Recipe of the Week: Yummy Shrimp and Chicken Stir-Fry

If you have a hankering for Chinese food and would like to try your hand at a do-it-yourself stir fry, I’m pretty sure I found the yummiest recipe around.

The stir-fried shrimp with chicken dish is one from “Chinese Cookery” by Rose Cheng and Michele Morris—a book that is dog-eared from many years of use at our house.

Mouth watering yet? Don’t worry. It will.

Here’s what you need:

• 6 large fresh shrimp (about 4 ounces)

• ½ pound skinned, boneless chicken breast

And for the marinade:

• 1 teaspoon rice wine or dry sherry (we use rice wine)

• ½ teaspoon salt

• ½ teaspoon cornstarch

• 1 egg white

For the seasoning sauce:

• 1 tablespoon rice wine or dry sherry

• ½ teaspoon salt

• ½ teaspoon sugar

• ½ teaspoon pepper

• 1 teaspoon rice vinegar or white vinegar

• 1 teaspoon sesame oil

• 3 tablespoons chicken broth or water (we use chicken broth)

• 1 teaspoon cornstarch

Then you also need:

• 2 fresh carrots

• 4 cups boiling water

• ¼ pound fresh snow peas (don’t cheat and get frozen—they end up being too mushy. We’ve tried)

• 1 cup vegetable oil (if you’re watching you’re diet, you can use less, we’ve reduced the oil and it still tasted just fine)

• 6 slices fresh ginger root

• 1/3 cup sliced bamboo shoots

• 1 teaspoon sesame oil

Got all that? Here’s what you do with it:

Shell and devein the shrimp, and pat them dry. Cut each shrimp in half. Cut chicken into bite-size pieces.

Mix marinade ingredients in a medium bowl, and the shrimp and chicken and mix well. Let stand for 20 minutes.

Mix ingredients for the seasoning sauce in a bowl and set aside.

Cook whole carrots in 2 cups of boiling water for 10 minutes. Remove, drain well and slice into thin pieces.

Remove strings from the snow peas, then blanch them by submerging them in 2 cups of boiling water for about 15 seconds. Then plunge the snow peas in cold water, drain and set aside.

Heat oil in a wok over medium heat for 2 minutes. Add marinated shrimp and chicken and stir-fry for about two minutes. After that, you remove the chicken or shrimp with a slotted spoon and set aside.

Allow the wok to heat the remaining oil for about 30 seconds, then stir-fry the ginger until it is fragrant. After that, remove the ginger and throw it away. Add bamboo shoots, carrots and snow peas to the wok and stir-fry for about a minute. Then, add the cooked shrimp and chicken. Stir in the seasoning sauce, and stir-fry until it thickens slightly. Add sesame oil and mix well.

Got all that?

Then it’s time to pair it with steamed rice and eat.

Enjoy!