If you like prawn toast, I can actually guarantee you will love this. The thing is, it’s very, very similar to prawn toast but the bao bun takes it up a notch or two. I’d say it makes it even more exotic if that is possible. And those words have been spoken by a child of the 80s when the smell all the flavours of sweatshop produced clothing wafted through the air, Rolph Harris was still a national icon, and country Australians had little more than the local Chinese takeaway to look to for their collective cultural education. So heed those words friends. Heed them well.

BAO BUN PRAWN TOAST

400 g prawn meat, chopped
2 spring onions (scallions), chopped
1 kafir lime leaf, vein removed and finely shredded
1 clove garlic, chopped
1 egg
1 teaspoon fish sauce
½ teaspoon caster sugar
½ teaspoon white pepper
A pinch of salt
8 frozen bao buns
1 cup sesame seeds – you can do a mixture of white and black if you want
A deep fryer of some description
Pickled chillies, to serve (recipe follows)
Kewpie mayonnaise, to serve
A handful of Asian herbs, sliced cucumber and lime, to serve

Place prawns, spring onion, lime leaf, garlic, 1 egg, fish sauce, sugar, pepper and salt into a food processor. Pulse into a coarse paste.
Divide prawn paste into 8 portions and spoon into your bao. It kinda feels like you’re feeding a baby Exogorth (Star Wars asteroid worm).
Repeat with all the prawny bao until all 8 are filled.
Wipe the lips of the Exogorths mouth to keep that presentation score high.
Put the sesame seeds into a bowl.
Take your first bao and dip the prawny edge into the sesame seed mix. Repeat with remaining bao until they’re all done.
Heat deep fryer to 170 C (340 F).
Once oil is hot fry bao in batches for 2 – 2 ½ minutes each side, until cooked.
Remove bao from fryer and place on paper towel to drain excess oil.
Cook the remaining bao.
Season with salt and get onto a plate with pickled chillies, herbs, cucumber, lime and mayonnaise.

PICKLED CHILLIES

1 kg chillies of your choosing
1 tablespoons sea salt
8 cloves garlic, bruised
1 cup sugar
2 cups rice vinegar
½ cup water

Simmer everything except chillies in a pot over med-low heat for 2 minutes.
Slice chillies and place into a sterilized jar.
Pour pickle liquid into jar of chillies while still warm.
Get a lid on that jar.
Now get them into the fridge.
They are good to go now but I suggest leaving them for a few days for the flavour party to develop a little more.
These will last for maybe a year in the fridge but generally we’ll be lucky if they’re not gone in a few weeks.