Monday, October 24, 2005

Sesame Orange Shrimp

This is what we're having for dinner tonight. We'll let you know how it goes.

Sesame Orange Shrimp
Everyday Food

Serves 4

2 large egg whites
¼ cup cornstarch
¼ cup sesame seeds
Coarse salt and ground pepper
1-1 1/2 pounds medium shrimp, peeled and deveined
¼ cup vegetable oil, plus more if needed
1 cup fresh orange juice
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 tablespoon sugar
4 scallions, trimmed and thinly sliced

1. In a large bowl, whisk together egg whites, cornstarch, sesame seeds, 1 teaspoon salt, and 1/2 teaspoon pepper until frothy. Add shrimp, and toss to coat.

2. Heat 1/4 cup oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Working in two or three batches, cook shrimp until golden and crisp, 2 to 3 minutes per side. Transfer to a paper towel-lined plate to drain. Add more oil to skillet if necessary for remaining batches.

3. Wipe skillet with a paper towel. Add orange juice, soy sauce, and sugar. Boil over high heat until syrupy and reduced to about 1/3 cup, 4 to 5 minutes. Return shrimp to skillet; add scallions, and cook until heated through and coated with sauce, about 1 minute.

6 comments:

ScottE. said...

Yum-O! Look out Rachel Ray, this is less than a 15 minute meal...if your shrimp are prepared and your rice, if you want some, is ready, you can really have this in about 7 minutes! And the only thing you chop...the scallions!

I would take the tails off the shrimp, I left some of them on, for presentation, but it was a bit of a pain to eat around them, as the shrimp are saucy.

As is, the recipe is good. I bought a 1/4 lb of medium shrimp, that gave us about 8 shrimp a piece. Enough for an appropriately sized meal. For the batter, I used just one egg white, two tablespoons of cornstarch and about one tablespoon of toasted sesame seeds. I made the same amount of the sauce.

The batter was really tasty and might be really nice with some small pieces of chicken and the same sauce.

I did add about one teaspoon of red pepper flakes to heat it all up a bit. Giving a light heat.

Those are my suggestions. I'll let the peanut gallery chime in with his!

ScottE. said...

And Giant had shrimp for sale...the 1/4 lb was only $1.15! The whole meal only cost me about $4 outside of the basics I had on hand...juice, scallions and shrimp.

DC Food Blog said...

Are you serious about the Giant shrimp. They are giving that shit away. THanks for the tip.

ScottE. said...

It was a steal and they tasted great! The medium shrimp were about $4/lb. the larger/jumbo sized were $6....so good sale. Sadly the service at the seafood counter was very accusatory. They seemed skeptical that I could do anything with 1/4 pound of shrimp!

Dancer in DC said...

Here were my suggestions to turn this from good to WOW!

- Add a little seasame oil. The seeds themselves didn't impart enough flavor to make a difference.

- A bit more soy would be nice, as the sauce was on the sweet side.

- I'd like a touch of something sharp to balance the flavor - maybe rice vinegar?

- Try chopping the scallions very coarsely - let them add some actual bulk to the dish, as it's pretty light otherwise. I'm sure you could add some other vegetables, I just couldn't decide what would be best.

Lady Brandenburg said...

OK, made this tonight (4.26.10) and it was great... except... I think I did something wrong with the sauce. I swear it went from a soupy consistency to paste in a split second. I missed the "syrupy" window by a few seconds I think. Darn! It was still very tasty, but sort of dry because I turned the sauce to paste.

We both added soy sauce just to put a little more moisture back into it, and that worked out just fine. Next time I think I'll turn the heat down on the sauce (even though it says boil it). Lord B also thinks that because we did this in a skillet on our pretty lousy electric stove, things cook unevenly (true) so I think a wok would have immproved it quite a bit.

All in all a recipe that we will be making again!!!!! Thank you ScottE!!!