Sweet and sour shrimp

I am always experimenting with Asian food. Love love love Asian inspired food. Tonight we had sweet and sour shrimp.

The best place to buy shrimp is Costco. They sell the nice big tiger shrimp and they are already deviened, which saves tons of time. Tonight I tried frying the shrimp, like they would do in a typical Chinese restaurant. In retrospect, I would have been better off pan frying them, saving all the effort of frying, (which is a pain in the rear) and saved the calories. So lets "pretend" I pan fried them and I guarantee it would have been just as good. First, lets get to the ultimate sweet and sour sauce. This was inspired by a cooking class I went to at Thanksgiving Point, I just added two ingredients. I love cooking classes, so if you ever need someone to go to a cooking class with, call me!

Sweet and Sour Sauce

1/2 C of each following, white vinegar, water, catchup, pineapple juice

1 c sugar

2 T soy sauce

1/4 t ground chili paste (see picture)

Combine all ingredients in a sauce pan and bring to a boil, turn to a simmer and thicken with a corn starch mixture ( 2 T corn starch 2 T water). Add slowly till you have the desired consistency. The chili paste is optional if you are afraid of anything spicy, but trust me, it is good! Keep sauce warm if you are going to use it for the following recipe.

Prepping the shrimp:

Remove shells and tails of the shrimp (about 15 big shrimp) and marinade in 1 egg white 3 T rice wine vinegar, 3 T soy sauce. for about 30 minutes.

Meanwhile cut up half an onion, half a red pepper, a handful of carrots. You also need pineapple, about a cup fresh or canned.

Heat about 3 T oil in your wok and get it really hot. Coat the shrimp lightly in corn starch and drop into the wok. Cook shrimp till they become pink (2-3 min) and remove from the pan and set aside.

Add another T of oil and add the veggies and stir fry till tender crisp ( 4 min, make sure your wok is hot!) Add pineapple and give it another minute or so.

Return shrimp to the pan and pour the warm sweet and sour sauce over the shrimp.

Serve over rice. This will feed 4 adults.

I also served it with some stir fried cabbage, and it was so yummy! But that will have to be for another day . . . .