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Cod with sesame prawn toast crust recipe served with a deliciously creamy sauce and buttery mash. A unique must-try Anglo-Chinese fusion.
With its fried crunch and a wonderfully sweet and savoury flavour, sesame prawn toast is one of the ultimate comfort foods and definitely a must-have for an oriental banquet.
Cod with sesame prawn toast crust
Made with sliced bread and a flavoured prawn paste it also has the perfect ingredients for a really flavoursome crispy crust for a succulent piece of meaty white fish. For this amazing sesame prawn toast crust recipe, we fry fillets of cod on top of thin bread slices spread with an easy to make homemade prawn paste before finishing them by baking them in a hot oven. The fried sesame prawn toast fuses itself on the fish and adds an amazing crisp crunch and pillowy prawn texture to the dish. Served on a bed of creamy buttery mash with a creamy sauce this is a perfect fusion of British and Chinese cuisine.
An amazing Anglo-Chinese fusion
Fillets of fish served on a bed of mash with a cream sauce is an absolute classic. Add a runny poached egg or some spinach, use smoked haddock or a sole, put some grained mustard or some potted shrimp in the sauce, the different permutations are limitless. With our Anglo-Chinese take on this classic formula the sesame prawn toast “crispy skin” goes excellently with a cream sauce and mash. To add some continuity, the cream sauce is also highly flavoured with Asian flavours of spicy ginger and chilli with notes of aromatic lemongrass, garlic and shallots. The cream sucks all these flavours up and with the addition of some cream sherry or Chinese rice wine which is similar in flavour, the result is a perfect marriage of east meets west. We have kept the mash simplistic but beautifully creamy and buttery so that the stars of the show really shine out. We’ve added some crispy fried seaweed at the end for a little panache but some greens such as spinach or bok choi or whatever you have to hand will also work.
How to make sesame prawn toast
The preparation is very easy and the ingredients you’ll have will leave you with enough to make some classic sesame prawn toasts to serve on the side.
Start by preparing some potatoes to make a fluffy mash as this will take the longest to make. Bring a pan of salted water to a boil and add in some peeled cubed potatoes to simmer until tender.
Next, make the prawn paste, simply crush some garlic and grate some ginger and lemongrass over some cold cooked prawns, add the yolk of an egg and use a handheld blender to blitz to a paste.
The next stage is to roll some sliced white bread between two sheets of cling film using a rolling pin. This is important so that the bread is thin in order for it to crisp up better in the frying pan. When your bread is thin, cut the crusts off or leave them on, it doesn’t make too much of a difference, but place your fillets of cod on each thin slice of bread and run a knife around each one so that the bread matches the shape of each fillet. The surface of your cod will be wet and moisture will continue to rise to the surface. It is this that when the bread gets wet will start to fuse onto the fish and almost become its skin. It will also protect the flesh of the cod from direct heat from the pan making it juicier inside when finally baked but turning it beautifully crispy on the outside. Once the bread is on each fillet, turn the fish side down and then spoon over the prawn paste and spread it evenly over. Finally, sprinkle with some white or black sesame seeds, whichever you prefer and they are ready to be cooked. Any prawn paste you have leftover, spread them on non rolled pieces of bread to fry for some classic prawn toasts to serve on the side, or to freeze and cook at a later date.
Bring a frying pan with some wok oil or vegetable oil to high heat. Make sure you have covered the base of the pan with about 3mm of oil to be enough to give direct heat to the prawn toast only and not hit the flesh of the cod. Fry the fillets with the prawn toast side down for 3 minutes then transfer to a preheated oven, prawn side up and bake for 10 -12 minutes until done.
For the cream sauce, finely dice the shallot and red chilli and fry with some minced garlic, ginger and lemongrass in a bit of oil and butter. You can use store-bought prepared minced ginger, garlic and lemongrass but grating fresh produce will produce a better flavour. We don’t want any of these ingredients to burn so two minutes will do fine. Add a splash of cream sherry (or Chinese rice wine) and reduce by a third. The pan will be hot so this doesn’t take very long. Pour in the fish stock and tomato puree and simmer to reduce again by a third. Finally, add the double cream and bring to a quick rapid boil to thicken to the right consistency then bring the temperature right down just to retain the heat whilst finishing the rest of your ingredients.
