There’s a little theme going this week, this is my Szechuan week. I guess if I’m going to suggest an ingredient you might not have in your pantry already I should give you at least two great things to do with it yes? And these golden spicy prawns in crisp lettuce cups are the real deal.

This is another recipe that brilliantly fits the whole Gut Makeover deal. Which also means they’re gluten free, grain free, dairy free and so on. But most importantly they’re incredibly delicious. Think golden well seasoned crumbed prawns, fresh zesty slaw and crisp lettuce cups. A little squirt of whole egg olive oil based mayo and you’ll be in heaven. If you want to give the mayo a miss you totally could, or add some avocado for creaminess?

I made my own olive oil based mayo this week using free range eggs, apple cider vinegar and a dijon mustard. It tastes amazing but like usual I tried to rush it and it split. I’d like to formally thank the internet for once again saving me, because this method of saving it worked a treat and I had beautiful rich mayo. It was basically one egg yolk a touch of vinegar, salt and dijon mustard all emulsified then 1/3 cup of olive all slowly (apparently not quite slowly enough apparently) drizzled in. I then had to go ahead and use a 2nd egg yolk when I was fixing my disaster! I definitely could have added more olive oil but I don’t use mayo very often and this was just a trial so I didn’t want to have heaps of it in my very full fridge.

Anyway: prawns. Lettuce cups filled with slaw and golden salt and pepper seasoned prawns. These are heaven. The almond meal based coating gets so lovely and golden and it’s super light so that spice mix shines through. You could even just eat them by themselves.. they’re an adaption of this recipe. The spice mix is a little different though.

You can eat the whole thing including the tail or pull the tails off when you’re prepping your prawns if you want to make things less messy.

I have these as a main meal with a side of Szechuan and Peanut Green Beans and it’s such a yummy meal!

Serves 4 (3-4 lettuce cups each)

Ingredients

1-2 Tbs Extra Virgin Olive Oil

800g prawns weighed in shell (remove heads, shell and clean before using)

1 egg white

1 tsp Szechuan peppercorns

1.5 tsp rock salt

1.5 tsp white pepper

1/2 tsp five spice

1 tsp black pepper

1/2 cup almond meal

2 baby cos lettuce, leaves separated and rinsed

Slaw

4 cups green cabbage, shredded (approx 1/4 small cabbage)

2 carrots, grated

1/3 cup finely sliced spring onion

1 tsp tamari

1/4 tsp fish sauce

few drops sesame oil

Juice and zest of 1 lime

1 tsp toasted sesame seeds

1/3 cup shredded mint leaves

1/3 cup coriander leaves

To serve: 2 Tbs of whole egg mayonnaise

Directions

Prep prawns and set aside.

Slaw: Combine cabbage, carrot, spring onion in a bowl and add tamari, fish sauce, sesame oil, lime juice and zest. Toss to combine. Sprinkle the herbs and sesame seeds over the top and set aside.

Use a mortar and pestle to grind the Szechuan, salt and pepper corns together until finely ground. Add the five spice and white pepper and mix to combine.

In a bowl large enough to fit the prawns Combine 1 tsp of the spice mix with the egg white and beat together until a little frothy. Combine prawns and egg white and toss to coat.

Mix together the almond meal and 2 tsps of the spice mix in a flat bowl.

Put a large fry pan on the heat and add the oil, swirl to coat the pan. While it gets hot start coating the prawns in the almond flour by lightly pressing each side of the prawn into the almond meal. Place the coated prawns in the hot pan (I usually do this immediately after coating each prawn). Cook on each side for 2 minutes (a little less or more if using very small or large prawns). They should be golden when you turn them.

Sprinkle cooked prawns with leftover spice mix, to taste.

To serve: place a 1/4 cup of slaw in the base of the lettuce leaf, top with prawns and a little drizzle of mayo if you like.

HH. x