Shrimp, stir-fries and spicy food sounds good, doesn’t it? After I received an email referring to this dish I didn’t care for the recipe so I looked through my Asian cookbooks. Surprisingly I did not find what I was looking for so I turned to the internet instead.
This is what I came up with from The Woks of Life. I changed a few ingredients; soy sauce for Hoisin, added more ginger, green onions and chili oil and also used peanut oil to stir-fry. I really liked the idea of the veggies being finely diced instead of cut into pieces. A little work but certainly worth the effort! This is definitely one of my best “shrimp stir-fries”.
Szechuan versus Sichuan? Have you ever wondered about the different spelling?
Szechuan comes from earlier romanizations and is the Chinese spelling. It has since been replaced by the pinyin system spelling of Sichuan or the English spelling. They both mean four rivers in a region of China. Another example is Beijing used to be Peking – the Chinese words never changed, just the English spellings. I know – a little confusing but I will use Sichuan (or at least try to) in future recipes.
Sichuan Shrimp, adapted
- 1 lb. shrimp, peeled and deveined
- 1 tsp. vegetable oil
- 1/2 tsp. cornstarch
- 2 tbsp. peanut oil
- 1-2 tsp. fresh ginger, minced
- 2 tsp. chili oil with sediment (I used 3 tsp.) or chili bean sauce (see chili oil for homemade recipe)
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 1/4 red onion, minced
- 1 tbsp. tomato ketchup
- 1 tbsp. soy sauce
- 1 tbsp. Shaxoing wine
- 1/4 cup water chestnuts, finely diced
- 1 medium carrot, finely diced
- 1/2 red bell pepper, finely diced
- 1 cup chicken stock
- 1 tsp. unseasoned rice vinegar
- 1 tsp. sesame oil
- 1/4 tsp. salt
- 1/4 tsp sugar
- 1/8 tsp. white pepper
- cornstarch slurry; 2 tbsp. cornstarch mixed with 2 tbsp. water (optional)
- 2-3 scallions, chopped (add one scallion to the dish and save the other two for garnish)
- rice or noodles – Pad Thai noodles are great to use
For any stir fry I always get the ingredients ready and place in small bowls. I do all the chopping ahead of time and put the ingredients together with each step. I also line them up in the order of when they are added.
Mix the prepared shrimp with 1 tsp. vegetable oil and 1/2 tsp. of cornstarch and set aside.
Heat 2 tbsp. peanut oil in your wok and add the minced ginger on low heat. Stir-fry for about 30 seconds. Next add the chili bean sauce or chili oil with sediment, garlic, and the red onions; stir-fry for 2 minutes.
Add the ketchup and soy sauce and turn the heat to medium. Cook for about 1 minute but do not let burn.
Add the Shaoxing wine, water chestnuts, carrots, and red bell peppers. Stir-fry for 2 minutes. Add the chicken broth and bring to a boil; turn the heat down and simmer.
Add the rice vinegar, sesame oil, salt, sugar and white pepper and simmer for another 3 minutes. Turn the heat up slightly, add the shrimp and toss.
When the sauce returns to a simmer add the slurry if desired. Stir in 1 chopped scallion and save the other two for garnish.
Serve with rice or noodles
Recipe by cookingwithauntjuju.com
Linking to Angie and Fiesta Friday #202 and the two co-hosts (yes, I am one of them) Judi @ cookingwithauntjuju.com and Laurena @ Life Diet Health
Applesauce! Wow Judi, this looks satisfying on this cold day. Yumminess overload. 😀 Hugs
Thanks Teagan – lots of great ingredients including my favorite seafood “shrimps” 🙂 This is pure comfort food to me!
Mmm that looks delicious! I wondered about the spelling differences too. The only Chinese restaurant in town that delivers though, is called Szechuan. 🙂
Thanks Kathryn – I do love my stir-fries. Apparently, The Szechuan spelling is used when referring to restaurants. It’s an odd word to pronounce correctly and Sichuan works much better for me 🙂
Reblogged this on mamabatesmotel.
Thanks so much – it as an excellent stir-fry 🙂
You’re welcome ! It sounds delish !
First time I’ve seen carrots used in Sichuan Shrimp, but I liked the idea of having some extra crunchiness in the sauce. It looks delicious.
As for the spelling, I’m quite sure either way is not how it is pronounced in Chinese, so don’t think it’s that important. All the Chinese restaurants still use Peking Duck rather than Beijing Duck… 🙂
Thanks Ronit – the carrot was a nice addition (in original recipe). Of course it is pronounced totally different – I prefer the Sichuan spelling for my recipes. Much easier to say and write and because I have a number of Chinese posts I’ve always wondered about it – I like to be consistent. I thought about going into more detail but I was afraid I would cause confusion. Can’t comment on the duck it was just an example in an article I read 🙂
Nice and tasty recipe
Thanks – it definitely was 🙂
This must have been a treat for sure 😊
Lots of flavorful ingredients made this a very special dish – loved it 🙂
What a lovely recipe, and thanks for the spelling lesson! I always thought there was a “z.”
Thanks – restaurants seem to use the “z” spelling but is becoming more common to see Sichuan.
This looks delicious..and loved the idea of carrots
Thank you – The carrot added some nice color and of course you can never have too many veggies!
Yum. This looks like quite a recipe. I bet the chili oil adds a lot of nice flavor to this stir fry.
Thanks – chili oil to taste adds some nice heat and balances out with the rest of the ingredients.
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Judi this sounds lovely and I’m going to borrow your idea of finely dicing the vegetables next time I do something similar. Thanks for co-hosting this week with me… lots of yummy foods to try!
Thank you – dicing the veggies allows the shrimp and sauce to stand out. I do like it better than “pieces”. Fun to co-host with you – there are a lot of good recipes to look at!
I hate peeling shrimps, but I would not mind going through all the trouble if the recipe I would follow is as yummy as this. 😀 The dish really looks appetizing! Thanks for co-hosting, Aunt Juju. x
Thanks Jhuls – peeling shrimp is not my favorite part of this recipe – sometimes I can find them already peeled and deveined. It’s delicious though and is worth all the work 🙂
That looks so beautiful and so delicious!
Thanks Lynn!
I think I would have liked to have been sitting around your table (hey, I’d chop for you, lol!) to taste this!
Chinese recipes usually have some prep work but if you’re organized you can make some good dishes. I don’t mind chopping, but I would love for you to do the dishes LOL
Deal!! lol!!
This meal looks so delicious! Food with some spice in it sounds really good to me right now! And that sauce sounds extra tangy and tasty!
Thanks Jenny – I love my stir-fries especially when there is shrimp. The sauce was really nice…
Wow. Just perfect. I can almost taste the beautiful spices!
Thanks Zeba – there are a lot of ingredients but everything went together so well. This will be a favorite – I just need to plan on time to get all the ingredients ready – cooking is easy!
Delicious seafood…yumm😋 I didn’t know that Schezuan means four rivers. Thanks for sharing Aunt Juju. Love the recipe except that I will have to substitute the wine. Happy holidays.
Regards
Ana✨
Thanks Ana – I doubt if a tbsp. of wine will be missed 🙂 Happy Holidays to you!
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