I was at a party. It was a pretty good party too, ticking all of the boxes a good party should probably tick; there was entertainment, good folks offering a good variety of conversation, brain holiday fluid and, of course, catering.

The catering was all very delicious, but I remember the prawn toast making me feel like my life had changed for the better. At the time I can distinctly remember telling my brain it should remember every detail of this prawn toast as we would definitely be having a go at recreating it at home post haste. Alas, it seems my face had ingested just the right amount of brain holiday fluid to prevent the details from being very clear at all. But I tell you what – that is certainly not going to be enough of a hindrance to stop me from trying to make these prawn toast today.

One detail I do remember is that these toasts had the prawn filling sandwiched between two slices of bread instead of being spread over the customary one slice so it was somewhat more of a fried prawn sandwich. Genius. I feel like that was something I really liked about this version of prawn toast so that is how I shall be doing it here.

PRAWN TOAST LIKE THEY MADE AT THAT PARTY

200 g prawn meat, chopped
1 spring onion (shallot), chopped
1 clove garlic, chopped
1 egg
½ teaspoon fish sauce
A pinch of salt and pepper
10 slices cheap white bread
1 more egg, whisked with a splash of milk
1 cup sesame seeds – you can do a mixture of white and black if you want
A deep fryer or 250 ml vegetable oil to shallow fry
Capsicum chilli jam, to serve (recipe here)
Kewpie mayonnaise, to serve

Place prawns, spring onion, garlic, 1 egg, fish sauce and a pinch of salt and pepper in a food processor. Pulse into a coarse paste.
Trim crusts from bread slices.
Divide prawn paste evenly between bread slices. Spread it evenly right out to the edges of each slice.
Now place one prawny bread slice onto another so it is prawn on prawn action in the middle.
Repeat with all of the prawny bread.
Now you should have 5 prawn paste sandwiches. Don’t be tempted to take a bite yet.
Put the whisked egg into one bowl and the sesame seeds into another.
Take your first sandwich, dip one edge into the whisked egg, drain any extra egg off and then dip into the sesame seed mix. Repeat with remaining three sides and then set aside. Repeat full process with each of the prawn paste sandwiches and set aside.
Heat deep fryer to 170 C (340 F) or heat oil in a large cast iron pan over medium heat to shallow fry.
Once oil is up to temp, gently lay 2 prawn sandwiches into your fryer basket (or into your pan). Cook for 1 ½ – 2 minutes or until golden brown. Gently flip sandwich over using tongs to avoid horrible disfiguration and repeat process.
Remove sandwiches from fryer or pan and place on paper towel to drain excess oil, using a second piece of paper towel to pat the top of the sandwich.
Cook the remaining sandwiches.
Slice sandwiches into quarters and serve with chilli jam, kewpie mayonnaise, or both.