Sweet Chili Shrimp Stir-Fry

I got a wok for Christmas! New motto “Cooking will be fun in 2021!”  Due to a knee injury and a downed tree (not related) cooking for fun has not been a priority lately. It took that wok to get me excited about experimenting in the kitchen again.

If Santa didn’t leave you a wok – no worries, a big skillet works fine for this delicious and healthy Sweet Chili Shrimp Stir-fry. Cookbooks have a habit of coming to live here and they are always welcome. With several wok cookbooks to choose from, the first thing I decided to create was a “mash-up” of recipes.

It was a mash-up because using ingredients that were on hand was a priority. Wok cooking is pretty forgiving about that. Frozen shrimp is great to have around – watch for a good sale and stock up on a couple of bags. The easy peel shrimp already split down the back works for so many recipes. No broccoli or bok choy – no problem, baby bell peppers were just waiting to star in a dish. Ginger and garlic are staples here but if you don’t usually keep fresh ginger around it comes in tubes from the produce part of the grocery or even better in little frozen cubes at Trader Joes. Garlic is hard to replicate and keeps forever – but onions or green onions could sub in a pinch. Most recipes call for rice noodles but heck, any old pasta will do. Probably the most unusual ingredient is sweet chili sauce, but it’s worth trying, it’s delicious in so many recipes. A favorite is to brush sweet chili sauce on salmon grilled, broiled or baked. Now you are ready to cook – hope you have a lot of stamina because the whole thing recipe including chopping the veggies takes less than 15 minutes. That is a recipe worth trying. Any dish with shrimp feels like a party and it sure did perk up a Monday night. Give it a try. Enjoy!

Sweet Chili Shrimp Stir-fry

Ingredients

1 Tbsp soy sauce

1 Tbsp rice vinegar

1 Tbsp rice wine, sherry, or white wine

1 Tbsp sweet chili sauce

1 tsp honey

1 tsp minced ginger

2 cloves minced garlic

1 bell pepper or 5 or 6 mini bells, sliced

1 Tbsp vegetable oil

1 lb shrimp, peeled and deveined

2 tsp cornstarch

1 tsp each salt and pepper

6 oz rice noodles or other pasta cooked according to package directions

Directions

Combine soy sauce, vinegar, wine, honey, and chili sauce in a small bowl to make a sauce.

Mix shrimp with cornstarch, salt, and pepper and let it sit for 5 minutes.

Heat oil over medium high heat in a wok or large skillet.

Add ginger, garlic, and peppers and cook stirring for about a minute.

Add shrimp to the skillet and cook 2 to 3 minutes until firm and pink.

Remove wok from heat and stir in sauce and noodles.

Serve immediately!