Easy Chinese Shrimp Recipes

Chinese style deep fried salt and pepper shrimp is a great appetizer or snack with excellent crispy shell and tender inside.

In Sichuan province, we are using the mixed salt and Szechuan peppercorn as the main flavor of a series of dishes including salt and pepper small potato, salt and pepper chicken and etc. However this dish is listed as a Cantonese dish. Reason is still unknown, but I guess it is possible that shrimp is not a common and native ingredient in inland Sichuan province.

The mixture of sea salt and Szechuan peppercorn is known as Szechuan peppercorn salt, look like this one Sea Salt, Szechuan Pepper – 4 ounce package
. You can try to search it in local stores. If you failed, just make your own follow the steps listed in the recipe section.

Recently sea foods show up on my table a lot. In these super-hot days, I would either choose to eat more vegetables or just more sea food. You see how brave I am to cook this dish in hot summer days with my T-shirt wet by sweats only 2 minutes after the starting. Anyway, personally I think it is worthy of all the hard works.

I understand that cooking unshelled shrimp might be a litter weird. However they are the perfect protection of the meat inside during the deep-frying or sautéing process. So just cut the heads off and remain the shells.

Besides, I deep-fried some chopped garlic before deep frying the shrimps to give them a slightly garlic taste. Well, this is not a necessary step but just my personal preference.

Coat with starch.

Chinese Salt and Pepper Shrimp

Chinese style crispy salt and pepper shrimp

Ingredients

• 1 pound medium shrimp or smaller shrimp; head removed, deveined
• 3 tablespoons starch, any one you prefer
• 1 teaspoon sea salt
• 3/4 tablespoon ground Szechuan peppercorns (you can replace it with ground black or white pepper)
• Oil for deep frying
• 3 garlic cloves, finely chopped (optional)

Instructions

1. Prepare the shrimp and dry with paper towels.
2. Slightly coat the shrimp with starch prepared.
3. In a pan on low fire and stir fry the salt and Sichuan peppercorn until the Sichuan peppercorns become fragrant. Transfer out and set aside.
4. Heat up oil in wok until you can see waves on the surface. Deep fry the chopped garlic firstly until aroma and then remove the garlic form the oil. (If you want to save some oil, add enough to cover one shrimp and deep-fry them by batch).
5. Move the shrimps out when they turn bright orange and drain on a kitchen filter to remove more oil. Repeat the process until all the shrimps are deep fried. Discard the oil.
6. Prepare another clean wok or pan, add shrimps and mixed seasoning in. Toss until the shrimps are evenly coated (be quick during the process).
7. Transfer out and serve no matter hot or cold.