Prawns cooked hard and fast in rice wine and ginger is a five-minute dish that tastes like it took longer. It’s a fixture of confinement cooking, where ginger and rice wine do most of the heavy lifting, and it’s just as good on an ordinary Tuesday.
Rice wine and breastfeeding.
Cooking reduces alcohol but doesn’t remove it. A dish flamed or simmered briefly can retain a meaningful proportion of what went in, so “it all cooks off” is simply not accurate.
Confinement cooking traditionally uses a great deal of rice wine, and mothers are often served it several times a day. Current guidance is that occasional small amounts of alcohol are unlikely to harm a breastfed baby, and that the cautious approach is to keep intake low and to feed before, not shortly after. If you’d rather avoid it altogether, the substitution below works and the dish is still very good.
Ask your doctor if you’re unsure, particularly with a newborn.
Ingredients
Serves 3-4, about 15 minutes
- 500g medium prawns, shells on, deveined
- 4 tbsp Shaoxing wine, or glutinous rice wine for the confinement version
- 1 thumb ginger, cut into fine matchsticks
- 3 cloves garlic, sliced
- 1 tbsp sesame oil
- 1 tbsp neutral oil
- 1 tsp light soy sauce
- ½ tsp sugar
- 2 spring onions, cut into lengths
- White pepper
Method
- Prepare the prawns. Leave the shells on: they hold the flavour and stop the flesh drying out. Snip along the back with scissors and lift the vein out. Pat thoroughly dry.
- Heat the wok until it’s hot, then add the neutral oil. This dish fails when the pan is merely warm.
- Ginger and garlic in first, 20 seconds, until fragrant but not coloured.
- Add the prawns in a single layer. Leave them alone for a minute, then turn. They’re done when the shells are bright orange and the flesh has just turned opaque, around 2 to 3 minutes in total.
- Pour the wine down the side of the wok, not over the prawns. It should hiss and steam immediately. Add the soy sauce and sugar.
- Toss for 30 to 60 seconds until the sauce is glossy and slightly reduced.
- Off the heat, stir in the sesame oil, spring onions and a good pinch of white pepper. Serve at once.
Notes
- Dry prawns are the whole trick. Wet prawns steam instead of searing and the dish turns watery.
- Overcooking is the only real risk. A prawn curled into a tight O is overdone; a loose C is right.
- Sesame oil goes in at the end. It burns and turns bitter over high heat.
- To leave out the alcohol: replace the wine with chicken stock plus a teaspoon of rice vinegar, and increase the ginger. Different, still excellent.
- For the confinement version, use glutinous rice wine, double the ginger and lean harder on the sesame oil.
What’s in it
Prawns are high in protein, low in fat, and a good source of iodine, selenium and vitamin B12. The old worry about dietary cholesterol in shellfish has been substantially revised. For most people, cholesterol eaten has far less effect on blood cholesterol than saturated fat does.
Two practical points. Shellfish is one of the more common serious food allergies, and reactions can be severe. A first introduction isn’t something to do casually, particularly with a young child. And prawns should be cooked through during pregnancy, which this method does comfortably; thoroughly cooked seafood is generally fine, and it’s raw and undercooked seafood that’s advised against.
Frequently asked questions
Does the alcohol cook off?
Not entirely. Brief cooking leaves a meaningful proportion behind, so “it all cooks off” is inaccurate. Occasional small amounts are generally considered low risk while breastfeeding, but if you’d rather avoid it, substitute stock with a little rice vinegar.
Can I eat this while pregnant?
Thoroughly cooked prawns are generally fine in pregnancy: it’s raw or undercooked seafood that’s advised against. On the wine, discuss it with your doctor, since advice on alcohol in pregnancy is more cautious than for breastfeeding.
Should I remove the shells?
Leaving them on gives better flavour and keeps the prawns from drying out, at the cost of messier eating. For young children, shell them after cooking.
Why are my prawns rubbery?
Overcooked. Two to three minutes is usually enough. A prawn curled into a tight circle has gone too far; a loose C shape is right.
What can I use instead of Shaoxing wine?
Glutinous rice wine for a confinement version, or dry sherry as a close substitute. For an alcohol-free version, chicken stock with a teaspoon of rice vinegar and extra ginger.
Quick recap
Dry the prawns, get the wok properly hot, ginger and garlic first, prawns two to three minutes, wine down the side of the pan, sesame oil off the heat.
Don’t overcook them. And if you’re breastfeeding and would rather skip the alcohol, stock and vinegar does the job. The ginger brings more of the flavour than the wine does.
Read next
- Sitting the month: which confinement practices to keep
- Whitebait omelette with ginger
- Confinement recipes for breastfeeding mums
This article is general information and not medical advice. On alcohol during pregnancy or breastfeeding, and on introducing shellfish to a child, speak to your doctor.