During early planning I combined two recipes I found to make superior fried shrimp that are great as is served with sweet Thai chili sauce. I am very pleased with the results, and beholden to the great Chinese cook who provided 90% of this recipe.
Later, I smiled thinking about how a relatively simple recipe like this one can easily become a teaching recipe on batter dipped seafood frying. So it is.
The batter in this recipe fries nicely crisp outside and perfect inside so it will also be excellent to use for frying fish at 360 degrees F, or even for making shrimp or vegetable tempuras with a higher starting oil temperature of 375 degrees F (that reduces to 350 degrees F during frying).
I found that eight extra large shrimp were enough for one generous adult serving, so the recipe as given below serves two adults. Note that the given weight (1/2 lb.) is that of fresh or thawed fresh shrimp that have already been shelled and cleaned.
If you decide to include servings of steamed rice and stir fried vegetables with the fried shrimp you will have a complete, delicious meal. Also, a chilled light white wine like Sauvignon Blanc is a fine beverage to serve with the shrimp.
Ingredients: (makes two servings of 8 fried extra large shrimp)
1/2 lb. of raw, extra large, shelled, cleaned shrimp (16 shrimp)
1 tbsp. of light soy sauce (for the marinade)
1 tbsp. of Shaoxing wine (for the marinade)
1 cup of cornstarch for coating the marinated shrimp
1/2 cup of all purpose flour for the batter
1/2 cup of rice flour for the batter
1/2 cup of cornstarch for the batter
1 extra large egg
1 tsp. of baking powder
1 tsp. of sea salt
1/2 tsp. of garlic powder
3 tbsp. of canola oil
A pinch of white pepper
1 cup of water
One or two quarts of peanut oil for frying the shrimp (depending on the size of the skillet)
1/2 cup of sweet Thai chili sauce (for dipping the fried shrimp at serving time)
Directions:
Make sure the shelled, cleaned shrimp are patted dry on the surface using a few paper towels.
Mix the shrimp with the light soy sauce and the Shaoxing wine in a Ziploc® quart size freezer bag, and marinate them for 30 minutes. Be sure to seal the bag without air pockets in it (expel the air by flattening the bag before sealing it). Turn the bag over once or twice while the shrimp are marinating.
Whisk the egg in a one quart bowl. Add the canola oil and the water and whisk the mixture. Add the 1/2 cup of flour, 1/2 cup of rice flour, 1/2 cup of cornstarch, and the baking powder, sea salt, garlic powder and white pepper.
Whisk the ingredients together until they are well combined. Let the batter rest in the refrigerator, covered with plastic wrap, for 30 minutes.
After 30 minutes, whisk the batter and maybe add a small amount of water (one or two tablespoons) to thin it while whisking, so it doesn't coat the shrimp with a thick layer of batter. The reason the batter may become thick is the gluten formation that happens during the 30 minutes of refrigeration.
Note: Most of the batter should drip or run off a piece of shrimp after it is dipped and then extracted from the batter using tongs. The final batter thickness on the surface of the shrimp before frying should be no more than 1/16th of an inch. That is how you know the batter has the proper viscosity.
Put 1 cup of cornstarch into a wide shallow bowl. Coat all of the marinated shrimp with the cornstarch and put them on a plate in a single layer.
Put a serving plate and individual serving saucers into a 200 degrees F warming oven.
Heat the peanut oil at a depth of 1 1/2 inches on medium high heat in a deep skillet to 350 degrees F. Use an instant read thermometer to measure and to help maintain the temperature. Vary the heat as necessary during frying to maintain the temperature at or close to 350 degrees F.
Put the marinated, cornstarch coated shrimp into the bowl of batter in groups of four, then individually use each group of four batter coated shrimp for frying.
Take one marinated, cornstarch coated, battered shrimp at a time from the batter using tongs, then let the excess batter drip/run off, then carefully place the shrimp in the hot oil using the tongs, holding each shrimp half way into the oil for five seconds before totally releasing it into the oil.
Fry the shrimp for 3 minutes, then turn the shrimp over and fry for another 3 minutes. If they are pale gold they are done frying and it is time to take them out of the hot oil with the tongs. If they are not yet pale gold then turn the shrimp over again twice, frying for 1 to 2 minutes on each side.
Do not overcrowd shrimp in the skillet or they will stick together. It is best to do the frying in four batches unless you use a large (12" diameter) skillet. If you are using the large size skillet you can increase the batch size to eight battered shrimp.
After frying the first batch, remove the shrimp individually from the hot oil with tongs and put those shrimp on a paper towel for 1 minute, then put them into the 200 degrees F warming oven on a paper towel lined serving plate. Repeat the earlier battering and frying steps for the remaining batch(es) of cornstarch coated shrimp.
After the last batch of shrimp has been fried and removed from the hot oil, serve all the shrimp hot on the pre-warmed serving plate, along with a small (1/2 cup) bowl of sweet Thai chili sauce.
Your guests can take turns dipping each fried shrimp into the sweet chili sauce, then eating it, etc.
I hope you remember to serve the chilled Sauvignon Blanc wine (or other chilled beverage) to your guests.
Enjoy!