Chilly prawns

In Indonesia, we have a version of the chilly prawn dish cooked with bitter beans (Petai) called Sambal Petai Udang. Living in Melbourne it is quite hard to find this dish and unfortunately for me, it is one of my ultimate favourite dishes. Indonesian restaurants in Melbourne that I know of don't have it as a regular menu and I don't understand why, perhaps it is expensive to have prawns in the menu? I often find myself remembering the taste of this dish which has left me in agony. In a desperate attempt to taste this dish again in Melbourne, one day I went to buy fresh prawns, chillies, then from the Indonesian shop, canned Petai and a packet chilly sauce (with the photo of the dish on the packaging). When I reached home I realised that I didn't have a can opener! and the Petai can can't be opened :( I was already quite hungry so I decided to continue cooking without the Petai. I now have a can opener so I look forward to the time when I cook this dish again. Although without the bitter beans, I still ate the dish with delight.

Ingredients

Fresh unpeeled green prawns (8 for 2 people)

Medium sized red chilly - remove the seeds and cut horizontally to slices

A packet of chilly sauce (sambal oelek)

Oil

Cooking method

Heat oil in pan in medium heat,  stir fry the prawns until it is cooked. The prawns will turn red in colour and their flesh will become firm. Add the chilly sauce. Cook and Stir well. Sprinkle the red chilly slices on top of the prawns.

Serve with rice. 

The key to this dish is the fresh prawns. Frozen prawns have different taste and texture than fresh prawns, frozen prawns are less sweeter and the texture is more rubber like. I would recommend fresh peeled green prawns for those who doesn't want the hassle of removing the shells.