Recipe: Vietnamese Prawns Stir-Fried with Lemongrass & Chilli (Tôm riem xo voi)

My boy's latest food love are prawns. For example, whenever we go for char koay teow, he would ask for all the prawns on the plate. The other day, I cooked Vietnamese-style stir fried prawns with lemongrass and chilli (tôm riem xo voi) and he loved it! He kept asking for more. :)

For this dish, I used medium-sized fresh prawns, which have been shelled and deveined. Other ingredients include large onion, thinly sliced lemongrass and red chilli, and seasoned with fish sauce, light soy sauce and sugar. I didn't have any red chilli, so I used some jalapeno peppers (you can also use cili padi (bird's eye chilli)). The lemongrass is homegrown, from our garden.

This is a simple stir-fry dish, which literally takes minutes to cook. Fragrant, sweet, savoury and spicy, the flavours are simply delicious. What a wonderful, quick weekday meal this makes. I would definitely cook this again!

Vietnamese Prawns Stir-Fried with Lemongrass & Chilli (Tom riem xo voi)
Recipe by Baby Sumo, adapted from Vietnamese Bible
Preparation time: 15 minutes
Cooking time: 5 minutes
Serves 4

Ingredients
2 tbsp vegetable oil
1 large onion, sliced
1-2 plump stem lemongrass, trimmed and finely sliced
24 medium fresh prawns, shelled and deveined (about 250g)
1 large hot red chilli or jalapeno, deseeded and sliced
1 tbsp fish sauce
2 tsp light soy sauce
1/2 tbsp caster sugar


1. In a wok, heat oil over medium high heat. Add the onion and lemongrass and stir fry for 2-3 minutes, until fragrant. Add the prawns and chilli and cook for a further minute, until prawns are cooked through. Season with fish sauce, light soy sauce and sugar and mix well.

2. Serve immediately with rice vermicelli, rice-stick noodles or plain white rice.


Note: Not very sure of the Vietnamese name for this dish, book states tom riem xo voi, but it may be tôm xào sả ớt - enlighten me if you know the correct name! Thanks :)

* I am submitting this post to Asian Food Fest- Indochina hosted by Kelly Siew Cooks and to "Cook-Your-Books #13" hosted by Joyce .


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