What I love most about this stir-fry is how quickly everything comes together. By the time you’ve rinsed your jasmine rice and got it cooking away, the prawns will have “velveted” (a Chinese technique that brings the bounce factor to everything from seafood to sizzling beef) and the rest of the ingredients will be ready to roll.
In Australia, asparagus season has just started – the spears are here! But this is the kind of stir-fry you’re going to want to make year-round, so for any time that isn’t spring, use broccolini or broccoli florets chopped into fork-sized bits. Snow peas would be fantastic too.
The prawns can be replaced by other seafood. No macadamias? Use cashews. If using raw nuts, toast them in a dry pan until golden and pull out before cooking the prawns. But for a nut-free alternative, you could try tinned water chestnuts, rinsed and chopped into chunks – or just skip the nut bit altogether.
Go fully plant-based by subbing the oyster sauce out for mushroom sauce (Megachef is my favourite brand for this) and the prawns for firm or even extra-firm tofu. This doesn’t need to be silkened, just boiled as a whole block (out of the pack) for two minutes or so, drained, chopped, pre-seasoned with plenty of soy sauce and other spices of choice and then tossed with cornflour to coat each cube before searing as you would the prawns.
I’ve left the veg quite generous in length to give them an elegant drape when cooked and to help render them an easier pickup with chopsticks. But if you have toddlers at the table, slice the veg into 2cm pieces instead.
This is the kind of dish you’ll have memorised and added to your repertoire in no time. A real winner.
Prawn, macadamia and asparagus stir-fry
Serves 4
250g peeled raw prawns, tails still attached
¾ tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 generous thumb-sized knob of ginger, peeled
2-3 garlic cloves, peeled
2 tbsp oyster sauce
1 tbsp light soy sauce
1 tbsp shaoxing rice wine
1 tbsp sesame oil
1 tbsp cornflour
125ml water, plus an extra 125ml water on standby
2 tbsp neutral oil (I like grapeseed or rice bran)
2 bunches of asparagus, cut into 5cm lengths
6 spring onions, white and green bits cut into 5cm lengths, plus extra thinly sliced spring onion to serve
150g roasted macadamias (1 cup)
Steamed jasmine rice, to serve
To “velvet” the prawns, slice in half lengthways and massage the bicarbonate of soda into the flesh, then leave to rest for 15 minutes.
Finely grate half the ginger and all the garlic. Slice the other ginger half into rough chunks and set aside.
In a bowl, whisk together the grated ginger, garlic, oyster sauce, soy sauce, rice wine, sesame oil, cornflour and 125ml water until combined. Set aside as your stir-fry sauce.
Rinse the prawns thoroughly in a colander and pat dry with paper towel.
Heat one tablespoon of the neutral oil in a wok or large frying pan until very hot. Add the prawns and stir-fry for 30 to 60 seconds, or until they just change colour. Remove from the wok and set aside. Wipe out the wok with paper towel, then add and reheat the remaining neutral oil.
Boil a kettle of water. Pop the asparagus and spring onion into a colander and into the sink, then pour the boiled water over them. Drain well, then add to the hot wok and stir-fry for two minutes.
Whisk the stir-fry sauce to reincorporate the ingredients, then pour into the hot wok and bring to the boil. Toss the prawns, nuts and chopped ginger through. The sauce should almost instantly become silky and glossy. If you find the liquid gets absorbed way too quickly, splash in another 125ml water and stir to incorporate. Taste for seasoning.
Serve this stir-fry topped with extra spring onion, and with bowls of steamed jasmine rice.
This is an edited extract from The Joy of Better Cooking by Alice Zaslavsky, photography by Ben Dearnley, published by Murdoch Books in Australia ($49.99) and the UK (£25), and available as Better Cooking in Canada and the US, published by Appetite by Random House (US$35)
This article was amended on 6 September 2024 to clarify one step of the recipe.
