In this recipe, you’ll learn:

Jade Shrimp Recipe

Stir-frying is one of the quickest methods of cooking, but often home cooks fail to get the steaming-hot, perfectly-cooked results they see at restaurants. Have you ever found your stir fry with undercooked vegetables or overcooked meat? Perhaps the dish just tasted garbled and bland? Because the cooking happens in minutes (most stir fries take less than 8 minutes from start to finish!), there two secrets to successful stir-frying is so important. Here are the key elements:

Cutting the Right Size

You’ll often find ingredients in a stir fry small enough for a good bite or two, but not too big that you need a knife.

The smaller the cut of the ingredient, the faster it cooks. So, for a quick stir-fry, ingredients have to be cut small or thin enough to cook in minutes. Meats are sliced thinly, carrots are julienned, onions are thinly sliced.

Separate…and then together

…But sometimes, ingredients in a stir fry might require more cooking – like broccoli florets. In this Jade Shrimp recipe, broccoli needs to blanch for 2 minutes first, prior to the stir-fry, so that by the end of the stir-frying, you aren’t left with undercooked broccoli.

In traditional Chinese stir-frying, ingredients are actually cooked separately, and then come together at the end. This allows each set of ingredients to cook optimally and prevents a mish-mash of flavor. Your shrimp will taste like shrimp — and your broccoli will taste like broccoli.

The recipe for Jade Shrimp will highlight these two stir-frying techniques.

Everyday Chinese Cooking

Asian food expert, television chef and author Katie Chin just released a new cookbook, Everyday Chinese Cooking: 101 Delicious Recipes from My Mother’s Kitchen. The book highlights recipes from the kitchen of her mother, the award-winning restauranteur, Leeann Chin.

We love the emphasis on homestyle dishes like:
Stir-Fried Beef with Tomato
Tangerine Beef
Orange Chicken
Wonton Soup
Crispy Wonton
Shrimp Dumplings
Chinese Chicken Salad
Baby Bok Choy
Chow Fun

Buy Everyday Chinese Cooking Cookbook on Amazon.

Print Recipe

Jade Shrimp Recipe

Servings: 4

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Cook Time: 6 minutes

Recipe adapted from Everyday Chinese Cookbook by Katie Chin. Reprinted with permission.

Cut your broccoli florets no larger than 1 1/2" diameter. If your broccoli is larger, add a little more cooking time when steam/blanching the broccoli.

Ingredients:

8 ounces shelled and deveined large-sized raw shrimp
2 teaspoons cornstarch, divided
salt and dash of white pepper (or black pepper)
1/2 teaspoon Asian sesame oil
8 ounces broccoli florets
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 tablespoon oyster sauce
2 tablespoons oil, divided
1 small white onion, thinly sliced
2 ounces snow peas, tips and strings removed
1 clove garlic, minced
4 tablespoons chicken stock, homemade (page 62) or store-bought
2 ounces canned baby corn, cut in half lengthwise

Directions:

1. In a medium bowl, toss the shrimp with just 1 teaspoon of cornstarch, salt, pepper and sesame oil. Set aside to marinate.

2. In the wok (or saute pan), boil 1 cups of water over medium-high heat. When water is boiling, add the broccoli florets, cover with lid and let steam/blanch for 1 minute, shaking the pan halfway through. The broccoli should be bright green, and still a little crisp. Drain and set aside. Wipe pan dry.

3. In a small bowl, mix the remaining 1 teaspoon cornstarch, soy sauce and oyster sauce. Set aside.

4. In the pan, and heat just 1 tablespoon of cooking oil over medium-high heat. Add the shrimp and stir-fry for 2 minutes, or until they turn pink. Remove from the pan and set aside.

5. Wipe the wok or pan clean with paper towel, then heat the remaining 1 tablespoon oil over high heat. Add the onion and snow peas and stir-fry until fragrant, about 1 minute. Add in the garlic and stir fry for an additional 30 seconds.

6. Pour in the chicken stock and heat to boiling, then stir in the cornstarch/soy/oyster sauce mixture and cook until the sauce thickens, about 30 seconds.

7. Add the baby corn and stir-fry for 1 minute. Stir in the reserved shrimp and broccoli and cook, stirring constantly for 1 minute, until the shrimp are hot.