Tamarind prawn or assam prawn is a Malaysian–Nyonya recipe, one that I grew up eating as my late mother made a killer dish of assam prawn, or “assam heh/亚参虾” (in Hokkien dialect).
While most Nyonya recipes call for long list of ingredients and tedious preparations, tamarind prawn (assam prawn) is surprisingly easy to make and takes only a few ingredients: tamarind, sugar, and salt.
Despite the easy recipe, tamarind prawns (assam prawns) are impossibly delicious as the tamarind gives the prawns the bold and tart flavors while accentuating the briny sweet taste of prawns…(get tamarind prawn or assam prawn recipe after the jump)
I highly recommend this tamarind prawn (assam prawn) recipe if you love prawns/shrimps and wish to venture into Nyonya cooking. It will the best prawn dish you have yet to savor!
Tamarind Prawn/Assam Prawn Recipe (亚参虾)
Tamarind prawn (assam prawn) is surprisingly easy to make and takes only a few ingredients: tamarind, sugar, and salt.
Ingredients
- 8 oz shell-on prawns
- 1 1/2 tablespoons tamarind pulp
- 4 tablespoons water
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 3 tablespoons cooking oil
Directions
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1Mix the tamarind pulp with 4 tablespoons water. Extract the juice from the tamarind by pressing the pulp.
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2Remove the heads of the prawns. Devein the prawns by slitting the back. Rinse prawns with water and pat dry with paper towers. Add the tamarind juice and pulp, salt, and sugar into the prawns and mix well with your hand. Marinate for 15 minutes. Remove the tamarind pulp before cooking.
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3Heat up a wok and add cooking oil. As soon as it's heated, drop the prawns into the wok and pan fry until cooked and slightly burnt. Dish out and serve immediately.
Recipe Notes
Some recipes call for dark soy sauce but I always do without the dark soy sauce as it will make the prawns too dark in color, and hence less appealing in presentation. You can also leave the heads on, for photography purposes, I had them heads off. You can also pan-fried the prawns with the tamarind pulp if you wish.
Monique Etchevers
Hello. Can this dish be made with tamarind concentrate? It’s all that I could find in a large Asian store. The ingredients says tamarind and water. How would I modify the recipe?
RT
Yes, I would like to know too please.
KP kWAN
Hi Bee,
I have been following your blog for the last three years and is so proud that someone far away from home is unrelentingly promoting Malaysian food.
Assam prawn is my favorite, but I have not cooked it so far. Your recipe will be my guiding light to cooking this amazing dish.
KP Kwan
Rasa Malaysia
Thanks. :)
Maria Elena
when do you add the soya sauce?
Rasa Malaysia
There is no soy sauce needed in this recipe, just salt and sugar.
Cathrine
Hi, I tried this recipe for friends and they loved it. It’s a keeper.
YB
Can I use prawns with no skin?
Rasa Malaysia
Yes!
Helen
Hi your recipes are easy and clear!! thanks!
Tshwraraganang Diseko
I always think of buying prawns but i didn’t have a clue how am i going to cook them.So but I just saw the TAMARIND recipe and it looks delicious. I am now inspired to go buy myself some and cook them myself.
MaJ
One question, with the shell my prawns where not sour at all, just the shell. How about taking off the shell BEFORE marinating?
MarlomK
Hi, I cooked 2 dishes from your site: the sweet and sour pork as well as this assam prawn dish. the sweet and sour pork was simply divine, i think it beats even the best chinese restaurants in Perth! However the assam prawns were much too sour, and i loovee assam prawns. Can you tell me where I might hv gone wrong?? Thank you!
Rasa Malaysia
Hi Marlom – different tamarind has different level of tartness. So, in this case, your tamarind might be the overly sour type. Use lesser in the future.
dEbRa
hI! lOVED how the prawns was so nice not over cloying sour but just great! Im a tamarind fanatic myself loved tamarind water to eat with rice too! so comforting!! Just wanted to ask whether if substituting prawns with fish is alright? like frozen fillet fish?
Rasa Malaysia
I have never tried it with fish so I am not sure. I would think prawns are the best.
