Note from Adam: If this is the kind of thing you’d order in a restaurant but feel nervous about making at home, I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised. As the noodles steam they soak up not just the sauce but the juices from the prawns (shrimp), producing something so delicious you’ll be making it again and again.

Serves 4

Prep 10 minutes
Soak 20 minutes
Cook 15 minutes

120 g (41/2 oz) packet of mung bean vermicelli (see tips)
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
4 garlic cloves, crushed
2 cm (3/4 in) piece of fresh ginger, peeled and finely chopped
1 red bird’s eye chilli
4 spring onions (scallions), finely sliced
2 tablespoons oyster sauce
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 tablespoon dark soy sauce
1 tablespoon Shaoxing wine
1 teaspoon sugar
12 raw prawns (shrimp), peeled and deveined, tails intact
coriander (cilantro) sprigs, to serve

1. Soak the vermicelli in cold water for 20 minutes.
2. Heat the oil in a small saucepan and fry the garlic, ginger, chilli and spring onion until the garlic is lightly browned and the spring onion fragrant. Remove from the heat. Add the oyster sauce, soy sauces, Shaoxing wine and sugar and stir them through.

    

3. Drain the vermicelli and place on a lipped heatproof plate. Arrange the prawns on top, then pour the sauce mixture over. Steam for 10 minutes in a bamboo steamer or steam oven (see tips), until the prawns are cooked and the noodles softened.

    

4. Lightly stir the noodles to ensure they’re all coated with the sauce, then scatter with coriander and serve.

TIPS:

Rice vermicelli and mung bean vermicelli may look similar when they’re dried and in the shops, but they are very different things. Read the labels closely to avoid getting the wrong ones.

Bamboo steamers are cheap and available from Asian grocers. You can place them in a wok or over a pot. If you don’t have any kind of steamer, an upturned bowl in the base of a large, lidded pot will work just as well.