Friday, April 10, 2020

Stir Fry Shrimp.

I'm always up for a good stir fry.
It's quick, easy, colorful, so very versatile,
and downright delicious.
Basically, it's a one-pot wonder.

My vegetables today will be:
carrots, sliced
broccoli, cut into florets
bell peppers (the more colorful, the better), chopped
onion, sliced into small wedges
My protein's gonna be shrimp,
because I have a freezer full of shrimp.
You could substitute for another meat -
chicken, pork, or beef would work just fine here.

Now, a little background on stir fries.
The key to everything is preparation.
Have all your ingredients prepared and organized - cut and ready to cook.
 That's your mise en place.
Everything is set in place and ready to go.

First, prepare all your vegetables.
Next, have your sauces ready.
I'll be using two liquids in my stir fry.
The first is a simple cornstarch slurry -
2 TB cornstarch combined with 3 TB vegetable stock
(or you could use water instead of the stock)
This slurry is used as a thickener.

The second liquid is my sauce.
For the sauce:
In a small saucepan, combine:
3/4 cup fresh orange juice
1/4 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup brown sugar
4 cloves garlic, minced or pressed
2 1-inch cubes of ginger, peeled, minced or pressed, and juiced

For the ginger, I always buy fresh ginger in the produce section,
cut it into 1-inch chunks, and freeze it.
That way, I always have ginger on hand.
And it's much easier to get juice out of frozen ginger
than it is fresh.
Simply nuke the cubes about 23 seconds
and squeeze the juice out.
Then I run the cubes through a garlic press
and scrape off the first pulp that comes out and use that.

Combine all ingredients
and bring to a simmer.
Stir to dissolve the brown sugar.
Cut off heat.

Now, let's cook.
Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat.
Add a film of oil.
I use peanut oil - it has a high smoke point.

When the oil gets hothothot (400°)
add in the broccoli and carrots.
Cook and stir for 1 - 1 1/2 minutes.

Add in the onions and peppers
and cook for another minute.
I like to buy those little bags
of small red, orange, and yellow peppers
and use those for my stir fries.
The colors are pretty.
And I save the seeds and plant them.
Double bonus!

Add, oh, about a scant 1/4 cup of water
and let it steam away.
The vegetables should be just crisp-tender now.

Transfer the vegetables to a bowl and cover.

Let the pan come back up to hothothot
with a film of oil
and add the shrimp.
About a minute on the first side,
then turn over, cook about 30 seconds, and...
... add in the cornstarch slurry
and ...
... add in the orange sauce.

Add in the vegetables.
Stir, about a minute, until thickened.

Serve over a bed of rice
with some toasted peanuts.





Enjoy!

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