SWEET & SOUR PRAWNS ( GAN SHAO XIA)
Bright & sunny day,with clear skies…..the gastric juices are slowly setting their rythmn & you are in the mood to cook something different from the routine something tasty, something quick something that just completes the beautiful day…so here I am trying out yet another Indo-Chinese dish.The Sweet & Sour Prawn or “Gan Shao Xia” as its called in Chinese is a flavourful dish & can be made in a short time.
The orgin of Indo-Chinese cuisine dates way back to a century ago and was first developed in the Chinatown of Kolkotta aka Calcutta,India.It was basically started by the Hakka immigrants (“Hakka” in Chinese means” guest families” the people who moved far & wide spreading their culture & imbibing the local culture of people in the land where they settled in) who moved from Guangdong & Fujian provinces,into Calcutta in search of work in the tanneries.Initially it was filled with single men whose wives were left back home in China.These men ate in large community eating houses sharing tables with Indian workers.The relatively bland taste of the Hakka dishes did not entice the locals and hence the Indian workers started adding Indian spices to the Hakka dishes…….and thus started the ethnic Indo- Chinese cuisine.It was essentially Chinese wok cooking with Indian flavors.Over the years the tanneries disappeared and the eating houses were transformed into restaurants,thus making the Indo-Chinese cuisine an integral part of the Indian Culinary scene.
This Sweet & Sour Prawn recipe is one such dish born by the Indo-Chinese fusion.Some tend to add rice wine for the recipe,one can substitute with vinegar or lime juice for tartness & brown sugar for sweet as I have done here.Try this when you are not in a mood for elaborate cooking, yet want something good.Enjoy.
SWEET & SOUR PRAWNS
Ingredients
20 20 -25 Prawns (medium size)
1 tbsp 1 Ginger-garlic paste
1 tbsp 1 Soy sauce
3 tbsp 3 Tomato sauce
2 tsp 2 Chilli powder
Salt- to taste
1 tbsp 1 Lemon juice/Vinegar
A bunch Spring Onions
1 tbsp 1 Brown sugar
4 4 -5 Ginger fine slices
Directions
- Clean & devein prawns & set aside.
- Now in a small bowl add the tomato sauce, soy sauce, chilli powder,brown sugar,ginger-garlic paste salt & lemon juice/vinegar & mix them all together well.
- Add the clean & deveined prawns into this mixture & coat them completely,& put this in the refrigerator for an hour for marinating.
- Next,add little oil in a wok,when its hot add small slices of ginger & saute for a few seconds,then add the white of the spring onions which has been cut into thin slices(the green can be preserved for garnishing ) and saute it for a few minutes.
- Now add the marinated prawn mix into the wok and gently mix all of them together for a few minutes before covering it with a lid.
- Stir occasionally to make sure all sides of the prawn is cooked well.Remove from the stove in 10-15 minutes time.
- Serve hot with the green of spring onion garnished on top.
Notes
- Some prefer using rice wine to the above dish,perfectly fine as per personal preference.