Today we’re gonna learn my dad’s recipe for
Shrimp & Snow Pea Stir-Fry,
and how you can use this approach
to cook easy, healthy 15-minute stir-fry recipes
that your family will devour.
Shrimp & Snow Pea Stir-Fry features a velvety savory sauce,
and perfectly contrasts the crunchiness of snow peas
with the satisfying chew of shrimp.
You can easily apply this technique
to mix and match with your favorites,
like chicken and broccoli, scallops and carrots,
or whatever you have on hand.
First, my dad will show us how to prepare shrimp like a Chinese chef.
I'm using about 10 oz of shrimp today.
First, peel the shrimp.
From the tail, count three segments back.
Peel it off there.
Then you can peel it all off with the tail.
Peel it off.
To peel the rest, go from its back.
Hook your finger under.
That's it.
Very simple.
Now, to devein the shrimp.
If you're cooking it shell-on, use a toothpick.
Here.
Poke it through.
See?
That's deveined.
In the US, shrimp are sold by the amount in a pound.
Our shrimp today is 31/35,
which means there are 31-35 shrimp in a pound,
which is considered medium to large.
If you prefer smaller shrimp,
you would get those with bigger numbers.
Also, if you want to skip the peeling and deveining step,
you can buy already peeled and deveined shrimp
from most grocery stores.
Is it better to leave the shrimp tails on?
You'd only leave them on for deep-frying.
You don't leave them on for stir-frying?
You don't keep the tails on for stir-frying.
Does it matter if the shrimp is frozen?
Mine are frozen!
Here in the US, all the shrimp are frozen.
Even the fresh ones are frozen ones that they've thawed.
After peeling them, we're cutting them open.
In the middle.
Slice it open a bit.
If there's a vein,
just pick it out with the knife.
Like this, see?
What we’re doing here is slicing the shrimp
from head to tail along its back,
similar to butterflying a shrimp,
but not as deep.
It’ll help the larger shrimp to cook slightly quicker
and also not curl as much when it cooks
which sometimes leads to a more rubbery texture.
The advantage of doing this is
you can also devein the shrimp in the same step.
With smaller shrimp, you don’t need to do this.
We've finished slicing the shrimp open,
so now I'll devein them.
Just use a paper towel.
If you see a vein, just pull it out.
It's clean.
At this point, we’ll use a kitchen towel
to remove any veins left on the shrimp.
In Cantonese, shrimp is 蝦 haa
which is a homophone of the word 哈 haa,
which is the way to write laughter in Cantonese.
Because of this, eating shrimp,
especially during Chinese New Year,
is considered good luck
because it symbolizes laughter and happiness in your life
for the upcoming year.
For this recipe, you can use any kind of shrimp or prawn
but as with many types of seafood,
especially hugely popular ones like shrimp,
finding ones that are sustainably farmed or caught
is often a confusing and complex undertaking.
As consumers, one way to do our part is by voting with our wallets.
Monterey Bay Aquarium in California
runs a free website called “Seafood Watch”
which has a ton of recommendations on
how to choose and purchase seafood
in ways that have the least environmental impact.
Now, we’ll marinate the shrimp.
Add some white pepper.
We’ll add a 1/4 tsp of white pepper.
A bit of salt.
A scant 1/2 tsp.
Then we’ll mix the seasonings in well.
After mixing that up, add some cornstarch.
This way, the cooked shrimp will be tender.
We’ll mix in about a tbsp of cornstarch here.
That's it for the shrimp.
With the shrimp prepared,
we’ll move on to the other star of this recipe,
the snow peas, which my dad grew himself!
Fresh snow peas from the garden?
Yes!
Wow!
I've never had such a good-tasting snow pea in my life.
This is the first time.
These are delicious!
This string is really tough.
Pull it off.
Do you have to remove it?
If you don't, then it'll be tough.
Lots of Western restaurants don't remove it,
and just cook them whole.
Chinese restaurants usually remove the string.
Both sides?
Both sides have a string.
I have about 10 oz of snow peas here.
I grew these beauties myself.
Four people asked this question,
"How do you pick good snow peas?"
Definitely, the snow peas we have are all good.
She had 'em waiting!
I knew this question was coming!
Mom was holding five snow peas.
Oh!
Right now, we have almost five pounds.
Five pounds?!
Yeah, five pounds of snow peas.
In the refrigerator.
And you have more out there?
We pick more every day.
At the market, you can't pick them piece by piece.
Look at the whole thing.
Look for peas that are tiny.
You still see the pea but it's not bulging.
Then that's a good one.
That's a good one.
My dad actually calls snow peas
laan dau in Cantonese,
short for ho laan dau
or literally Holland peas,
because it is said the Dutch introduced them
to Taiwan and modern-day Indonesia in the 17th century.
Even though they’re actually native to the Mediterranean region,
the name stuck
and as snow peas spread around and grew in popularity,
they became a staple in Chinese cuisine,
being used in stir-fries like ours today
as well as more elaborate dishes
like the all-vegetarian Buddha’s Delight.
In that recipe, my dad used sugar snap peas instead of snow peas,
which aren’t the same
but can often be used interchangeably
if you're having trouble finding snow peas.
Soak it in some water.
Rinse off the dust and dirt.
We’ll clean the peas in some water
and let it soak for 5-10 minutes.
All right.
With our peas prepared,
we’ll start on our other veggies.
