Prawn toast

David Moyle is a chef. He is a food editor of The Saturday Paper.

Credit: Photographed remotely by Earl Carter.

Prawn toast is a staple in Chinese restaurants in Australia, but it’s not definitively authentic to the cuisine. The prawn paste itself is common in other applications within the broad spectrum of Chinese cooking – the bread is an outlier.

So prawn toast is actually a nod to Western tastes and is thought to have originated in Hong Kong.

Origins and authenticity aside, I love these little toast fingers. They are very quick to prepare and the flavour profile appeals to everyone – even those who are a little apprehensive about seafood. I think it might have something to do with the bread and frying. They can also be refined by using thinner bread and more prawns, then dressing them with other flavours and finessing how they are served.

For me, the flavour of a prawn is in the head and shell, so it’s a damn shame to simply take the flesh of the prawn and ditch the rest. The prawn vinaigrette for this recipe provides a great way to extract and preserve the flavour from roasted shells and heads. The same method can be applied to other crustaceans such as crabs and crayfish. If you drop the amount of oil by half and then add stock for the final 20 minutes of cooking, you effectively have the base for a soup, but for this dish in particular it’s about extracting the flavour into the oil. You can also remove the last step of adding the vinegar and pepper and simply retain the oil for future use. It works really well to finish seafood dishes or can be brushed over prawns after they have been grilled to lift their flavour.

I like to use brioche for this recipe. I’m not against the nostalgia of using cheap sliced white bread, but if we are going rich, then I figure why not double down? The butter in the bread also makes it taste less like the oil you cook these toasts in, somehow giving it a more delicate flavour. It’s like fighting fire with fire, where two wrongs make a right.

Ingredients

Time: 45 minutes preparation + 10 minutes cooking

Serves 8 as a canapé or snack

1kg green prawns
5g garlic, minced (retain the scraps)
10g ginger, minced (retain the scraps)
20g shallots, minced (retain the scraps)
10g green chilli, minced
30ml egg white
15ml sesame oil
10ml fish sauce
200ml light olive oil
40g tomato paste
black pepper
60ml red wine vinegar
200g toasted sesame seeds
500ml light olive oil
1 loaf brioche, sliced
chopped chives to serve

Method

Clean the prawns completely by first removing the head and then the remaining shell of the body. Retain the meat separately from the shells and heads.
With the meat, run a small knife along the curved back of each prawn and remove and discard the digestive tract. Finely cut two thirds of the mixture and mince it on a cutting board a little to make it mousse-like. Add this to a bowl and then cut the remaining third into slightly larger pieces in order to retain some texture.
Add the minced garlic, ginger, shallots, chilli, egg white, sesame oil and fish sauce, then vigorously mix with a wooden spoon until the mixture is combined with some elasticity.
Make a vinaigrette by placing the prawn shells and heads in a pot and adding the 200 millilitres of oil along with the tomato paste and ginger, garlic and shallot scraps.
Place the pot over a medium heat for five minutes, crushing the shells and heads with a mallet to release maximum flavour.
Once it is all toasty, add the pepper and take off the heat. Add the vinegar and then let it all come back to room temperature. Strain and adjust to taste with vinegar and salt, ensuring you stir well prior to every taste.
Now take the meat mixture and portion it onto the brioche slices to have about equal parts mixture and bread depth.
Even out the mixture and then dip this little open dumpling top into the sesame seeds (fairy bread-style), then set aside.
Heat the 500 millilitres of oil in a shallow pot or pan to 170 degrees. Fry the sesame seed-side for two minutes, then flip to the toast the base side for a further two minutes.
Let the toast rest for at least one minute before cutting into fingers using a very sharp knife. If the prawn topping on the bread is quite thick, I recommend finishing the cooking process in the oven for another two or three minutes, thus avoiding potential burnt toast.
Place these fingers on a plate and dress with the vinaigrette. Finish with chopped chives and some salt flakes. Serve while hot.

This article was first published in the print edition of The Saturday Paper on August 16, 2025 as "Prawn chorus".

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Prawn toast

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