The potatoes will get tender in about fifteen to seventeen minutes, simply drain the water off the potatoes and let them steam for a few minutes before passing them through a potato ricer or use a handheld masher to remove any lumps. By this time your cod will be almost finished in the oven and your cream sauce should be thickened and ready, but if not just let the potatoes steam a little longer until you are ready. To make a perfectly flavoursome, buttery mash stir in a generous amount of salted butter and then pour in the milk a little at a time and keep beating and adding in more milk until you have achieved the right consistency.
The traditional way to serve up a nice fish on mash with cream sauce is with a nice dollop of mash right in the middle of the plate then place the cooked fillets on top and pour over the cream and around the plate. Scatter some store-bought crispy seaweed over for this gorgeous cod with sesame prawn toast crust recipe and serve immediately. If you had time to prepare some leftover sesame prawn toast, serve this on the side with any greens you want extra too.
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Cod with sesame prawn toast crust recipe
Ingredients
- 2 cod loins
- ½ teaspoon of minced garlic (1 crushed garlic clove)
- ½ teaspoon of minced ginger (2cm of grated fresh ginger)
- ½ teaspoon of minced lemongrass (3cm of grated fresh lemongrass)
- 1 egg yolk
- 2 slices of white bread
- 1 tpbs of sesame seeds
For the cream sauce
- 1 shallot, finely diced
- 1 garlic clove, crushed or grated
- 3 cm of fresh lemongrass, grated
- 1 small red chilli, de-seeded and finely diced
- 2 cm of fresh ginger, grated
- 75 ml of cream sherry or Chinese rice wine
- 300 ml or 1.25 cups of fish stock
- 1 teaspoon of tomato puree
- ¼ teaspoon of paprika
- 150 ml or ⅔ cup of double cream
- 2 tablespoon of crispy seaweed
For the mash
- 2-3 large potatoes - peeled and cubed
- 50 g of salted butter
- 50 ml or ¼ cup of milk
Instructions
- Bring a pan of salted water to the boil and add the cubed potatoes and gently boil for 15-17 minutes.
- Make the prawn paste by adding the prawns, grated or minced ginger, garlic, lemongrass and egg yolks together and blend with a hand held blender. Set aside.
- Place the sliced white bread between 2 sheets of cling film and using a rolling pin, roll very thinly. Place each cod loin on top of the thin slices of bread and run a knife around to match the slice of bread with the size of each piece of cod. Turn the fish over so that the bread is now facing up and spread a layer of prawn paste over each about 1cm thick. Sprinkle over the sesame seeds.
- Pour enough wok oil or vegetable oil to cover the bottom of a frying pan in 3mm of oil and bring to ahigh heat. Using a pallet knife, gently place in both cod loins sesame prawn side down. Fry for 3 minutes. Using the palette knife, remove the fillets from the pan and place on an oven tray sesame prawn side up. Place in a preheated 200℃/392°F oven 10-12 minutes. Remove from the heat.
- Make the cream sauce in the same pan as you fried the fish to gain the extra flavours created there from the prawn toast, just pour out any excess oil and bring back to a medium high heat. Add the shallot, garlic, ginger, lemongrass and chilli with a small knob of butter and fry for 2 minutes being careful not to char any of the ingredients. Pour in the sherry or rice wine and reduce by a third. Pour in the fish stock and the tomato puree and a pinch of paprika and reduce by another third. Add the cream and turn the heat up to bring the sauce to a rapid boil. Once the sauce coats the back of a spoon, reduce the heat down to very low to keep warm.
- Finish the potatoes by draining off the water and let steam for a few minutes. Pass the potatoes through a ricer and add the butter. Beat with a wooden spoon and add the milk little by little to gain a light fluffy consistency. Season with salt and pepper.
- Present the dish by spooning the mash in the middle of the plates and place a cod loin with the sesame prawn toast crust side up. Pour the cream around the plate and scatter over the crispy seaweed.
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