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Butter Prawn is a Malaysian recipe that is buttery, salty, sweet, spicy, and garlicky. The main ingredients are prawn, butter, grated coconut and curry leaves.
Malaysian Butter Prawn
Butter Prawn is a delicious Malaysian recipe that you can commonly find in local restaurants.
It combines the best of Malay, Chinese, Indian, and western ingredients; this is a knockout dish in terms of taste, smell, and presentation.
Every bite of the prawn reveals layer upon layer of complex flavors. It’s buttery, salty, sweet, spicy, and garlicky working off one another seamlessly and perfectly.
This recipe is truly Malaysian and the taste is simply scrumptious and mouthwatering!
Recipe Ingredients
Other than prawn, the key ingredient of this dish is curry leaf.
Highly aromatic in nature, curry leaf is widely used in southern Indian cuisine and Malaysian recipes.
The exotic scent of these dark green leaves saturates coconut milk based curries with rich fragrance and perks up seafood dishes such as Butter Prawn and Black Pepper Crab.
Another key ingredients is grated coconut, which adds amazing taste to the recipe.
See the recipe card for full information on ingredients.
Frequently Asked Questions
This recipe is only 258 calories per serving.
What To Serve With Butter Prawn
For a wholesome meal and easy weeknight dinner, I recommend the following recipes.
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Other Malaysian Recipes You Might Like
Butter Prawn
Ingredients
- 1 lb (500g) prawn, for example: tiger prawn
- 1 tablespoon oil
- 3 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
- 3 sprigs curry leaves, use only the leaves
- 1-2 small bird’s eye chilies, pounded, optional
- 1 tablespoon oyster sauce
- 1 tablespoon Chinese cooking wine, rice wine preferred
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- 3 dashes ground black pepper
- 6 tablespoons grated coconut, dry fried until golden brown
Instructions
- Leave the prawn heads and shells on, but chop off the eyes. Cut the legs with scissors. Slit down the back to remove the veins, then pat dry.
- Heat a skillet with oil and pan-fry the prawns until the shells turn white but are not completely cooked. Drain and set aside.
- Melt the butter, then add the garlic, curry leaves, and bird's eye chilies (if using). Stir-fry for 1 minute or until aromatic. Add the prawns, oyster sauce, wine, sugar, black pepper, and grated coconut. Cook over high heat for 1-2 minutes, stirring frequently.
- Dish out and serve immediately.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Hakka house – I don’t usually take pictures at night, I sually take them during day time when there is plenty of natural sun light. If I take it at night in my kitchen under Tungsten light, then I set my setting to Tungsten. Hope this helps.
I have the exact same camera, but your pictures are definitely better. How do you deal with lighting at night?
Tonixe – I think the color is because of the prawn variety I get here…I was looking at them the other day and wondered why they were so “orange” and “golden.” But yes, they were crispy too.
yr prawns have amazing golden color, which means xraordinary crispiness. This is one of my fav prawn dishes
My curry leaves are still sitting in the chiller section and I’ve yet to check how they are doing. Oh no!
I will line-up butter prawns if the curry leaves survive. For now, I’ve done the steamed tofu dish.
Linnish – thanks to the search engine and welcome to Rasa Malaysia. Do leave me more comments in the future. :)
Stephanie – thanks for visiting my blog and I appreciate your kind comment. Do pop in more often. :)
Ben – I hope Suanne will love this dish.
Anonymous – yes, you can get these curry leaves at 99 Ranch. I got mine at the 99 Ranch here in Irvine. They are seasonal though but it showed up in the market last week and I was so happy!
Hakkahouse – thanks and I am happy that you like my pictures. I use Canon Powershot SD450 Digital Elph point-and-shoot. The trick of using the camera is to change the mode to “Macro.”
Tigerfish – I chose the smallest and lightest pack too and now I am stuck with the leftovers. I put them in the freezer and obviously it doesn’t do good to the leaves, now they are brown.
Dr. Ve Thru – yeah, I can understand the frustration of not finding rare Malaysian ingredients. You should move to California. ;)
One of my favourites. Sadly, fresh curry leaves are hard to come by here. :(
Hahah…I don’t get a pound but that also means the smallest pack of leaves is goin’ to be expensive too. I chose the smallest, lightest pack!And it is still more expensive than boy choy, bean sprouts, etc…
Your picture always looks amazing. May I ask what camera you’re using?
Hi RM:
Those butter prawns sure look yummy. I wonder where did you get those curry leaves?. I am staying in Monterey Park and don’t seem to find it in any of those Chinese markets, not even in 99 Ranch.