Chinese Fried Shrimp? Deep Fried Jumbo Shrimp

There is no doubt that Chinese fried shrimp is well known all over the world. The Chinese are renowned for their tasty and delicious shrimp recipes. Also, they way in which they display this fantastic crustacean is just marvelous; both Chinese and Thai traditional cuisine excel in almost ?showing off? when presenting their shrimp dishes ? or any other seafood dish ? Have you ordered squid at a Chinese or Thai restaurant? Just the look will be mouth watering enough and get your stomach juices going.

There is a basic difference between eating in the Chinese style and eating in the West. IN western meals, the dishes are eaten consecutively; a soup following on hors d?oeuvre, then a main dish, followed by a dessert, or a selection of cheeses, winding up with coffee. This is a pattern which does not vary very much for a party meal at home or a mayoral banquet. When it comes to Chinese meals, all the dishes are served in one go ? as you have probably seen in many Chinese restaurants ? and diners just help themselves to any dish they like accompanying it with rice; which is the answer to bread in Western society.

Deep Fried Jumbo Shrimp

In China, giant shrimp is very abundant along the North coastline. In England they are often called Pacific prawns and often measure between 3 and 4 inches in length. A way of preparing the shrimp is to deep fry it in the form of Phoenix Tail Prawns (shrimp), which the British particularly like and which are very convenient to handle.

500g giant Pacific prawns or shrimp

1 slice root ginger, finely chopped

3 tbsp plain flour

2 tbsp self-raising flour

1 egg

6 tbsp water

½ tsp salt

Clean shrimp thoroughly and scrape away any dark gritty material. Shell them but leave the tail firmly on and unshelled (to use as a handle).

Beat the egg for around fifteen seconds. Fold in the salt, flour, ginger and water. Beat for another thirty seconds into a light batter.

Dip each of the shrimp into the batter holding onto its tail, and then lower it into a pan of boiling oil. Fry three or four shrimp at a time in this way for around two minutes, Remove them with a perforated spoon and drain. Repeat until a dozen shrimp have been fried. If a proper deep-fryer is used, a dozen shrimp can be fried at the same time in a wire basket. Drain them thoroughly on absorbent paper. Arrange them neatly in a pattern on a well-heated plate and serve. It is important that they are eaten with the correct table dips, namely, salt and pepper mix, or a nice soya tomato dip.

Chinese fried shrimp is really succulent as the juices are preserved underneath the tasty layer of batter. For a healthier option but still fantastic flavor grill your shrimp on a fire or  gas BBQ (see pic below).

Photo by lockstockb **Cortesy of sxc.hu