Chili Garlic Shrimp

As life is picking up for me, I have not been able to cook and post as much as I want to lately. A lot of my food centers around stir-fries because they are simple, fast, and a healthy (if done correctly) option to cook food. Lately, I've been venturing towards using different seafood ingredients to recreate some of my favorite Chinese dishes, with a sprinkle of originality since most of my favorites are home-cooked and hard to truly imitate.

Click "read more" for the recipe!







Chili Garlic Shrimp

This recipe is something I came up with, but was inspired by my Chinese/Cantonese roots. With shrimp being so versatile to flavor, you can cook it in just about anything and it will take on the flavors. As I was playing around with different ingredients, I created two versions of the dish but one is a "fresh" approach vs a jared-sauce approach.

Ingredients for "fresh" version:
1 serrano pepper
2 cloves garlic (minced)
ginger (minced, about 2 tsp worth)
shrimp 1 lb
1 whole green onion (cut into 3 equal parts, thicker end can be cut in half length-wise)
chinese rice wine (2 tsp)
salt
brown sugar (1 tsp)
vegetable oil (3 tsp)

Ingredients for "Jar-ed" version:
Shrimp 1 lb
ginger (minced, about 2 tsp worth)
1 whole green onion (cut into 3 equal parts, thicker end can be cut in half length-wise)
vegetable oil (3 tsp)
chinese rice wine (2 tsp)
and the secret ingredient... Lee Kum Kee Chili Garlic Sauce or whatever equivalent you would like to use.
I used this one --->

Cleaning The Shrimp

Many people would argue whether deveining the shrimp is necessary or not... honestly, if you buy fresh shrimp, I do not think it matters too much. If you have the time, devein. If not, then don't.

If you choose to buy shrimp whole, I like leaving the head on, but cut off the whiskers and legs. If you buy headless or shrimp already cut and cleaned, then that is fine too.

After a final rinse, the shrimp is ready to be cooked.


Cooking:

Heat up your wok/pan over med-hi/high heat along with the vegetable oil.

When the oil is hot enough, put the minced garlic and ginger (also serrano peppers if you choose to cook the "fresh" version) in the oil and fry until its aromatic or starting to brown a little.

Toss in the shrimp and stir for about 3 mins. Make sure all the garlic and ginger is evenly mixed with the shrimp.

add the rice wine and cover. Steam the shrimp for 4 minutes.

uncover, add the green onions and brown sugar evenly.

*if you are cooking the jar-ed version, this will be your time to add the sauce and add the green onion after the sauce*

toss for another 3 minutes, make sure the sugar has blended and dissolved, and now you've made some delicious and simple, Chili Garlic Shrimp!