I love crunching on prawn crackers. Prawn crackers are getting more expensive to purchase
lately and they do not taste as good as back in the old days. I bought some prawn crackers from a vendor in Bintulu and it was by far the best I have eaten. However in my recent visit, the seller no longer sells them saying that she had no more time to do it.
I also tried buying a packet from Gaya Street stalls but those did not taste as nice. Last week, I went back to Gaya Street again and found out that a packet now cost almost RM25.
To fulfill my craving for prawn crackers and not wanting to spend too much money buying them, I decided to try making my own.
Looking for the recipe online was not as easy as searching for a chocolate cake recipe. This snack is popular but not many people attempt to make it. In my observation from the few recipes that I found, these crackers are made from 4 main ingredient ; Tapioca flour, prawns, salt and sugar. It is then mixed, rolled, steamed, dried, cut then fried. That is all it took to make a cracker. It sounded easy enough.
There were one or two recipes that even called for eggs and some baking powder. I decided to opt for the basic type. My initial thought was that the old school recipe should be better and closer to taste to the one I am looking for.
Ingredient
600g peeled prawns + 400g prawn shell (1 kg prawn if unpeeled)
550g tapioca flour
2 tsp sugar
3 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
1 tbsp of prawn juice
Method
Place the prawn shell into a wok and fry dry without oil or water. The cooked prawn shell will emanates just enough for 1 tablespoon of prawn juice.
Mix the entire ingredient and knead until smooth.
Roll the dough into log. Put onto a greased tray.
Steam the dough for 1 1/5 hours.
Let cool then put into fridge overnight.
Slice thinly and let dry under the sun.
Drying the Crackers
I lived in an apartment which has only 3 hours of sunlight therefore drying using sun will not be possible. There is also my fear that if I placed them in the public garden where there is sun, those darn cats that usually roam free might just go pee on my crackers. So I used the oven instead. It took almost 3 hours to dry them with the lowest temperature but it worked.
I think my first attempt at making prawn cracker was a success but I am not satisfied with the result because it failed to win over the Bintulu cracker.
The Difference
- Vast difference between my crackers with the Bintulu Cracker is the translucency.
- The size after fried. Bintulu was bigger. Bintulu probably had some raising agent.
- The bubbles in my crackers were bigger. Probably due to lack of kneading.
- As for taste, mine was better because it had a ratio of more prawns than flour.
- Bintulu Cracker was easier to bite and mine was harder.
By making a few phone calls, I manage to obtain a second recipe from Auntie Lam who had made these crackers before. Her recipe contains eggs and baking powder which could be the key in making the ideal cracker that I am looking for. Auntie’s original recipe actually called for more than 8 teaspoons of salt which I felt was too much so I cut it down to half.
Ingredient
600g peeled prawns (1 kg prawn if unpeeled)
750g tapioca flour
5 tsp sugar
4 tsp salt
2 egg white
2 tsp pepper
1 tsp ajinomoto
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp onion powder
Method
Beat the egg white until see bubbles. Do not over beat it.
Mix the entire ingredient and knead until smooth.
Roll the dough into log. Put onto a greased tray.
Steam the dough for 1 1/5 hours.
Let cool then put into fridge overnight.
Slice thinly and let dry under the sun.
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