Chayote (Chokos) with prawns (佛手瓜炒虾仁)

The lighting when I took the photos was really bad, so you've really gotta pardon these photos with a blueish tinge...

To make up for the bad photos, I can tell you that this dish was truly a delightfully crunchy and savoury one, so if you do see chayotes in the market or supermarket, do give it a try!

Alicia didn't like the chayote cooked as a soup the other time - I guess she doesn't like the texture after it's cooked in the soup but she enjoyed the crunchy bites of the chayote yesterday during dinner.

Hubby and I enjoyed the dish too! I can't wait to cook this again soon!

Chayote (Chokos) with prawns (佛手瓜炒虾仁)

Ingredients:

• 1 chayote (chokos)
• 6 small prawns (washed, shelled and deveined)
• 2 cloves garlic (minced)
• oil
• a pinch of salt
• water
• fish sauce to taste

Marinate prepared prawns with:

• a dash of hua diao jiu
• ground white pepper
• a bit of light soy sauce
• a dash of sesame oil

Method:

1. Remove skin and seed of the chayote. Cut it into quarters and slice as thinly as possible - the thickest slice I had was not more than 0.1cm.
2. Marinate the prepared prawns accordingly.
3. Parboil the sliced chayote in water with a pinch of salt and a bit of oil for no more than 1 min.
4. Remove the chayote slices and run room temp water/ cold water through them. Drain and set aside.
5. Heat oil in wok then fry garlic till fragrant.
6. Add in the prawns and stir-fry for a short while till prawns turn slightly pink on both sides.
7. Add some water and the chayote (the water should cover about a third of the ingredients in the wok).
8. Stir-fry for about 2-5 min (depending on how cooked you'd like the chayote - chayote can be eaten raw so there's no worry about eating raw veg).
9. Add fish sauce to taste.
10. Dish and serve.

For toddler's consumption:

• Cut chayote slices into small pieces for easier chewing.