Coiled Dragon Playing with Pearls
A classic Tianjin specialty featuring large prawns arranged in a coiled dragon shape and cooked with pigeon eggs. The dish has an elegant presentation, a glossy golden-rose color, and a savory-sweet, tender flavor.
Ingredients
Prawns (about 1000g, trimmed of whiskers, eyes, mouth, and small claws, with sand bladder and vein removed, shaped and set aside)
10
Quail eggs
10
Vegetable oil
150g
Sugar
50g
Cooking wine
15g
Salt
10g
Vinegar
10g
Scallion
10g
Ginger
10g
Stock
200g
Instructions
1
Prepare the prawns
Trim the whiskers, eyes, mouth, and small claws from the prawns; remove the sand bladder; slice open along the back and pull out the sand vein; peel the shell from the middle section.
2
Shape the prawns
Make a small opening in the middle of the back, then thread the tail through the opening twice and fan the tail open; set aside.
3
Deep-fry
Place a clean wok over high heat, add oil, arrange the shaped prawns in a skimmer, blanch briefly in the hot oil, then drain off the oil.
4
Season and braise
Add scallion, ginger, cooking wine, vinegar, stock, salt... (original text is cut off here)
