Ebi Fry (Straightened Panko-Fried Prawns)
The Japanese yoshoku fried prawn: peeled prawns scored on the belly and pressed straight, coated in flour, egg and panko and deep-fried, served with tartare sauce and shredded cabbage.
Ingredients
- Prawns
- large prawns (black tiger or similar) · 30g or more each in the shell8
- salt1 pinch
- black pepper1 pinch
- plain flour3 tbsp
- egg1
- panko1 cup
- neutral oil · for frying1 L
- Tartare sauce
- hard-boiled egg1
- mayonnaise4 tbsp
- onion · finely chopped, rinsed and squeezed2 tbsp
- gherkin · chopped1 tbsp
- lemon juice1 tsp
- parsley · chopped, optional1 tsp
- To serve
- white cabbage · shredded very fine150 g
- lemon0.5
Steps
- ⏲ 10 min
Peel the prawns, leaving the tail and the last shell segment on. Cut shallowly along the back to pull out the vein, then trim the tip of the tail at an angle and scrape it with the back of the knife to push out the water inside.
Turn each prawn over and make four or five shallow diagonal cuts across the belly, about a third of the way through.
- ⏲ 5 min
Lay it back-side up and press firmly along it with your fingers from head end to tail. You will feel the belly tendons snap one after another as the prawn stretches out straight. Keep pressing until it is as long as you want.
- ⏲ 5 min
Pat dry and season with salt and pepper. Coat in flour, then beaten egg, then panko, pressing the crumbs on with your hand.
- ⏲ 2 min 30 sec
Heat the oil to 170-175°C and fry three or four prawns at a time for 2-3 minutes, until the crumb is golden.
- ⏲ 5 min
Lift them out and stand them on a rack to drain. Mix the chopped egg, mayonnaise, onion, gherkin, lemon juice and parsley for the tartare sauce.
Serve at once with the shredded cabbage, the lemon and the tartare sauce on the side.
Variations
- With Worcestershire sauce. Instead of tartare, a Worcestershire or tonkatsu sauce.
- Ebi fry sandwich. Between slices of white bread with cabbage and tartare.
- As a set. With rice, miso soup and cabbage, or on a mixed plate beside menchi katsu and croquettes.
- Curled. Skip the cuts and the prawns fry in their natural curl.
Tips
- Squeeze the water out of the tail. Left in, it spits in the oil.
- Keep the belly cuts shallow. Deep ones let the prawn break apart in the fryer.
- Press the panko on. Bare patches colour differently.
- Do not overfry. Two or three minutes cooks it through; longer makes it tough.
- Drain them standing up. Laid flat, the underside goes soggy.
More detail and the reasons why (2)
- Straight is a choice. According to Japanese Wikipedia, frying prawns straight is not the usual style in America, where they are fried curled, as they come. A prawn curls in the heat because the tendons along its belly contract; ebi fry cuts the belly and presses from the back until those tendons snap. It is the same job tonkatsu does when it cuts the sinew at the edge of the loin so the cutlet does not curl, and tempura scores its prawns the same way.
- A prawn from the pork cutlet. The same article says the Ginza restaurant Renga-tei claims to have devised ebi fry in 1900, inspired by the success of its tonkatsu and menchi katsu, though an 1887 magazine already printed prawns coated in flour, egg and panko and fried, almost today's recipe. For the oil temperature see deep frying.
The basics behind this dish
- Browning and the Maillard ReactionMeat fails to brown for one of three reasons: it is wet, the pan is cool, or you put too much in at once. Plus how the brown film stuck to the pan becomes your sauce.
- Cooking Meat: Temperature, Resting, and Cutting Against the GrainDoneness is a core temperature, not a number of minutes. What resting actually does, how to handle a thick cut, and why the direction you slice changes the texture.
- Knife Skills: Grip, Cuts, and Why Size MattersHow you hold the knife matters more than how fast you cut. The pinch grip, the claw hand, and why uniform size is a cooking decision rather than a cosmetic one.
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