Mrs Ergül
Wow! Love this! Thanks for sharing Assam Prawn, I love this dish!
Rasa Malaysia
Unless you are allergic to prawns, you got to love this assam (tamarind) recipe.
bryan phan
I LOVE TO SEE THIS WEBSITE SINCE ONE YEARS AGO , THAT’S GREAT . I ALWAYS THINK MALAYSIA IS THE BEST .I MISS MALAYSIA FOOD . I HEARD THAT THE” WHITE CURRY MI” IN PENANG IS POPULAR . DO U HAVE ANY RECEIPE ABOUT THAT ?THANKX
Elaine
Looks yummy!
Where can I get tamarind pulp? I live in south Orange County, CA.
Thanks!
Rasa Malaysia
You can get it at 99 Ranch.
kevin
nice food i would like to know more on nyonya food and dessert.. such as pong teh, chap chai rempah udang/// and many more…
Rasa Malaysia
Stay tuned as I do plan on more nyonya dishes.
Jason
I came across your site today while looking for prawn inspiration, and just got through licking the last of the tamarind sauce off my fingers. So tasty! I’ve already got plans to try the beef rendang later this week. I was fortunate enough to visit Singapore recently and finally have authentic chili crab, black pepper crab… and the subtle heaven of hinan chicken. Really looking forward to powering my way through your recipe collection. The photography is fantastic too!
Rasa Malaysia
Thank you for dropping a comment, Jason. Even though I am sure the food you tried in Singapore is great, I also urge to hop over to Malaysia next time. Hope my recipies will continue to be finger licking good for you ;P
dorothy
thanks for yr “tamarind prawn” , it’s simple n my kids love it.
they said “mummy yr prawn it’s tastly , can i finish up all ?”
that’s my lovely kids…..
Rasa Malaysia
Thanks for trying this assam prawn recipe and so happy to hear your kids love it :) Start them young, that’s the way to do it :P
justcooknyc
this looks so good. i can’t believe there are so few ingredients too.
backStreetGluttons
Another deeply flavorful Nyonya marine classic .
Malaysians nowdays try their darnest to skip this high cholesterol exotika,
such an ignorant shame
Rasa Malaysia
I say eat first, workouts later. Or cut down on red meat :)
Mei
Wine wine wine! Like the French say, a glass of red wine a day keeps the doctor away! XD
Rasa Malaysia
I prefer the apple saying but who knows. Maybe the French knows better ;P
jsager
its dangerous to eat..
its more dangerous to live …:-))
RecipeGirl
Slurp slurp slurp, that shrimp looks so juicy and EDIBLE! Nice job w/ this. Will have to look for the tamarind pulp in my fair city!
Rasa Malaysia
It’s really really good. Have fun looking for tamarinds.
Lydia (The Perfect Pantry)
I have everything in my pantry to make this tomorrow! Beautiful photos, as always, Bee.
Rasa Malaysia
Lydia – you have to. It’s sooooooo delicious!
Jasmine
Hi Bee,
Do you have a recipe for turmeric prawns that you could share also?
Thanks!
Rasa Malaysia
Turmeric prawns? Hmmm, I am not quite sure what that is, so I guess I don’t have a recipe for that.
Piggy
yum yum! tamarind prawns taste great with nasi lemak!
Rasa Malaysia
Ooh..yum, yes. I think you hit the perfect combo with this assam prawn and nasi lemak. Perfect!
Mei
Can I be so bold as to add a note? Please get SOUR tamarind for this recipe. When I made this for my mother-in-law last year, she loved it so much so I taught gave her the recipe (mine calls for a longer marination time – no soggy/soft prawns there – and to fry it with the pulp). She went out and bought SWEET tamarind instead! XD
Rasa Malaysia
Sweet tamarind?! This is the first time I heard of it. Yep, my mother would fry her assam prawn with the tamarind pulps but I discarded them before pan-frying because most of my readers are Americans, so I tried it to my tamarind prawns more “friendly” to them. I love eating the tamarind pulps too, after frying, they are awesome. :)
Mei
It was my first time too…sweet tamarind. LOL!
