Ingredients
1 lb raw shrimp
1/2 egg white, beaten
1 cup cornstarch
1/2 tsp salt to
4 cup oil, for deep frying
1 green onions, for garnish
SWEET AND PUNGENT SAUCE
4 1/2 tbsp sugar
4 1/2 tbsp catsup
1/4 cup vinegar
1/2 tsp salt
1 tbsp sherry
1/2 tsp cornstarch
1 tsp oil
2 large garlic cloves, minced
3/4 tsp minced fresh ginger root
1 tbsp chopped green onion
1 tsp crushed red pepper
1 tsp lemon zest
1 tsp orange zest
Directions
A reader who requested the recipe for a sweet and pungent shrimp from
the Panda Inn in Pasadena won the everlasting thanks of our tasting
panel. Because it's as impossible to eat just one of these as it is
to eat a single kernel of popcorn, the recipe is often called Chinese
popcorn.
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Peel and devein the shrimp. Slice in halves lengthwise. Rinse well
and pat dry. Add the egg white to the shrimp and mix well. Mix
1-1/2tablespoons cornstarch with salt and add to shrimp. Stir to coat
well. Add 1-1/2 tablespoons oil and mix well again. Place the shrimp
in a bowl and refrigerate at least 2 hours.Remove the shrimp and dust
with remaining cornstarch. Shrimp should be dry to the touch. Heat
the remaining oil in a large wok to 350 to 375 degrees. Fry the
shrimp 1-1/2 to 2 minutes until crisp, being careful to separate them
with a long- handled wooden spoon or chopsticks to prevent sticking.
It may be necessary to fry the shrimp in several batches. When done,
remove the shrimp with a slotted spoon and drain well. Combine the
shrimp and the sweet and pungent sauce and toss quickly to coat.
Immediately turn out onto a platter and sprinkle with finely chopped
green onions.
SWEET AND PUNGENT SAUCE: Combine the sugar, catsup, vinegar, and
salt, and set aside. Heat the oil in a wok. Add the garlic, ginger,
green onion, red pepper, and zests of lemon and orange; cook 30
seconds. Stir in the sugar-catsup mixture. Immediately add the
sherry mixture and cook until slightly thickened.
Servings: 4 servings
Chinese Popcorn Shrimp (Sweet & Pungent Shrim Recipe brought to you by Recipe Ideas
Categories: Appetizer; Asian; Chinese; Fish; Seafood
The History of Recipes
Recipes as an idea can be tracked far back into antiquity, at least as far as pharonic Egypt, and possibly even further than that. However, in the main part, these old records were just basic hieroglyphic instructions for meal preparation.
Interestingly, the oldest recipe discovered so far, according to academics are a few clay tablets in Sumerian which recount the preparation of bread which is then used to make a drink, quite possibly a form of beer as it is recorded as making anyone who tried it feel wonderful and blissful. Moving on, we have a couple of cookery books which date from the fourteenth century : a cookery book published under the title `Forme of Cury`, and another, similary titled `Curye on Inglish`. The titles are a little misleading though, these are not about the indian curry that appears on menues today, but rather accounts of the types of meals prepared by the chefs of the upper classes of that time. During the next few hundred years, the rich families of Europe competed to serve the most exotic meals, and because of this the best cooks and their collection of recipes were at a premium. Notwithstanding that, it wasn`t until the nineteenth century that fine cooking and recipe publications became really popular. Mrs Isabella Beeton in the UK, and the equally famous Fannie Merritt Farmer in the US, spent years to collecting, trying out, and publishing recipes that were common in the better off homes of the day. By the advent of the 1900s, recipe books were highly popular mostly due to higher levels of literacy, more leisure time and having more disposable income. Like it or not, the introduction of TV brought us TV cooks and the recipe books that accompanied them. Which pretty much brings us to the present day and the invention of computers and the internet, allowing us all to access massive numbers of recipes like the ones you can find on our site. |
We hope you enjoy this Chinese Popcorn Shrimp (Sweet & Pungent Shrim recipe.
