Note that a nice beverage to serve with this meal is a chilled white wine like sauvignon blanc or pinot grigio, though most any cold beverage will be fine.
Ingredients: (makes 4 servings)
For the shrimp and the batter:
16 peeled and deveined shrimp (12 to 16 size; a bit more than a pound)
1/4 cup of all-purpose flour
1/4 cup of rice flour
1/8 teaspoon of baking powder
2 tablespoons of cornstarch
1/4 teaspoon of sea salt
1 pinch of ground turmeric (optional)
1/8 teaspoon of white pepper
1/2 teaspoon of sesame oil
2/3 cup of cold seltzer (or beer)
Peanut oil (for frying)
For the sweet and sour sauce:
1/3 cup of red salad onion (cut into 1-inch pieces)
1/3 cup of red bell pepper (cut into 1-inch pieces)
1/3 cup of green bell pepper (cut into 1-inch pieces)
2 tablespoons of ketchup
3/4 cup of canned pineapple chunks
3/4 cup of pineapple juice from can
1 cup of duck sauce (buy it in one quart quantity at an Asian market or at your supermarket)
3 tablespoons of rice vinegar
3 tablespoons of sugar
1/4 teaspoon of sea salt
1 1/2 tablespoons of cornstarch (mixed into a slurry with 3 tablespoons water)
½ tsp. of red food coloring
Directions:
Prepare whatever rice you plan to serve, then put it into a 180°F warming oven in a bowl, covered with plastic wrap.
Put a serving bowl for each guest into the warming oven.
Rinse the shrimp with cold water, then pat them dry with paper towels.
To make the batter, first mix together the flours, baking powder, cornstarch, sea salt, turmeric, and white pepper in a two quart bowl.
Heat peanut oil 2" deep in a one gallon pot to 325°F. Use an instant read thermometer to monitor the temperature and adjust the heat as needed.
When you are ready to fry the shrimp, add the sesame oil and the cold seltzer water (or beer) to the batter and stir the batter until it is smooth. If the batter appears to be too thick, then add more seltzer and stir it in. Note that a batter coated shrimp should have a batter thickness of no more than 1/16 of an inch. The best way to test the batter thickness is by coating one shrimp and letting any excess batter drip off.
Drop all of the shrimp into the batter. Mix gently until they are evenly coated with batter.
Carefully take eight shrimp from the batter, one at a time with tongs, and let the excess batter drip off, then put that shrimp into the hot oil.
Make sure the shrimp don’t stick to each other during frying. If needed, pull ones stuck together apart with tongs and a fork.
Turn the shrimp as needed and cook each shrimp for about 2 minutes, or until they are golden in color, but not brown. Note that the shrimp will be removed from the hot oil individually with tongs, as they have been introduced into the hot oil at different times and they have a relatively short frying time.
Remove the shrimp from the hot oil individually as they complete frying using tongs, and transfer them to a cooling rack placed over a baking sheet.
Repeat the frying process for the second batch of eight shrimp. Then keep the oil in the pot heated on very low heat for the later second frying of the shrimp.
Put two teaspoons of the hot peanut oil into a wok over high heat. Then put in the onion pieces and the red and green bell pepper pieces.
Stir fry for 30 seconds, then clear a spot in the center of the wok. Add another teaspoon of hot peanut oil, and the ketchup, and fry for 20 seconds.
Mix in the pineapple chunks, pineapple juice, duck sauce, rice vinegar, sugar, red food coloring and sea salt. Heat the mixture to a low simmer, then simmer for 2 minutes, then reduce the heat to low.
Heat the peanut oil in the pot to 350 degrees F.
Refry all of the shrimp at one time. The temperature will drop to about 325°F when you add the shrimp. Continue frying at around 325°F for about 2 minutes, then remove the shrimp with a slotted spoon and put them onto the cooling rack to drain excess oil.
Stir the cornstarch slurry to remix it, then add it to the simmered sauce a little at a time with stirring until the sauce becomes thick enough to coat a spoon. Then turn off the heat.
Put the fried shrimp into the wok, and fold them into the sauce with 3 or 4 scooping motions until they are lightly coated.
Serve the sweet and sour shrimp hot in the prewarmed serving bowls over the warm white rice. Also serve a nice cold beverage.
Enjoy!