Zucchini with prawns and tomato in sweet chilli sauce

“What is zucchini?” “How do I cook it?”

I have been asked myself these 2 questions since I started cooking western food. Coming from a typical Chinese family, I have never tried zucchini before. After going through my cookbooks and browsing all online recipes, I just realized that there are so many ways to cook zucchini ie baked, grilled, stir-fry and stew. Below is a recipe adapted and modified from Jaden’s website. I had removed the deep-fry basil because I prefer to have some sauce for my dish under such a hot weather.

Ingredients:
10 medium sized prawns
½ zucchini (sliced thinly)
1 medium sized tomato (cut into 8 wedges)
1 tbsp chopped garlic

Seasonings for marinating prawns:
Dash of sugar, salt and pepper

Seasonings for stir-frying:
3 tbsp tomato sauce
1 tbsp oyster sauce
½ tbsp chilli sauce (If you prefer spicy food, put 1 tbsp)
2 tbsp water
2 tsp sugar

Methods:
1) Clean, peel and de-vein the prawns. Pat dry with kitchen towels. Marinate them with the seasoning. Keep in the fridge for ½ hour.
2) Using enough oil (5 - 6 tbsp to fully cover the base of the wok), heat up wok with high heat. Layout all the prawns on the wok and let them fry untouched until they turn pink. Flip over the other side and continue frying until the prawns turn pink and curl up. Do not overcook prawn. Dish up and place on kitchen towels to absorb excess oil. Set aside.
3) Return heat to medium high. Leave 1 tbsp of the remaining oil to sautée garlic until fragrant.
4) Add in zucchini slices and stir-fry for 1 minute. Tossing every 15 seconds until zucchini is just barely soft in the middle and still firm on the outer edge.
5) Add in tomato wedge and stir-fry for another 1 minute until the tomato turn slightly soft.
6) Add in seasonings and mix well with zucchini and tomato. Lastly return the cooked prawns to coat with the rest of the ingredients. Turn the heat to high and stir-fry quickly for 8-10 seconds. If the dish is too dry, add a bit of water. Dish up and serve.