As I mentioned in my last post, this project just passed the 6-year mark, and a lot has changed since I first started it–careers, cities, kitchens, vehicles, family, presidents, even dietary preferences.
For the last two years, we’ve been sticking to a plant-based diet, with the very occasional seafood or dairy indulgence (however, traditional meat itself is totally gone). We’ll still go out for a real sushi dinner here and there (although, not lately due to coronavirus), and every so often, I’ll make a recipe like 11-9: Fried Jumbo Shrimp with real shrimp as a treat.
“Fruit from the sea” as a description for shrimp seems strange to me, even though I know Simply Delicious didn’t coin the term. “Fried Jumbo Shrimp” is what they use to lure you into mediocre chain restaurants–it’s not quite haute cuisine.
I’m not doing a good job of selling you on this dish, am I? Well, since fried food doesn’t travel well as takeout, maybe you’d like to take this “opportunity” to learn how to fry your own?
Note the 3 hour standing time for the batter–don’t start this recipe at 6 PM thinking you’ll have dinner hot and ready by 7.
Ingredients. Don’t worry, the rest of that 805 beer didn’t go to waste. No leek this time, so green onions/scallions will have to do.
I had actually peeled the shrimp prior to taking the ingredients shot you saw before–the magic of editing. Mine didn’t have heads on them like the one in the recipe card picture (thankfully).
The beer I reserved to go “flat” for the recipe. I drank the rest. 🙂
Mixing up the batter. The beer wasn’t completely flat (as you can tell by the bubbles), but it still worked.
Slicing up the onions and mushrooms.
The wrapped up measuring cup has the prepared veggie broth, so we can work on the sauce while the batter chills in the fridge.
Sautéing the veggies.
Combined broth, cornstarch, and soy sauce as directed.
Thickening the sauce in the pan. This part’s done–let’s assume 3 hours has gone by and now the batter is ready.
Coating the shrimp in the batter. Chopsticks actually work really well for this, if you’re having trouble.
Set up the deep fryer (which at this point is now missing its filter) and dropped in the battered shrimp.
Final plate, with chopsticks (a gift from China, courtesy of my recently-retired former boss) for the whole package. They were pretty good as fried shrimp goes, but as my co-author wrote in 11-14: Tempura: I’d rather just pay someone to do it for me. Hopefully, we can all go out and enjoy restaurants again soon (but only when it’s healthy and SAFE).
Grade: A-
