I was working as a corporate lawyer for Clifford Chance in Hong Kong in 2002 and it gave Lisa an excuse to join me for a few weeks. One of the perks was to have access to the company junk (a Chinese boat) – which gave us the opportunity to visit Lamma Island – famous for its seafood heritage and its peace and tranquillity; a stark breath of fresh air from the skyscrapers and traffic jams of Hong Kong.
There it was hot and humid and we ate outdoors to try to catch the sea breeze. A scraggly looking man with even more scraggly trousers brought us massive freshly caught prawns bigger than I have ever seen. An open fire was used to cook the king prawns, which frantically tried to jump out of the wok and were skilfully caught by a fat woman with sturdy ambidextrous hands. Under the fire, the coconuts were roasted giving a whiff of toffee as they caramelised. This sophisticated dish was the stand out dish for me during this visit.
For days after, I still raved about this new find and how delicate the flavours were. In addition, I was really pleased because breadcrumbs were not used. This is probably one of the most tastiest, moreish gluten-free recipes.
Serves 2/Makes about 10–16
Prep time 10 minutes
Cook time 5 minutes
225g raw jumbo-sized king prawns, peeled and deveined
½ teaspoon salt
1 egg, beaten
100g desiccated coconut
1 x 300g bottle Sweet Mandarin Sweet Chilli Sauce
vegetable oil, for deep frying
Halve the prawns but keep the tail end intact (so when they are cooked it creates a beautiful butterfly effect). Rub the salt all over the king prawns.
Dip the prawns in the beaten egg, then dip into the coconut. Repeat so the king prawns have a double coating of coconut. Shake off the excess coconut.
Cook in hot oil in a wok for 5 minutes until golden brown. Drain and serve with Sweet Mandarin’s Sweet Chilli Dipping Sauce.
To book a table at Sweet Mandarin email sweetmandarintables@gmail.com . Our opening times are Tuesday – Sunday 5-10pm.
Sweet Mandarin is a Chinese Restaurant in Manchester which serves delicious Chinese cuisine and exotic cocktails. We make our own sweet chilli sauce, bbq sauce, sweet & sour sauce which you can buy from Sainsbury’s, Tesco, Ocado, Booths, Wing Yip and Chi Yip. Sweet Mandarin Chinese Restaurant and Cookery Schoolcan cater for the gluten free, dairy free diners. We are a short 15 minute walk from the Manchester Arena. We are not based in Chinatown, but based in the trendy Northern Quarter near the Arndale Centre, Selfridges, Harvey Nichols, Debenhams and Primark. The nearest hotels to us are the Crowne Plaza, Holiday Inn Express, Premier Apartments, Blue Rainbow Aparthotels, Light Hotel and Hatters Hostel.