I’m a fan of Chinese largest Hot Pot Restaurant Chain Haidilao. Its specialness comes not only from the hot pot broth or dipping sauce, but also from the hot pot dipping ingredients. Among them, one of the ingredients that impresses me the most is prawn paste. Prawn pastes can be cooked very quickly, has an umami flavor and a crunchy texture. So, I and my husband tried making a homemade version of Haidilao prawn paste, and it turned out amazing: with very simple ingredients and making method, the taste is 90% similar.
Equipment
Usually, I don’t share about the equipment first in a recipe guide, but for Homemade Haidilao Prawn Paste Recipe, it’s quite important. To make prawn paste, you should have a blender to grind prawn. You can also crush prawns with pestle and mortar, but there are two disadvantages you have to take into account: it takes much more time to crush until the prawn is ground completely, and although you tried your best, the paste is still not too smooth. Everything can be resolved with a blender, so do prepare a good one for making homemade prawn paste for hot pot.
The rest? Nothing except a bowl and a spoon. Grasp your equipment and prepare the ingredients below.
Ingredients
What are required for making Haidilao Prawn Paste? The ingredients are simple as well. To make a cup of Prawn Paste, you’ll need:
- 200g (7 oz) prawn, peeled. I used Tiger Prawn imported from Vietnam.
- 20g (1 1/3 tbsp) egg white
- 8g (1/2 tbsp) tapioca starch
Tapioca starch seems to be the hardest-to-find ingredient in the list if you are not familiar with Asian culinary. You can buy it at Asian Food Stores or on Amazon, not only for this dish but many other tasty dishes such as tapioca dumplings (Banh Bot Loc), Fried Rice Flour Cake (Bot Chien), Tapioca Dessert and our common tapioca pearls in milk tea.
Is it possible to substitute cornstarch for tapioca starch? My answer is that you shouldn’t replace it with cornstarch in this recipe. In another article, I did a comparison between tapioca and corn starch, and one of the biggest differences is the texture. Tapioca starch tends to create a clearer, glossier, and chewier texture than corn starch. Corn starch, on the other hand, produces am opaque appearance and not a chewy texture, which is good for thickening. For this copycat Haidilao Prawn Paste Recipe, we need the feature of tapioca starch, which is the chewiness and clear texture, so we should go with it.
How to make homemade Haidilao Prawn Paste?
I made the paste from frozen prawn, so let me share from preparation step for frozen prawn until done.
Step 1. Preparation
- If you use frozen prawns, thaw them. Pay attention not to thaw them by microwave because it can make your prawns partly be cooked. To make prawn paste, all the prawns has to be fresh and uncooked.
- Peel the skin, remove the head and devein the black line on top of it if there is any left.
- Put your peeled prawns in the freezer (yes, freezer) in 10 minutes to quickly refrigerate them. Set a timer not to forget and make them frozen.
Step 2. Blending the prawns
- Start to blend chilled prawns in blender for 2-3 minutes or until they become a very smooth paste.
- Remove the paste from the blender, transfer it to a bowl and cover the surface of the paste by plastic wrap. Remember to cover the surface of the paste instead of covering the bowl only. Return it to freezer again in 10 minutes to chill it completely after being blended.
Step 3. Mixing with egg white and tapioca starch
- Take the shrimp out from freezer, and add 20 grams of egg whites and 1 tablespoon of tapioca starch (8 grams) in.
- Use a fork (or spoon) to quickly mix the shrimp until you get a smooth mixture. Keep in mind that you should do every step with very chilled prawns.
Step 4. Shaping
At Haidilao, prawn paste is usually shaped into a leave, so I did it.
- To prevent the paste from sticking, transfer the paste into a fat plate and cover the surface with plastic wrap. Use your hands to shape it to a leave. Finally, use a chopstick or a stick to shape the veins of the leave.
Step 4. Dropping into hot pot
- When you eat homemade Prawn Paste with hotpot, spoon the paste and drop in boiling hotpot broth. It will be easily and quickly cooked in only 3 minutes. Once cooked, the balls of prawn paste float to the surface of the broth. You can dip prawn paste in every type of hot pot broth, vegan or non-vegan, depend on your taste preference.
- Enjoy it with other ingredients such as vegetables, fresh prawn, beef, clams or squid.
Storing Homemade Prawn Paste
Because the prawn paste is fully fresh, you shouldn’t store it in more than 2 days. For longer time, you can freeze it, but always thaw it naturally at room temperature, without using microwave because prawn is really easy to be cooked with a microwave.
Easy, isn’t it? Make it and enjoy hot pot right at home!
Homemade Haidilao Prawn Paste
We tried making a homemade version of Haidilao prawn paste, and it was amazing: simple ingredients and making method but 90% similar taste.
Ingredients
- 200g (7 oz) prawn
- 20g (1 1/3 tbsp) egg white
- 8g (1/2 tbsp) tapioca starch
Instructions
Step 1. Preparation
- If you use frozen prawns, thaw them. Pay attention not to thaw them by microwave because it can make your prawns partly be cooked. To make prawn paste, all the prawns has to be fresh and uncooked.
- Peel the skin, remove the head and devein the black line on top of it if there is any left.
- Put your peeled prawns in the freezer (yes, freezer) in 10 minutes to quickly refrigerate them. Set a timer not to forget and make them frozen.
Step 2. Blending the prawns
- Start to blend chilled prawns in blender for 2-3 minutes or until they become a very smooth paste.
- Remove the paste from the blender, transfer it to a bowl and cover the surface of the paste by plastic wrap. Remember to cover the surface of the paste instead of covering the bowl only. Return it to freezer again in 10 minutes to chill it completely after being blended.
Step 3. Mixing with egg white and tapioca starch
- Take the shrimp out from freezer, and add 20 grams of egg whites and 1 tablespoon of tapioca starch (8 grams) in.
- Use a fork (or spoon) to quickly mix the shrimp until you get a smooth mixture. Keep in mind that you should do every step with very chilled prawns.
Step 4. Shaping
- To prevent the paste from sticking, transfer the paste into a fat plate and cover the surface with plastic wrap. Use your hands to shape it to a leave. Finally, use a chopstick or a stick to shape the veins of a leave. I also decorated a bit with pandan extract.
Step 4. Dropping into hot pot
- When you eat homemade Prawn Paste with hotpot, spoon the paste and drop in boiling hotpot broth. It will be easily and quickly cooked in only 3 minutes. Once cooked, the balls of prawn paste float to the surface of the broth.
- Enjoy it with other ingredients such as vegetables, fresh prawn, beef, clams or squid.
Notes
You should have:
- A Blender
- A Bowl
- A Spoon
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Nutrition Information:
Yield: 2 Serving Size: 100gAmount Per Serving: Calories: 125
