Pickled wombok:
Half a wombok cabbage
5 cloves garlic
1 Tbs salt
30 ml fish sauce
50 g ginger
1 tsp sugar
1/4 cup korean chilli paste (kimchi)
Miso caramel:
100 g sugar
2 cups hot water
1 Tbs miso
Puffed black rice:
2 cups of canola oil
2 Tbs black rice
red shiso for garnish
To make black rice:
Place oil in pan, bring up to 195°C heat. Pour black rice into the oil and cook for approx 20 seconds. Rice will puff up. Strain oil into a non-melting container, and place puffed rice on a tray with paper towel.
To make the pickled wombok:
Cut cabbage into 1 inch squares, sprinkle with salt. Place in a colander with a bowl underneath and leave in the fridge for 24 hours. Rinse cabbage and squeeze out excess water. Slice garlic and ginger thinly, mix with chilli paste, sugar, cabbage and fish sauce. Leave for 2-3 days for flavours to intensify.
To make the miso caramel:
Place sugar and 1 cup hot water in a pan, bring to boil and then turn down to a moderate heat. Cook to 170°C; (if using a sugar thermometer, the caramel will start colouring at 160°C). When caramel has reached 170°C add another cup of water (please use caution when adding water to caramel, the caramel is very hot and
will react violently). Add the miso paste, the caramel will harden in places, cook on low
heat until the hard pieces of caramel re-dissolve. Transfer to a container for later use.
To prepare prawns:
Do not shell the prawns but cut them through the back of the head and down the back to the tail but not all the way through (butterfly), clean out the intestinal tract.
Drizzle prawns with canola oil and season with sea salt, grill prawns cut side down on
a very hot char or grill for 30 seconds then turn over and cook for around another 30
seconds until the prawns are cooked and the shells have colour to plate.
Position grilled prawns on plate, place pickled cabbage over prawns (around two
tablespoons) and drizzle caramel miso over top.
Garnish with red shiso and puffed black rice.
Photo Credits: Recipes and Images from Byron Bay; a Taste of the Region, published by Tancred Holdings Pty Ltd and Nelly le Comte Photography.
