Firecracker Shrimp

By ExtremeFoodies on April 28th, 2015

 

In this episode Patrick cooks the spicy and delicious, festive Asian dish: Firecracker Shrimp.

In this series The 60 Second Chef shares delicious recipes and a journey through some of our favourite food in just one minute. For more quick and delicious dishes from 60 Second Chef subscribe to ExtremeFoodies.

Recipe:

For authentic firecracker shrimp, here are the steps covered in the video to cook this tasty dish.

  • Dice a couple of spring onions
  • Then peel and finely chop a clove of garlic
  • Peel a knob of ginger using the edge of a spoon before crushing it with the flat of your knife and finely chopping it.
  • Then thinly slice as much red chilli as your dare
  • Before adding a tablespoon of sesame oil to a hot pan
  • Cook off the garlic, chilli, ginger and the white spring onions (leaving the green parts for later)
  • Then tip in your raw kings prawns (approximately 400grams shelled and deveined)
  • Once the prawns start to turn pink add a couple of teaspoons of chilli bean paste, tomato puree and lastly a splash of light soy sauce
  • After another minute add a teaspoon of sugar, a teaspoon of rice wine vinegar and finally the greens of the spring onions
  • Serve your firecracker shrimp on a bed of steaming jasmine rice

If you are eating this for Chinese New Year then: Kung Hei Fat Choi! Or as some say Gong Hey Fat Choy!
恭禧發財

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Here is an excerpt from a post by Annie Wu on the symbolism and importance of food during Chinese New Year:

“Certain dishes are eaten during the Chinese New Year for their symbolic meaning. Lucky food is served during the 16-day festival season, especially New Year’s Eve, which is believed to bring good luck for the coming year. The auspicious symbolism of these foods is based on their pronunciations or appearance.

Not only do the dishes themselves matter, but also the preparation, and ways of serving and eating mean a lot.” (Read more at http://www.chinahighlights.com/travel...).

2015 is a year of the Goat (or sheep).

Here’s an interesting fact around this year’s Chinese New Year, in Mandarin there is only one word for goat and sheep – so the two are indistinguishable. So don’t be surprised if you get goat after ordering “lamb” in a China.

Luck plays a big role in Chinese cluture. The associated Lucky Colors with the year of the goat : brown, red, purple. The Lucky Numbers are: 2 and 7, so numbers like 72 and 27 are good. The Lucky Flowers are: carnation, primrose

More on Chinese New Year from Wikipedia:

“Chinese New Year is an important Chinese festival celebrated at the turn of the Chinese calendar. In China, it is also known as the Spring Festival, the literal translation of the modern Chinese name. Chinese New Year celebrations traditionally run from Chinese New Year's Eve, the last day of the last month of the Chinese calendar, to the Lantern Festival on the 15th day of the first month, making the festival the longest in the Chinese calendar. Because the Chinese calendar is lunisolar, the Chinese New Year is often referred to as the "Lunar New Year".”

The origins of Firecracker Shrimp dishes:

There are a number of dishes called Firecracker Shrimp from different Asian countries including China, Japan, Thailand and Malaysia. This dish is also called Bangkok Firecracker Shrimp or Firecracker Prawns. In a common version of Firecracker Shrimp, the shrimp is wrapped in a spring roll.

The 60 Second Chef is Patrick Drake (of Hello Fresh). Here is his story:

“Hello! My name’s Patrick, Every week I teach thousands of people around the world to cook… but it wasn’t always that way! I’ve been cooking since I was a kid, but I never believed something I loved could become my job. I mean jobs are meant to be serious, right? So that’s when I decided to become a lawyer instead.

But being a lawyer sucked and pretty soon I had this crazy idea that I’d like to spend the rest of my life working with food and teaching other people to cook. So I started secretly cooking in the kitchen of my law firm at lunch time, working in restaurants around London after office hours and recording little videos to teach my friends. Pretty soon I realised if I wanted to do this properly I’d have to stop being a lawyer and go for it. I resigned and plunged myself into cooking and teaching.”

To read the rest go to: http://the60secondchef.com/about/