Home Made Chinese

My family enjoys Chinese food.  We like it a LOT, but when you get it as take-out or eat-in for that matter, it's not really healthy stuff.  Because it is SO bad for us, we stay away from getting it except on a few occasions a year.  I guess you could health it up from the restaurant...order brown rice, omit the MSG, ask for steamed instead of fried, but none the less, it's still pretty unhealthy.  

I've been craving Shrimp with Lobster Sauce lately, or as my husband calls it "snot sauce".  (Whatev's...I like it.)  Remember me telling you I'm a picky simple eater?  Well, I am and shrimp isn't on my list.  I always ask for chicken instead of the shrimp in this #99 dish.  You may think that Lobster Sauce sounds a little on the wild side for my simple taste buds, but really, it's a simple sauce with NO lobster in it at ALL!  I was asking a friend of mine about the sauce and he told me how simple it is to make and even gave me a few tips (like omit the cornstarch), so I got to wondering...why can't I just make Shrimp Chicken with Lobster Sauce at home?

Off to search my favorite resource (the web).  There are a plethora of recipes online for any given dish you may be craving, but for me, I go through each ingredient and determine if that is "the" recipe before I decide which recipe to use.  I found this one (shown below) on Chowhound.  It seemed like the exact sauce that I enjoy and that I'm used to.  If you Google Shrimp with Lobster Sauce, many recipes appear, many with things in them that I'm NOT going to eat, so this one seemed closest to my taste-buds.

This is how my SWLS normally looks without the shrimp of course.

This photo was found at http://offthebroiler.wordpress.com/2006/07/17/nyc-dining-king-yum/....Thank you!

Here's a recipe: (not the same as the photo above) 

Shrimp with Lobster Sauce

1 1/2 teaspoons cornstarch
2 teaspoons dry sherry or Shao Xing (or Shao Shing) wine
1 pound medium shrimp, peeled and deveined
4 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 teaspoon minced fresh ginger
1/4 pound ground pork
1 cup chicken broth or water
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1/4 teaspoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 tablespoons cornstarch
1/4 cup cold water
1 egg, beaten

In a medium bowl, dissolve 1 1/2 teaspoons of cornstarch in the sherry. Add shrimp to the bowl, and toss to coat.

Heat oil in a wok or large skillet over medium-high heat. Add shrimp, and fry until pink, 3 to 5 minutes. Remove shrimp to a plate with a slotted spoon, leaving as much oil in the pan as possible. Add garlic and ginger to the hot oil, and fry for a few seconds, then add the ground pork. Cook, stirring constantly until pork is no longer pink.

Combine 1 cup broth, soy sauce, sugar and salt; stir into the wok with the pork. Bring to a boil, cover, reduce heat to medium, and simmer for about 2 minutes. Mix together the remaining 1 1 /2 tablespoons of cornstarch and 1/4 cup cold water. Pour into the pan with the pork, and also return shrimp to the pan. Return to a simmer, and quickly stir while drizzling in the beaten egg.

Serve hot over rice.

Servings: 4

OK, so here are my changes.  

I didn't dredge my chicken in cornstarch and sherry.  I didn't dredge it at all.  I just threw it in a saute pan with a swirl of peanut oil and cooked it till it's juices ran clear.  I only used Peanut Oil in this recipe, about 2 Tablespoons, no Vegetable Oil.  I also didn't use the cornstarch.  I thickened the sauce with a little bit of flour mixed in some cold water (slurry) and it worked/tasted perfect.

I used ground turkey instead of ground pork.  Instead of two cloves of garlic, I minced four. (We like our garlic)  I used one 14.5 ounce can of College in reduced sodium chicken broth, 1 tsp of sugar, too much soy sauce for my taste buds in this recipe, so I decreased it to just a teaspoon.  We love the egg whites in this dish, so I increased it to 3 egg whites and I added about 4 scallions to the dish, 'cause that's another favorite part for us.  I also used brown rice instead of white.

Needless to say, my husband said he loved this version of "snot sauce" and is actually looking forward to having it again.  Now, to perfect Sesame Chicken and Egg Rolls.

I didn't figure the exact amount of calories, fat or sodium in this dish, but I'm guessing it was in the neighborhood of about 450 calories and about 10-15 grams of fat for a large portion.  The recipe says it makes 4 servings, but with my additions I imagine I increased the serving size to about 6.  We have plenty of leftovers for lunch tomorrow....yummo!  

I encourage you to try something new in your kitchen....never know, you may surprise yourself!

'Till next time...