Cut the celery into strips.
We’ll cut 4 oz of celery in half or into thirds length-wise.
Then turn them 90 degrees
and cut into roughly 1-inch long pieces.
This is a carrot.
We're slicing it into diamonds.
We’ll cut the carrot at an angle into 1/2-inch pieces.
Then, slice them.
Then lay those flat and cut into 1/8-inch thick slices.
Green onions.
Cut them at an angle.
We’ll cut the green onions at an angle into inch-long pieces.
Ginger.
We only need a little.
We’ll cut 1 oz of ginger into small pieces like so.
Garlic.
We’ll smash 2 cloves of garlic.
Then peel and mince them.
These are seafood mushrooms.
I've taken the ends off.
With our veggies prepared,
my dad will show us how to create a simple, delicious sauce
you can throw on any stir fry.
Now, we'll make the sauce.
1/2 a tsp of salt, so it's not too salty.
1 tsp of sugar.
1 tsp of cornstarch.
1 tbsp of cooking wine.
A small dash of white pepper.
1 tsp of fish sauce.
1 tbsp of water.
A bit more.
We have all of these ingredients listed on our blog at madewithlau.com
along with step-by-step instructions and video clips
to guide you as you make the recipe at home.
It's all done.
Once the snow peas are clean of debris, drain them.
After soaking the peas for 5-10 minutes,
we’ll remove it from the water.
Now we'll start stir-frying the shrimp and snow peas.
Turn the stove on.
With the stove on, we're going to quickly blanch the snow peas.
We’ll add 8-10 oz of piping hot water to our wok.
1 tsp of salt.
Add a bit of salt.
Add some oil.
This will make the snow peas beautifully bright green.
We’ll add about a tsp of oil here.
In our video on preparing Chinese broccoli,
my dad explains why adding salt and oil to the water is so important.
It also applies here and to other veggie stir fries.
The oil and salt help keep the vegetables stay green.
Without salt and oil, the vegetables will look faded and dull.
The oil is like putting makeup on your face.
When the water boils,
we’ll add our celery and carrot.
Celery.
Carrot.
Blanch it quickly,
and they'll be brightly colored.
After 30-40 seconds of blanching the celery & carrots on high,
we’ll add the snow peas.
Add the snow peas.
Is it on high heat?
Yes, high heat.
"What can you use instead of snow peas?"
Celery.
The most common is broccoli.
Then it's called Shrimp & Broccoli Stir-Fry.
You can also make it with mixed vegetables.
After another 30 seconds,
we’ll turn off the heat and drain our veggies.
Turn off the heat.
Pour the water out.
Put these in the hot water.
I forgot to blanch these seafood mushrooms,
so we'll quickly blanch them now.
It's fine.
Just a quick blanch.
The mushrooms are edible raw, too.
Now that our veggies are blanched,
I also wanted to make a special shoutout to thank all of our
wonderful Patreon supporters for helping bring this video to life.
If you enjoy our videos and are interested in supporting us directly,
head on over to patreon.com/madewithlau to learn more!
Now, we’ll prep the same wok for stir-frying.
Wipe the wok dry.
Wipe it clean with a paper towel.
Turn the stove on.
We’ll heat the wok on high for 40-50 seconds
then add our oil.
1 tbsp of oil.
Swirl it around
and let it heat up for 15-20 seconds,
then add the shrimp.
All right, put the shrimp in.
Make sure to move the shrimp around
so that it cooks evenly on both sides.
How do you not overcook the shrimp?
Don't cook it for too long.
Shrimp cooks quickly.
It'll curl up
and turn white.
It's done when it turns white.
After about 40-50 seconds,
or when the shrimp have turned mostly white,
we’ll take them out of the wok.
Add the aromatics in.
Ginger and garlic go in.
We don't need to add oil, there's still enough left.
Ginger, garlic, and green onion.
That's good, that's okay.
After cooking the aromatics for 15 seconds,
we’ll add our veggies.
Snow peas.
After a quick toss, we’ll add in the shrimp as well.
Okay, shrimp.
Wow!
Add some cooking wine, for its fragrance.
We’ll add a tsp of cooking wine.
This is wok hei, son!
Other question,
"What can I use instead of shrimp?"
Scallops, chicken, or beef!
Lots of people make scallops and shrimp together.
Squid too.
Squid works!
All right, let's add the sauce.
After 30-40 seconds of stir-frying with the shrimp,
we’ll add our sauce.
We’ll give it a couple tosses to mix in the sauce
then turn off the heat.
We're adding sesame oil, so turn off the heat.
We’ll add a tsp of sesame oil here.
Okay!
A few quick tosses here and we’re ready to plate.
To summarize, here’s a 3 step cooking process
you can apply to other combos of meats and veggies.
1. Blanch the vegetables in boiling water with some oil, then drain.
2. Cook the meat until it’s about 80-90% done, then set it aside.
3. Cook and add everything back in stages.
First, the aromatics, then the veggies, then the meat, then the sauce.
This isn’t the only way to stir-fry,
but hopefully it’s a helpful framework you can use.
Now, let’s see if Cam Cam approves of the dish.
Hong Doy, time to eat!
Say yummy!
Yummy!
Friends,
Our Shrimp & Snow Pea Stir-Fry is complete!
I hope you all enjoy!
Cheers!
Ha! Shrimp!
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