Rice noodles with pineapple, prawns and coconut sauce (khanom jeen sao nahm)

The combination of sweet and sour pineapple with fresh prawns and coconut cream makes for a refreshing dish, especially in the hot Thai summer.

Credit: Brett Stevens

• serves

  4

• prep

  20 minutes

• cook

  20 minutes

• difficulty

  Easy

Ingredients

• 8 large green king prawns, peeled with tails intact, cleaned
• 300 g fermented rice noodles (see Note) or somen noodles (see Note)
• 60 g (½ cup) dried shrimp (see Note)
• 300 ml coconut cream
• 110 g (½ cup) caster sugar
• 4 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
• 10 cm-piece ginger, peeled, thinly shredded
• ½ small pineapple, peeled, cut into julienne
• coriander sprigs and chopped red chilli, to serve

Cooling time 15 minutes

Instructions

Bring a saucepan of salted water to a simmer over medium heat. Add prawns and cook for 2 minutes or until just cooked. Remove with a slotted spoon and cool slightly.

Return water to the boil over high heat and cook rice noodles for 3 minutes or until al dente. Drain, refresh under cold water, then drain again. Divide into 4 portions, place on a serving plate and coil into rounds.

Using a small food processor or mortar and pestle, process dried shrimp until finely ground, then transfer to a saucepan over low heat. Cook, stirring, for 10 minutes or until almost doubled in size. Remove from pan and set aside.

Return saucepan to medium heat. Add coconut cream, sugar and 1 teaspoon salt, and bring to just below boiling point, stirring to dissolve sugar. Remove from heat and allow to cool completely.

Place sauce in a bowl on serving plate with prawns, dried shrimp, garlic, ginger, pineapple, coriander and chilli. Serve with small bowls for people to help themselves.

Note

• Dried shrimp and somen noodles are available from Asian food shops. Fermented rice noodles are from select Thai food shops.

Photography Brett Stevens. Styling Berni Smithies.

As seen in Feast magazine, April 2014, Issue 30.

Cook's Notes

Oven temperatures are for conventional; if using fan-forced (convection), reduce the temperature by 20˚C. | We use Australian tablespoons and cups: 1 teaspoon equals 5 ml; 1 tablespoon equals 20 ml; 1 cup equals 250 ml. | All herbs are fresh (unless specified) and cups are lightly packed. | All vegetables are medium size and peeled, unless specified. | All eggs are 55-60 g, unless specified.