Julian got some shrimp out of the freezer for dinner last night, but opted to get pizza. So I needed to come up with something to use said shrimp. I also had some asparagus that needed to be used. Eureka! Shrimp and asparagus stir-fry. Unfortunately, the recipes I found in Chinese cookbooks required deep-frying the shrimp. As longtime readers of this humble little blog know, deep-frying is not done at Casa Sammamish. So I improvised.
I drained the shrimp in a colander, salted them a little, then fried them in a little oil on medium heat until they were nearly done. This was done in shifts. The shrimp were set aside on a plate. I sautéed some minced garlic and ginger until fragrant, then tossed in some asparagus cut on the diagonal into ~ 3/4 inch pieces. I also added a little water to deglaze the pan, then stirred in a mixture of regular soy sauce, sweet soy sauce, and sherry. When the asparagus pieces were barely crisp-tender, I put the shrimp back in the pan to finish cooking them. Just as everything was done, I stirred in a spoonful of Mama Lil’s sliced peppers and two sliced scallions. The stir-fry was served with rice. Julian pronounced it a “good gemisch”.
[A short digression on stir-frying: This is not easily done on an induction range. Convex woks are very tippy, and flat-bottom woks are still quite unstable. This dish wasn’t stir-fried in the traditional sense. I let the shrimp sit still in the pan, then turned them. The asparagus wasn’t stir-fried, either. I stirred it on occasion. The final product still worked.]
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