Cereal killer

Being a fan of crunchy cereal coated prawns, or those dishes requiring a web of seasoned egg wash, I was very pleased, some months ago to stumble on a lone packet of instant cereal prawn mix. Kit prepared it for dinner with Jessie and Vin and everyone agreed it was fabulous, save for the fact that Kit, strangely, did not assume the mix had salt in it, and added his own! The additional saltiness was tempered by consuming copious amounts of white rice with the meal, so that turned out okay.

This is the mix we used today.

However, despite returning to the dry goods stall in my night market, I was, for months, thwarted in my efforts of getting another packet of the mix. Finally, when I saw a batch last week, I snapped up all three packets. They did not look the same as the one I had before (and when it comes to packaging, I am amazingly retentive).

Still, after many attempts at eating in, I finally could not allow the prawns I had de-shelled to languish any longer in the fridge. Kit was pressed into service and he also coated a batch of short ribs with them. Okay, truth be told, I took out that packet of pork thinking it was fillet and wanted them sliced thinly and battered with this mix.

Cereal-ed pork ribs.

Bubba doesn't eat it this way, but it's good!

Still the ribs turned out well. Kit cooked them perfectly, so they were moist and tender. The mix is definitely not the one we used first since it had black sesame and dried red chilies in it. I’ve not had black sesame in any of the mixes of this genre before, and it was an interesting change, although I think the nuttiness of the sesame detracts from the fragrant richness of the cereal.

The prawns are a more conventional partner to this cereal mix and they were pretty good. The curry leaves in the mix added a bit of pep and dimension to the prawns and the crispy flakes are a good contrast to the plump, juicy shrimp.

My sachet of the mix was RM3.50 and I paid RM10 for the plate of prawns. About the same price for the ribs. I know for sure it is a lot less than what I’d have to pay if I went down to the corner coffee shop.