I’m sort of picky about the meat and seafood I buy. You won’t find me buying the $1.99 pound of “ground beef” (is that a thing?!). But I do look at the relative prices to see what is more affordable than others. Right now, it seems that shrimp is cheaper than most fish and because we are trying to incorporate more seafood in our diet, I’ve been trending towards shrimp. Unfortunately, I’m allergic to shrimp so I can’t eat it, but that doesn’t mean I can make it.
I found a tasty recipe on Simply Recipes that would not be offensive to my picky eater. The only thing he’d have to surgically remove from his plate are the tiny bits of green onion. Someday he’ll eat them.
You will probably have most of the ingredients on hand: soy sauce, rice vinegar, brown sugar, olive oil, sesame oil, garlic, and ginger. First prepare the marinade. I’m happy to say you don’t have to do this hours ahead of time. It’s quick.
Mix together all those ingredients I mentioned above and marinate it while you make some rice.
I marinaded the shrimp for about 15 minutes. That seemed to work. Grabbed my wok to feel fancy, but any skillet or saute pan will work. Heat the oil and then use a slotted spoon to remove the shrimp from the bowl and into your hot pan. This will make a mess, but such is life. Cook it for about a minute.
Add half of those onions the younger boy will pick out and keep cooking this until the shrimp are pink and no longer raw. This really goes fast, about 2 minutes. You might want to flip them over half way through.
Set the shrimp aside on a plate and then throw in the marinade from the bowl to make your sauce. Cook it up until it’s thick and syrupy. Pour over your shrimp and coat it all up. Scoop some onto a bed of hot rice and sprinkle some green onions on it to make it pretty. And that’s it. Super fast and not so hard to make. A really good week night dish.
Because I couldn’t taste it myself, I interrogated the boys like their life depended on it. They said it was good. Seriously. Tell me more. They liked how it was sweet, but not too spicy (from the ginger, I suppose). The sesame flavor was not too overpowering. The younger boy admired the lack of vegetables (and that I served this meal with a side of berries). Sounds like a win-win make again!
Ginger Garlic Sesame Shrimp
Ingredients
- 1/4 cup soy sauce
- 2 tablespoons seasoned rice vinegar
- 2 teaspoon brown sugar
- 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- 1 teaspoon sesame oil
- 3 cloves garlic minced
- 1 tablespoon grated ginger
- 1 pound 16-20 count shrimp peeled and deveined
- 1 tablespoon canola oil
- 3 green onions sliced on the diagonal
- cooked rice
Instructions
- In a medium bowl, whisk together soy sauce, seasoned rice vinegar, and brown sugar until the sugar has dissolved. Then, whisk in the olive oil, sesame oil, minced garlic, and grated ginger. Place the shrimp in the bowl with the marinade. Toss to coat with the marinade and chill for about 15 minutes.
- Cook rice to your preferred method.
- Heat cooking oil in a large wok or skillet on high heat. When the oil is shimmering hot, almost smoking, use a slotted spoon to move the shrimp from the marinade into the hot pan. It will splatter so be careful. Stir fry for a minute.
- Add half of the sliced green onions. Continue to stir fry. Turn the shrimp over after a minute. Cook for another minute until the shrimp are pink and just cooked through.
- Remove shrimp from pan and transfer to a serving bowl. Place the remaining marinade in the hot wok or pan. Simmer until it has reduced to a syrup.
- Pour the sauce over the shrimp. Toss to coat. Sprinkle the shrimp with remaining green onions. Serve over hot rice.