Ohyeah, my hubby loves licking the dish clean…and my in-laws? They love the sour taste so much so that my mother-in-law would suck on the seeds until it’s clean!
Rasa Malaysia
I don’t think I can stop saying this prawn dish is soooo gooood…
tummythoz
This a superb ec to cook dish. Maximum yummilicious. I prefer to keep the head intact to soak up the marination.
Rasa Malaysia
Yes, I also like sucking the heads but for photography purposes, I had them headless. :P
tigerfish
I made this before. Simple ingredients yet bold in flavors :D
Craft Passion
I love assam prawns and I am drooling like hell when I look at the pic, could be the sourness of the taste that I imagine make me into this condition.
One thing I found out that you can’t marinate the prawns for too long, it will make the prawns soggy and soft, wont taste good at all. 15 minutes is good timing for maritnating the assam.
Thanks Rasa for such a good dish!!!
Rasa Malaysia
Thank you and are you sure you are not going to whip one out right away for dinner?
Laura [What I Like]
I knew I had that package of tamarind in my cupboard for some reason. I think this is it!
Rasa Malaysia
Glad to be helping clearing your pantry :)
Jessica
Oooo… I’d love to try this!
Where do you get tamarind pulp? I’ve never used tamarind before in a dish…
Rasa Malaysia
You can get them at Asian stores…I love the “traditional” tamarind with seeds and pulps, nowadays, you can just get tamarind concentrate, but I like things the “authentic” ways.
lisaiscooking
So simple and delicious! Can’t wait to try this.
Dominique (de vous à moi...)
Thank you for the recipe. I’ll try it next weekend, perhaps on BBQ (I’we bought a new one) if it’s sunny!
Rasa Malaysia
Thank you for trying. Make sure to share how your BBQ works out with my recipes.
My Taste Heaven
During last chinese new year, a friend who came back from Singapore was looking for asam prawn. I think your recipe will be helpful to him.
Rasa Malaysia
Thanks for sharing my blog with your friend. Hope he won’t be disappointed.
Happy Cook
Looks so so yummy delicious.
mycookinghut
I ate this a lot when grewing up too! It’s great and simple dish!
Rasa Malaysia
Yeah, they are great, I love assam prawns.
lk
I luv your assam prawns! Surprisingly I have not thought of using Tamarind in my cooking. Must go to get it now.
Rasa Malaysia
Tamarind is great for nyonya cooking. Once you try, you might not stop :)
Ce'nedra
Wow I’ve been looking for a recipe of tamarind prawns since forever! Thanks plenty for this -looks just divine :)
Rasa Malaysia
Thank you. Come back and share with us how yours turn out. I hope you enjoy it!
babe_kl
i always loved this esp licking and sucking off the coating first, my grand aunt used to make them for me when i go visit her. sad she have migrated overseas. with yr recipe, i hope i can recreate them.
Rasa Malaysia
Yes, yes, licking off the tamarind juice on the shell, and then chew the shell, so shiok and finger licking good. Hehe!
Manggy
That IS quite easy, thanks! I love prawns– I hope it’s not too blasphemous to add a chili pepper :P
Rasa Malaysia
Add on and indulge yourself, dear! :)
Christine
I love this dish! May I ask, can I remove the pulp before I marinate the prawns? I can foresee my absent-minded self forgetting to take them out before frying them up!
Rasa Malaysia
Sure, you can remove them before marinating. I love to leave them in as the tamarind pulps will continue to release the “sourness” into the prawns, but since I marinated for only 15 minutes, it really doesn’t matter that much. ;)
Christelle
Oh I love the tangy taste of tamarind so much! this post is very mouth watering! :)
Rasa Malaysia
Enjoy! :)
Sze
很开心今天看到你的网站～
因为我还没看过像你这样棒的美食网站-关于马来西亚的美食
你所有的食谱也是我时常在马来西亚常吃的，
有时候我也会煮kari 或 rendang 来解乡愁。
唉～真的好想念马来西亚
Rasa Malaysia
谢谢，很开心有你这个新读者。以后要常来看我喔。:)