Fried rice with prawns and lemongrass
Ethnic cuisine attracts me and my recipes are often inspired by Eastern tastes, as this fried rice with prawns and lemongrass which scents catch me and take me up with my imagination to Siam Gulf.
Particularly, in Ethnic cuisine, I love how they use rice that frequently is not a main course, but an accompaniment to another dish.
In Asiatic courses they don’t cream and season rice as we make with our Italian “risotto”: it is often served simply in plain and, for this reason, it is important it was very fragrant with his typical and pleasant smelling.
To make this fried rice with prawns and lemongrass recipe, I experimented with Aroma, a new excellent product by Riso Gallo.
Aroma has a long and tapered grain and it’s strongly scented with floral marks, these features associate it with Eastern rice as Basmati or Jasmine, but it grows in Po valley rice fields among waters arriving from Alps glaciers, therefore is the first Italian rice in its class.
Riso Gallo is one of the oldest Italian rice industries, they rely on their experience and collaboration with qualified research centres to find the finest varieties of rice and satisfy consumer’s demand with good products that are also safe and with certified quality.
Some tricks before directions
To make this recipe of fried rice with prawns and lemongrass, it’s better to prepare rice with the “pilaf method”, (explained in detail in recipe’s directions), in this way it completely absorbs the cooking water and finally it turns out dry and with well separated grains.
This is a method used in Eastern cuisine and it is particularly appropriate if you want to stir-fry the rice or serve it as side dish for ethnic courses curry-based.In English, the rice made like this, is commonly named “steamed rice”, but this is a mistake caused by how early English colonists translated this term and that even nowadays causes misunderstandings with Asian recipes.
You will not obtain the same outcome, but to simplify, you can cook your rice with the “Western” method: you can boil it in plentiful unsalted water and drain when it’s still a little bit firm, then rinse it under flowing cool water to remove starch and halt the cooking process.
You will easily find lemongrass in groceries that sell ethnic foods; if you can’t find it I advise you against the dried one, better replace it with some grated lime zest (adding it when finished preparing the course).
Fried rice with prawns and lemongrass recipe
Calories: 480 kcal
Ingredients
Serves 4- 350 gr rice “Aroma” (or Jasmine or Basmati)
- 400 gr prawn tails
- 2 stalks of lemongrass
- 2 spring onions
- 2 garlic cloves
- 4 tablespoons of rice oil
- 4-5 tablespoons of soy sauce (Tamari if you have a gluten intolerance)
- 1 fresh red chili pepper (long type)
- ½ teaspoon of brown sugar
- Coriander leaves as required
- White pepper as required
- Salt as required
Directions
If you can, cook your rice in advance so it could sit in the fridge for some hours before you stir-fry it, so it will turn out even more just firm and with his grains well separated.
To make this fried rice with prawns and lemongrass, first rinse your rice: put it in a bowl and fill it with cold flowing water.
Shake gently the rice for a few seconds with your fingers, then throw away the water become murky and replace it with other clean water.
Repeat this process until the water turn out to be nearly clear.
When finished rinsing, soak your rice for 20 minuts, then pour it in a colander and let it drain (for at least 20 minutes).
Put the rice in a pot with a thick bottom, add 525 ml of unsalted water and bring to the boiling point at a high heat.
As soon as your water begins to boil, cover the pot with a lid, low the heat and wait for 10 minutes.
After this time, turn off the stove and wait for other 10 minutes with the lid on the pot, then put the rice to a large dish and gently spread it out with a fork.
Remove the extremities of lemongrass stalks and the harder external layers that cover it, then cut it into rather thin slices.
Cleanse your spring onions, chop the white part and cut some little slices from the green stalk.
Rinse and dry red chili pepper, cut it lengthwise, remove seeds and cut into thin strips.
In a little bowl melt sugar with soy sauce.
Remove the shell from the prawn tails leaving just the end part, engrave them lengthwise on their back and remove intestines.
In a wok, or in a non stick pan, put the oil and stir-fry the chopped spring onion, lemongrass and peeled garlic cloves at medium heat until light brown.
Add red chili pepper and prawn tails, then stir-fry for about a minute (until your prawns turn pink).
Remove garlic cloves, add your rice and soy sauce, stir-fry all together for about 3 minutes,.
Taste and adjust the season if needed.
Before serving your fried rice with prawns and lemongrass, add the spring onion stalk slices and sprinkle with some white pepper and fresh coriander leaves.
