China · Cantonese
Blanched Shrimp
The Cantonese quick dish: whole shrimp poached gently with onion and ginger underneath, served with a garlic and soy dipping sauce.
The method is ancient and almost foolproof. Shrimp are laid on a bed of onion and ginger, which perfumes them from below and lifts them off the hot metal, and the cooking liquid is discarded rather than served. Live shrimp matter, since they only go pink and curl when they are fresh, and the dipping sauce is made while they cook so the whole thing fits into a quarter of an hour.
Ingredients
- shrimp250 g
- garlic8 pieces
- cooking oil5 ml
- Shaoxing wine20 ml
- soy sauce5 ml
- Chinkiang vinegar10 ml
- oyster sauce10 ml
Directions
- 1
Cut the onion into small pieces and slice the ginger, then spread them over the bottom of a flat pan.
- 2
Rinse the live shrimp (deveining and trimming the legs and whiskers with scissors are both optional), drain them and lay them over the onion and ginger.
- 3
Pour the Shaoxing wine into the pan, cover, cook for one minute over medium heat and five minutes over low, then turn off the heat and leave for five minutes.
- 4
Working alongside the previous step, make the dipping sauce:
- 5
Lift the shrimp out and arrange them on a clean plate.
Source: HowToCook · WorldBite adaptation · Unlicense source text; bilingual recipe adapted by WorldBite.