From The Straits Times    |

Serves 8


1 piece banana leaf, cut into 12 inch squares
8 prawns
3 cakes mung bean noodles (rehydrated)
Salt and pepper to taste

Sauce
60 grams crab butter (the red roe from the top shell of the crab)
2 cloves sliced garlic
1 inch ginger strips
1 small sliced onion
1 tsp chili sauce
2 tblsp oil
½ cup coconut cream
Salt and pepper to taste

1 To make sauce, add oil to a small sauce pot and sauté the garlic, onions and ginger for two minutes.
2 Add the crab butter and sauté for 3 minutes to insure that it has cooked out. Add in the chili sauce and coconut cream. Bring to a boil and once boiling turn it down to a simmer and simmer for 5 minutes.
3 Add salt and pepper to taste then remove from heat and cool. 
4 To assemble, remove the shells from the prawns and leave the head attached. Lay 1 banana leaf down on a soup bowl. Place a small handful of noodles in the center and 2 prawns on top of that.
5 Season with salt and pepper then pour over 2 tblsp of sauce and wrap. Bring the sides up and squeeze the top so it looks like a gift tie with off cuts of banana leaf.
6 Once all are wrapped bake in the oven for 25 minutes. Serve straight away.

Chef Bruce Lim is the host of Tablescapes: Life on a Plate on the Asian Food Channel, in which he travels across the many islands of the Philippines, sampling and whipping up tantalising Filipino dishes, with his co-host Angel Aquino.
Tablescapes airs on the Asian Food Channel every Thursday at 9.30pm.