Step 1

Prepare 3 cups of cooked rice. Rinse and cook the rice as you would normally do when cooking rice for a meal

Step 2

Place the rice on one of the baking sheets and sprinkle salt on the rice and mix it gently with spoon. Spread some oil on the surface of the spoon if you find the rice is too sticky

Step 3

Gently flatten the rice on the baking sheet as shown in the instruction photo. Please don’t press the rice too hard to the baking sheet. Just gently press down to help the rice to form the shape and not too crumbly

Step 4

If your rice is still quite warm, leave it to cool down before you cover the cling film on top and store in the fridge over night

Step 5

Next day, heat up the oven to 100c (212F) and bake the step 4 rice for 1 hour

Step 6

After 1 hour, take out the rice from the oven and use a knife to slice the rice into even square shapes. I sliced the rice into 12 portions but you can decide the size you want and adjust the portion to suit

Step 7

After slicing the rice, turn the rice to the other side and bake for another hour to make sure the rice is dehydrated like shown in the photo. If you feel the rice still a little bit moist then cook a little bit longer in the oven

Step 8

After the rice has dehydrated, take out from the oven. Heat up some oil to 180c (356F) and put a little piece of the rice into the wok and see if the rice puffs up. This should only take around 5 seconds to see the rice has puffed up in the oil. The first time I made guoba I was a bit worry as the rice isn’t puff up immediately when I put into the oil but after 3-5 seconds the rice puffed up nicely like magic!

Step 9

When the rice has start to puff up in the oil, I was turn off the fire and cook for 15-20 seconds. Take out after this time so as to not overcook or burn the gouda. Leave aside on a plate then prepare the shrimp sauce

Step 10

Marinade the shrimps with all the marinade ingredients for 20 minutes

Step 11

Mix water, chilli bean sauce, ketchup, sugar and black vinegar in a bowl

Step 12

Heat up 2 tbsp oil in the wok, stir fry the shrimps until the shrimps have changed colour and immediately take the shrimps out but leave the oil in the wok, place the shrimps on a plate and leave it aside for use later

Step 13

Use the same wok to stir fry the onion and garlic until it’s fragrant

Step 14

Add step 2 sauce into the wok bring to boil

Step 15

Add edamame beans and yellow pepper and boil for 10-20 seconds

Step 16

Add prawns back into the wok

Step 17

Stir in 1 tsp corn starch slurry into the sauce and check the density of the sauce. Once it starts to thicken and boil, turn the stove off. Season with salt. If you feel the sauce isn’t thick enough, add more cornstarch slurry and bring the sauce to boil again

Step 18

Place guoba on the serving plate, pour the sauce on the dish is ready to serve. You can also pour the sauce on to the guoba on the table so everyone can listen the to crackling sounds