef Mandel Hitzer
deer & almond
Shiso is part of the mint family, and is used in Japanese restaurants. Visit your favourite sushi spot and sweet talk the chef into selling you some for this recipe.
Ingredients
Prawn Mixture
2 cups prawns, chopped
1 Tbsp garlic
2 tsp ginger, minced
1 Tbsp lemongrass, chopped
1/8 cup cilantro, chopped
1/8 cup scallion, chopped
1 egg
1/4 cup bread crumbs
salt & white pepper to taste
juice and zest of 1 lemon or lime
1 fresh hot chili pepper, minced
Tempura Batter
3 Tbsp flour
1 Tbsp cornstarch
1/4 cup ice cold water
Smaug Fire Sauce
3 roasted red peppers peeled, seeded
4 Tbsp chili vinegar
4 Tbsp fish sauce
1 bulb garlic, minced
1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/3 cup sriracha
Cilantro and green onion to garnish
Method
- Chop prawns. Toss with lemongrass, garlic, ginger, scallion, citrus, white pepper, cilantro, and chili.
- Whisk in egg and bread crumbs, adding crumbs a little at at time to form a fluffy dumpling.
- In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour and cornstarch for the tempura.
- Stirring constantly, pour in the cold water to form the batter.
- Form a nugget from the shrimp mixture and wrap each nugget in shiso leaf.
- Dip each dumpling in tempura batter and fry in hot oil. *Be very careful when deep frying at home. Do not fill your pot more than 1/3 full of oil, as the volume of the oil will expand due to evaporation of moisture.
Smaug Sauce
- Purée roasted peppers in a blender.
- Add remaining ingredients and blend until smooth.
Assembly
- Drizzle plates with smaug sauce and arrange dumplings on top. Garnish with cilantro leaves or sliced green onion.
Yields 4 servings
