Hae Mee Inspired Prawn Spaghetti

My Hae Mee Inspired Prawn Spaghetti

I was reading a post by blogger Only Slightly Pretentious Food on Prawn Oil and was inspired to make a batch of said oil for my own purposes. Being like all kaypoh cooks, I mixed things up a little to make it a little more interesting. Instead of using a typical sofritto or mire poix, which is celery, onion, carrot and thyme - and cooking it together with the prawn heads and shells till the prawn flavours are infused into the oil, I decided on a Singaporean Hae Mee-ish mix of spices and herbs.

I used the shells and heads from a kilo of prawns and cooked it with 2 red onions, 4 cloves of garlic, 2 stalks of lemongrass, 1 star anise, 3 cloves, 3 chilli padi and 1 carrot for 4 hours. The resulting oil was fragrant and redolent of a rich hae mee stock.

I cooked the prawns off in about a table spoon of olive oil, added 1 clove of minced garlic and 1 chilli padi.and cooked it till fragrant. Tossed in the cooked spaghetti, splashed in some white wine and let the alcohol cook off, seasoned with salt and pepper. Took the pan off the heat and added a tablespoon of lime juice and a knob of butter which melted into the hot pasta.

I also drizzled a tablespoon of the prawn oil onto the pasta and mixed the pasta thoroughly through the resulting sauce. As I had been rendering lard for my kitchen, I had some crispy lard bits left over -the perfect topping for my hae mee-inspired prawn spaghetti.

I am not ashamed to say that I finished that large bowl of pasta by myself. The smoky lard bits were crunchy and the perfect accompaniment to the sweet juicy prawn nuggets. If I were to make this dish again, I would probably add some slices of my 5 Spice Roast Pork.