Steamed prawn with tofu glass noodles with plum sauce

I came across this dish in The Little Teochew food blog which she, in turn, had adapted from a recipe in the blog "3 Hungry Tummies", and I liked it. However, I wanted to try this dish with my own sauce.  I was wondering if this unusual combination would go well with the plum sauce that I use for my Lemon Chicken recipe. So, why wonder? Just try it out and we will know, so I did this afternoon.  SUCCESS!  They taste fabulous and I must say "3 Hungry Tummies" has done a beautiful job of combining tofu, glass noodles and prawn!

Serving: 2 - 3

Main Ingredients:

1 tube silken egg tau foo (or any type of tofu you like), cut into 8 equal pieces

8 medium size fresh prawns, peeled keeping the tails intact

10g glass noodle, soaked and drained
1 stalk spring onion, diced

Ingredients for the sauce:

2 tbsp plum sauce

2 tb water

1 ts chopped garlic

1/8 ts ground clove

1/2 ts sugar
½ ts fried sesame
¼ ts ground white pepper
¼ ts grated ginger

Method to prepare the plum sauce:

Heat wok with vegetable oil and add chopped garlic and stir fry till fragrant.  Add plum sauce, water, clove, sugar and pepper and let it simmer for about 2 mins.  Add the grated ginger and simmer for another minute and turn off heat.

Method to prepare main ingredients:

First, In order to have the prawn in the shape of a ball, I formed them into balls, pinning with a toothpick, and dipped each prawn into small pot of hot water to let it  half cook to "set" its shape.  I cut the tube of tofu into 8 equal pieces and lay them on the serving plate.  Next I boiled the glass noddles for 5 mins and drain it well before and arranged some onto each tofu slice.  On top of the glass noodles, I nested the prawns.  Spoon a little of the sauce on each prawn and put the rest of the sauce in a small bowl and set it in the center of the serving plate. Sprinkle some fried sesame seeds onto each prawan and the rest go into the sauce. When the water is boiling in the steamer, steam the dish for 5 to 8 mins. Garnished with spring onion and serve the dish hot.  

Stir fry Buddha's palm squash and glass noodles - Featured in Group Recipes

I started to like Buddha’spalm squash after a trip with the family to Cameron Highlands 2 years ago to visit my god son-in-law.  He took us up the hill to a vegetable farm where there were lots of Buddha’spalm squash (Chayote Salad). The owner of the farm was so generous and gave us more than 10 squashes for free.  After we returned home from Cameron, my mum started to cook this squash in many variation and one of them is to stir fry with glass noodles, dried shrimps and topped with crispy tiny anchovies.  This is so good especially when the glass noodles soaked up all the broth.  For those who are curious to know why this squash was given its name, here is the answer. It resembles the Buddha’s palm when in medidation and its medicinal properties are well-known in Chinese food lore as able to clear coughs, chest infections, and urinary tract infections. Interesting right?

Ingredients:

1 whole Buddha’s palm squash (about 200gm) – peel skin and jullien

50 gm glass noodles 

¼ cup tiny anchovies

¼ cup dried shrimps

2 tbs vegetable oil

½ cup vegetable oil to fry tiny anchovies

1 tbs chopped garlic

1 cube bullion chicken stock

½ tsp dark caramel sauce

1 cup water

white pepper to taste

Method:
Deep fry tiny anchovies till golden brown, drain oil and set aside. Soak dried shrimps in luke warm water for about 15 mins. Drain the dried shrimps but save the water and set aside. Heat 2 tb oil in wok and fry garlic till fragrant. Add dried shrimps and fry till a little brown then add Buddha’s palm squash and stir fry for 2 mins.  Add glass noodles, thick black sauce and 1 cup of water and the water from soaking the dried shrimps.  Lower heat and add chicken stock and let it simmer till squash is limp and glass noodle is soft.  Add white pepper to taste. Add in the fried tiny anchovies and mix well before serving.

Many people wonders how the Buddha's palm squash looks like.  Here is picture of it:

If you cannot find this squash, you can substitute it with "Chit Kuah" another kind of squash that has slightly hairy green skin.