Prawn Toasts

Step 1: FOR PRAWN TOPPING: Combine prawn & cornflour in a bowl. Then transfer to a sieve & run under cold water for 5-10 seconds. Drain & thoroughly pat dry w/a paper towel. Finely chop prawns, then use the side of a knife to crush them into a coarse paste. Transfer prawn paste to a bowl with 11/2 tsp salt. Using clean hands, knead until well combined. Add remaining ingredients & stir until well combined.

Step 2: Place sesame seeds in a shallow dish. Spread 3 tsp of the prawn paste over ea bread triangle. Dip bread (prawn-side down) into the sesame seeds & place on a tray. Repeat w/remaining bread, prawn mixture & sesame seeds.

Step 3: Half-fill a deep-fryer, wok or lrg saucepan w/sunflower oil & heat to 360F (a cube of bread will turn golden in 90 seconds when oil is hot enough). Deep-fry the toasts (prawn-side down) for 1 min. Then turn & cook another 30-60 seconds or until golden. Remove w/a slotted spoon & drain on paper towel. Serve immediately.

Step 4: NOTE #1: The recipe yield = 16 toasts & showed that # as the # of servings. I'm sure some would see that yield as 8 servings, so you decide this for yourself.

Step 5: NOTE #2: Care should be taken in Prep Step #1. The 5-10 second rinse shouldn't be aggressive. It's not meant to remove a major part of the cornstarch, but rather to dampen it w/moisture enough to create the paste. To prevent an "accident", you may want to consider simply adding water by teaspoonfuls until a paste consistency is reached.

Step 6: NOTE #3: Frankly, I see no reason to deep-fry these toasts in a lrg amt of oil or use "fancy" equipment when they can be shallow-fried, turned & removed from the oil w/a slotted spoon so easily. So this is another choice you can make.