Luke Nguyen's salt and pepper tiger prawns

In Vietnam, the prawns are fried whole, the shell, head and legs adding a wonderful crunchy texture to the finished dish. You could trim off the legs if you like but I urge you to give it a go. The salt, pepper and five-spice seasoning works well with all seafood. Squid is a good alternative.

2 tsp salt

2 tsp freshly ground pepper

1 tsp five-spice powder

1 tsp sugar

500ml vegetable oil for deep frying

6 jumbo prawns, tip of the head and legs trimmed (optional)

2 cups cornflour or potato starch

1 tbsp finely diced red Asian shallot

1 tbsp finely diced garlic

2 chillies, sliced

4 spring onions, sliced into 4cm pieces

1 lime, quartered

1. Dry-roast the salt, pepper and five-spice powder in a pan. Remove, allow to cool, combine with sugar and mix well. Set aside.

2. In a deep-fry pan or wok, bring oil to 180C.

3. Dust the prawns with flour and fry two prawns at a time to keep the oil at a constant high heat. Remove the prawns and place on kitchen paper to absorb the oil. Repeat with remaining prawns.

4. Bring a frying pan to medium heat, add a little oil from deep frying, the red shallots, garlic, chilli and spring onion, and cook until fragrant. Now add prawns, tossing as you sprinkle the salt, pepper and five-spice mix, making sure you coat the prawns well.

5. Remove the prawns and serve with lime.

Serves 4-6

Source: SBS