Ever wanted to make your own prawn toast (aka sesame toast or shrimp toast), just like they make in a Chinese restaurant? Well, if you do it yourself it’s a darn site less soggy and potentially chunky too, personalised to the way you like it. In the video we make prawn toast in a fryer, air fryer and the oven with 2 spins on the oven version. All using the same mix, plus even experimenting with a brioche bun, real fun and super fresh! In my opinon the air fryer version was the best, but the oven was very similar, but I’m not a fan of fried bread. The oven and air fryer versions offer a much greater freshness and flavour depth, still with a good crunch on the bread, whatever method you try good luck!
Homemade prawn toast
Take the prawns, garlic, ginger, egg white, soy, sugar, coriander and spring onions and place them into a blender, whizz up until a puree like texture and everything is chopped / combined. You may want to do this in batches, also if you like you could slice the spring onions etc a bit to give the food processor less work, roughly chopped is fine. If the mixture is too wet after mixing, and soggy, whizz through 1tbsp of rice flour (plain flour is fine too) until you could a mix that holds it’s shape as you don’t want it runny. Mine was fine and no flour was needed. Place in a bowl, cover with clingfilm and chill in the fridge. This is the base mix for the 3 methods.
Take a slice of bread with the crusts removed, using a pastry brush lightly coat both sides in sesame oil. Add some prawn mixture on top, flattening it out evenly and pushing to the edges, brush with beaten egg on the he prawn mixture and cover with sesame seeds so it sticks to the prawn mixture.
Air Fryer prawn toast
Heat air fryer to 200c, spray the air fryer inside with spray oil, then spray the bread itself with spray oil also, just a light coating. Cook for approx. 10 minutes, the bread should be lightly browned and mixture puffed up slightly. Allow to cool slightly before serving.
Prawn toast in a fryer / wok
Heat vegetable oil to 220c or equivalent in a fryer, or warm in a wok as an alternative until the oil is shimmering, dropping in a small test bit of bread if you like to check the temperature. Place the prepared bread in with the prawn side face down in the oil first, flip over after a few minutes to cook the other side, this should take about 4-5 minutes in total but watch it carefully, cooking until golden brown, flipping more if needed, then draining on kitchen towel before serving warmed.
Oven baked prawn toast
In the video, I dry fried one slice of the bread that gets covered but I don’t think this made a difference so skip that if you like. So again brush the toast with egg wash (but all over this time, including the sides) and place on a lined baking tray, bake at 200c or equivalent for approx. 10 minutes, but do keep checking it to make sure you are happy with the colour, and of course be aware that it could darken quite quickly / burn so do keep an eye on it!
There is a noticeable freshness with the air fryer and oven versions, rather than being soaked in oil the freshness of the ginger and spring onion really pops, you get so much more flavour, but the classic fried is also noticeably nicer as it’s fresh too! Enjoy and maybe try the brioche / much thicker bread options if you like, they will look proper gourmet!