Ingredients
300 g prawn meat
1/3 Tbsp salt
½ tsp ground white pepper
¼ tsp monosodium glutamate or ½ Tbsp sugar
300 g tapioca flour
½ tsp baking powder
¼ cup boiling water
Red food coloring (optional)
Method
1. Pound (or use a food processor)prawns to a fine smooth paste. Season with salt, pepper and monosodium glutamate.
2. Put tapioca flour into a large mixing bowl. Stir in baking powder. Add prawn paste and knead together.
3. Gradually add boiling water, stirring continuously with a wooden spoon as you do so.
4. When cool enough to handle, continue kneading until dough is firm and smooth and the prawn paste is distributed evenly throughout . (If you have a powerful food processor, the dough can be mixed and kneaded in it)
5. Divide the dough into 3 portions and roll each into a long roll about 5 cm in diameter. Make sure that the roll is very smooth and there are no cracks on the surface.
6. Put on a greased tray and steam over high heat for about 1½ hours or until cooked through (there should not be any white specks of flour).
7. Remove from the steamer and brush with red food coloring, if desired.
after steaming.....
8. Leave to cool and chill, uncovered, in the fridge overnight to set and dry out a little.
9. Slice into thin slices, about 1 mm, with a sharp knife or with a manual vegetable slicer. Lay out on trays and dry in the sun until thoroughly dried.
cut and laid out to dry.....
10. Deep fry in hot oil until it expands. Store in airtight containers.
Notes
1) Mixing with boiling water partially "cooks" the dough and helps to reduce the steaming time quite considerably.
2) Depending on how wet your prawn paste is you may need to add more or less water. DO NOT add more taipoca flour.
3) Make sure the prawn paste is absolutely smooth.
4) The dried crackers can be stored in airtight containers for 1 -2 years, in the freezer even longer. Sun them again for a day before deep frying.
Recipe by : Chips @kitchencaper (adapted)
Redneck says ……
We do not use any MSG in our cooking so used the sugar option in this recipe. They were so delicious - I was unable to stop eating!
7 Comments:
hi sinner my first batch of har pang was absolutely disaster. added too much water and whole thing was very gooey and unmanageable. then rested 2 days and had a go at it again. tis time round was better. did the whole process and finally come the frying part. the taste was very good. only had a slight prob. the middle of the fried crackers were a bit chewy. i actually had sun it for 2 days. pls advise many thanks again.
Hi greedy,
Did the middle not fluff up during the frying process ? Maybe you need to keep it out in the sun to dry it a bit more. See whether it will help.
With mine, I have stored it in an airtight bag for more than a year and when I take it out to fry, it is still crunchy all over.
Other than the fact it might still have some moisture, I can't think of any other reason.
ok thanks for the advise. will try to be patient and sun it for a few more days if kids dont bug me for it.
greedy, tell them you ran out of oil ;)
Hi all,
Just want to share something my grandma use to do when making her famous prawn crackers for Chinese New Year. Don't throw the prawn shells away. Boil them and use the stock to add to the paste rather than just plain water. Also add cut cili padi to the paste but sparingly. My grandma will sun them after they are cut over a few weeks until it is very very dry. By the way, great blog and recipes.
Andrew, Muar.
Great tip, Andrew. Thank you :)
My husband just suggested I try making har peng as one of my projects so I googled for a recipe. What you've done sounds very similar to my MIL's method (she made it like a quarter century ago haha) thanks for sharing
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