Colm O'Gorman: King prawn with corn, chilli crisp and sesame soba noodles

A succulent dish that's oozing with flavour

King prawn with corn, chilli crisp and soba noodles: "Each element of this dish takes just a few minutes to prepare."

My recipe this week may introduce you to a few new ingredients. I will provide alternatives for two of them, but one, Chinese chilli crisp oil, has no substitute. It is a fabulous Chinese condiment; oil infused with chilli with lots of beautiful crunchy bits of chilli, onion, and garlic. It is the ingredient that inspired this recipe. You will find it in any good Asian supermarket. 

Get hold of some of the Lao Gan Ma brand, which is in my view the best, and is also the most widely available. Chilli crisp oil features in every element of this dish, including the sauce for the noodles, and to sauté both the fresh corn and the king prawns.

The other two ingredients that you may not be familiar with are Chinese sesame paste and Chinese black vinegar. Again, both are readily available in Asian Supermarkets so do try to get hold of some if you want to try this recipe. If you cannot, there are alternatives. Chinese sesame paste is, a little like tahini, a paste made from sesame seeds. Unlike tahini which uses plain sesame seeds though, Asian sesame paste is made from toasted sesame seeds which gives it a deeper richer flavour and colour. 

If you cannot get hold of any, then use 30g of tahini and 10g of toasted sesame oil instead. A decent substitute for the Chinese black vinegar would be equal parts rice wine vinegar and balsamic vinegar. Balsamic vinegar alone is a little too sweet to be a direct substitute for the black vinegar, so mixing it with rice vinegar will give the best result. For this recipe, use one and a half teaspoons of each.

Each element of this dish takes just a few minutes to prepare. The noodles should be cooked at the last minute so that they do not become sticky, they will only take a few minutes to cook. The prawns will also need just a few minutes, but if you overcook them, they will be a little tough rather than succulent and juicy and full of flavour. This is a simple recipe though, so do not be daunted, just follow it as written and you will be delighted with the result.

This recipe serves 2-3 people.

King prawn with corn, chilli crisp and sesame soba noodles

recipe by:Colm O'Gorman

Each element of this dish takes just a few minutes to prepare - follow it as written and you will be delighted with the result

Servings

2

Preparation Time

 45 mins

Cooking Time

 25 mins

Total Time

 1 hours 10 mins

Course

 Main

Cuisine

 Asian

Ingredients

• 1 ear fresh corn

• 4 tbsp chilli crisp oil

• 4 tbsp chilli crisp oil

• 3 cloves garlic

• 40g of Chinese sesame paste

• 25ml soy sauce

• 1 tbsp Chinese black vinegar

• 1tsp toasted sesame oil

• 2 tsp honey

• 300g dried soba noodles

• 250g raw king prawns

• Juice of ½ a lemon

• 2 spring onions

• 30g fresh coriander

Method

1. Wash the corn and stand it on one end in a wide bowl. Use a sharp knife to cut down one side to remove the kernels, and then repeat all around the cob until you have removed them all.

2. Heat a heavy non-stick pan over a high heat and when it is good and hot, add one tablespoon of chill crisp oil and the corn.

3. Sauté the corn, stirring it occasionally until it is just cooked through but still has some bite. This will only take a few minutes. When it is done, remove it from the pan and set to one side.

4. Time now to make the sauce for your noodles. Grate two cloves of garlic into a bowl. Add the sesame paste, soy sauce, black vinegar, sesame oil, two tablespoons of chilli crisp oil, and the honey. Stir to combine thoroughly and set aside. Bring a large pan of salted water to the boil for your noodles.

5. Grate the remaining clove of garlic and finely chop the stalks of the fresh coriander, setting the leaves aside for now. Wash and chop the spring onion.

6. Heat a little toasted sesame oil over a high heat in the same pan that you used to cook the corn. When the pan is good and hot, add the garlic and the final tablespoon of chilli crisp oil. Reduce the heat to medium and sauté for just a minute or so until the garlic loses its raw smell.

7. While that is sautéing, add the soba noodles to the pan of boiling water. Use a tongs or large fork to separate them out once they are in the pan, bring the water back to a boil and then reduce to a simmer. The noodles will only need three minutes to cook.

8. While the noodles are cooking, add the raw king prawns to the pan of sauteed garlic and chilli crisp. Add a little toasted sesame oil to the pan if needed.

9. Turn up the heat a little and cook the prawns for three minutes, stirring them occasionally to ensure they get coated all over with the chilli crisp and garlic. Reduce the heat to low.

10. Once the noodles have had three minutes in boiling water, drain them into a colander and then pop them into a bowl with a splash of toasted sesame oil, stirring it in to prevent the noodles from sticking.

11. Add the chopped coriander stalks and half of the chopped spring onion to the pan with the prawns, turn the heat back up to medium and cook them for just another minute. Finally, add the lemon juice and stir that in. Remove the pan from the heat.

12. Time now to assemble your dish. Add the sauce to the noodles and stir it in well to evenly coat the noodles all over. Arrange a pile of the noodles on a plate per serving.

13. Now add some prawns, and top that off with the sauteed corn. Roughly chop the remaining coriander leaves and scatter those and the last of the chopped spring onion over each plate and serve.