Noodles and Rice

Sizzling Pepper and Salt Shrimp

by Stef on October 26th, 2005

Here’s a super-easy dish that you can whip up in less than half an hour. The recipe, found here, is actually from Lee Wan Ching of Yee Hen Restaurant on Lantau Island, Hong Kong. Grace Young has it in her book The Breath of a Wok. I have a copy of the book but it’s packed away ready for our next move. I can’t do a proper review at the moment but I will tell you that I was impressed with the ground she covered — history-wise and culture-wise — in that book. I share a bit of Madhur Jaffrey’s sentiments, though, when she reviewed the book last year in the October issue of Saveur. In it she questions the author if real wok hay can be achieved in the home kitchen? I have the answer to this but will have to do a whole post on it at some other time. Melissa Block who interviewed Grace Young in July witnessed firsthand how restaurants achieve wok hay with unbelievable levels of BTU. We’ll talk ranges and woks again soon. For now let’s get back to the recipe.

There are several things to remember when doing a flash-fry like this on the stove.

• Prepare everything beforehand and keep it at the ready, beside you at the stove.. The French concept of mise en place, after all, does have an important role in Asian cuisine.
• Always, always keep your wok at the highest heat, but never, never take your eyes away from that stove:D
• If you’re using a regular Western stove, the best wok to get is a flat-bottomed one, OR, if you use the round-bottomed woks, use an adapter wok ring. This will ensure that the wok is at the proper distance from the heat, and that the flames will be “hugging” the bottom of the wok. That helps in proper heat distribution and results in a better-tasting dish.
• Nonstick pans, I know, have been steadily gaining popularity even among traditional Chinese cooks. If you must go with a nonstick pan, do so. However, I am of the old school and I still believe in a properly seasoned cast-iron wok, which in my opinion does a better job and is easier to use and care for.

If you are at all enthralled with the mysteries of wok cooking, get Grace Young’s book, get yourself a decent wok, and come back here so we can talk about that elusive “breath of the wok” some more.

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POSTED IN: Seafood Dishes : Asian