Fried prawn slices with sour sauce 醋溜明蝦片

from PM’s CC Vol II. A sweet and sour shrimp recipe, with carrots, wood ears, and peas.

醋溜 cu4liou2 — vinegar-y

明蝦 ming2xia — prawn

片 pian4 — slices

Those are tiger prawns, 8 of them.

PM gave good directions on this one. Well, she DID say to deep fry the prawns after dredging them in cornstarch, neither of which I did (stir-fried instead until done). I also omitted the egg white in the marinade.

I cooked the carrots beforehand by poaching the slices for a couple minutes. Peas didn’t need to cook, just thaw. Wood ear was soaked in lukewarm water for about half an hour, until soft.

I messed up a bit and didn’t add enough water to the seasoning sauce, so my final sauce was rather thick. It’s a cornstarch-based sauce, so if you’re trying to avoid cornstarch simply do the usual and make the sauce with less liquid and no cornstarch.

Time taken: 45 minutes, including marinade

Difficulty level: ok

Sauce color is from the Chinkiang vinegar.

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Shrimp with cashew nuts 蝦仁腰果

from PM’s CC Vol I. This is like cashew chicken…but with shrimp, and no vegetables to get in the way of one’s crustacean enjoyment. The seasoning is basic: ginger, scallion, a bit of sesame oil.

蝦仁 xia1ren2 — shrimp

腰果 yiao1guo3 — cashew nuts

Ingredients:
2/3 lb small fresh shrimp, shelled and deveined
1/2 cup cashews, toasted or deep fried
2 scallions, sliced 1″ long
4 slices ginger
shrimp marinade:
1/2 egg white
1 Tb cornstarch
1/4 ts salt
seasoning sauce:
1 Tb rice wine
pinch salt
1 ts sesame oil

Method:
1. marinate shrimp 1 hour at least
2. heat oil. fry shrimp until just done, remove.
3. fry scallion and ginger, add shrimp and seasoning sauce, stir over high heat until thoroughly mixed. remove from heat, add cashews, serve.

Raw shrimp look kinda creepy, with their little legs and whiskers.

PM wants us to deep fry the cashews. And deep fry the shrimp in step 2. I toasted the cashews in a pan on low heat, stirring occasionally, until they started to brown. I stir-fried the shrimp in 1/2 Tb or so of oil, and they’re still tasty! Take that, PM.

Peeling and deveining shrimp always gives my fingers hives. Maybe I’m allergic to shrimp shell?

Time taken: 1.5 hours, including marinating time

Difficulty level: a little challenging for a stir-fry. Prepping the shrimp takes a little skill and remembering to keep an eye on the toasting cashews can be a problem.

Red on red.

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Potstickers 鍋貼

from PM’s CC Vol I. Who doesn’t love potstickers?! Yum!

鍋貼 guo1tie1 — potstickers!

Ingredients:
3/4 lb ground pork
4 oz shelled shrimp, diced
3 dried shiitake mushrooms, soaked, minced
10 oz Napa cabbage
1 scallion, minced
1 ts ginger, minced
2 Tb soy sauce
1/2 ts salt
2 Tb sesame oil
~50 potsticker wrappers OR
wrappers:
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
2/3 cup boiling water
1/4 cup cold water, as needed

Method:
1. to make wrappers, add boiling water to flour and mix with chopsticks. slowly add cold water a little at a time, kneading with hands until dough is formed. cover with cloth and let stand 15 mins.
2. mix pork, shrimp, mushrooms, scallion, ginger, soy sauce, salt, sesame oil until thickened.
3. blanch cabbage in boiling water ~ 2 mins, plunge into cold water and squeeze dry. chop finely, squeeze dry again, add to pork mix. OR finely chop raw cabbage, add 1 ts salt, mix to combine, let stand 20 mins, squeeze dry and add to pork mixture.
4. if making wrappers, remove dough to floured board and knead until smooth. divide into 40 pieces. flatten each piece by hand and roll into 2 1/2″ round thin pancake.
5. fold potstickers: put 1 Tb filling in center, fold over to make a half circle, and pinch edges together. carefully stretch a little longer.
6. heat pan very hot. add 2 Tb oil. when oil is hot enough, add enough dumplings to cover bottom of pan (in pretty pattern). cook until bottoms are golden brown, about 1 min. add 2/3 to 1 cup water, cover, steam until water is gone. fry another 1/2 min.
7. place serving plate over frying pan. invert quickly. prepare remaining portions, serve.

Gonna make POTSTICKERS!!!

PM’s directions are fantastic. I think the shrimp really makes the dumplings that much yummier; so does rolling your own wrappers because the premade ones I found were a little tough while the ones I made were more delicate and crispy on the bottom.

Time taken: hours and hours, less if you don’t make your own wrappers

Difficulty: fairly high

I made two platefuls like this with this recipe.

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