Thai Noodles With Cinnamon & Prawns

It’s not often that I eat something that tastes so different to anything I’ve come across before. But this is such a dish. A gorgeous and mesmerically talented chef called, so perfectly, Tum, cooked it when I was on holiday in Thailand last year, and I made him cook it again and again, and then finally asked him if I could video his making it, so I could try and recreate it at home. Apart from having to make geographically enforced changes, I have stuck to Tum’s recipe, including the ready-ground pepper and chicken stock concentrate (actually, he used chicken powder). I hope you will be as bowled over by it as I was. (Recipe courtesy Simply Nigella)

• Ready In: 1 hr
• Serves: 2

Ingredients

• 1  tablespoon  sunflower oil
• 2  garlic cloves, peeled and roughly chopped
•  fresh ginger, peeled and cut into fine matchsticks
• 1  star anise
• 1⁄2  long or 1 short cinnamon stick, broken into shards
• 2 -3  leafy stems at the top of 1 stick celery, cut into short lengths, leaves roughly chopped
• 1 1⁄2 tablespoons light soy sauce
• 1  tablespoon dark soy sauce
• 1  tablespoon oyster sauce
• 1⁄4 teaspoon white pepper
• 100  ml cold water
• 1  teaspoon  chicken stock, concentrate
• 1  tablespoon ketjap manis or 1  tablespoon  dark soy sauce mixed with 1 tablespoon soft dark brown sugar
• 10  raw peeled  king prawns, thawed if frozen
• 80  g  mung bean noodles (glass) or 3  ounces  rice vermicelli, soaked and drained as per packet instructions
• 1  fat pinch ground cinnamon
• 1  fat pinch ground cloves

Directions

1. On a high heat, heat the oil in a large wok. Add the garlic, ginger, star anise, cinnamon and the sliced leafy stems of celery, and cook, stirring, for 1 minute.
2. Stir in both soy sauces and leave to simmer for 30 seconds, then stir in the oyster sauce and ground pepper.
3. Add the water, followed by the chicken stock concentrate and the ketjap manis (or the mixture of dark soy sauce with soft brown sugar), stir until everything’s well combined and bring to the boil.
4. Now add the king prawns, immersing them in the liquid. Simmer until the prawns are cooked through.
5. Finally, add the drained noodles and stir well – I find a couple of pasta forks, one in each hand, best for this – so that everything is combined, and most of the dark liquid is absorbed. Add the pinches of ground cinnamon and cloves, stir again, and if you’re not serving straight from the wok, decant into a serving bowl, and sprinkle with the reserved chopped celery leaves.
6. Store Note:
7. Cool leftovers, then cover and refrigerate within 2 hours of making. Will keep for up to 2 days. Delicious cold.