503 Shrimps with asparagus

In Beb’s chapter ‘noodles and other Chinese dishes’ this dish sounds great. A Chinese recipe for shrimps with asparagus. In Holland you can buy asparagus anywhere in May and June. This vegetable anounces summertime! ;-). Beb states that asparagus from a jar (or canned soup asparagus) are okay to use. I do not particularly like this idea. I go for fresh asparagus, because it is asparagus time in Holland!

This dish is enough for 2-3 people and takes about 45 minutes to make.

Shrimp with asparagus from Beb Vuyk Groot Indonesisch Kookboek, page 403.

Ingredients

200 grams of shrimps
1 can of soup or leftover asparagus with asparagus broth
1 tablespoon of cornstarch
2 tablespoons of oil

Herbs

2 slices of ginger root
1 tablespoon of soy sauce
2 tablespoons of sherry

Sprinkle the shrimp with 1 tablespoon of sherry and leave them for some time. Hest up the oil and fry the shrimp with grated gingerroot for 2 minutes. Then add the asparagus pieces, stir them in well. Add 1 cup of the asparagus cooking liquid, sherry and soy sauce and bind it together with the diluted cornstarch.

My asparagus are so fresh they squeak when you hold them together. As they should do. Lots of Chinese recipes use sherry and cornstarch.

I get 200 grams of prawns. No Dutch prawns because they are often too tender –  they are quite tasty though.

I start immediately as Beb says to sprinkle the shrimp with sherry. I use a medium sherry, and I add not too much. It is quite an intense flavor.

While the shrimp sucks up the sherry, I have time to peel the asparagus and cook them the old way ;-). I make extra because I want to make asparagus the classical Dutch way too. I got super thick asparagus so I let themcook for about 9 minutes. I let them rest a bit (about 10 minutes), add hard boiled egg, ham, nutmeg and some butter on top ( I use creme fraiche this time).

The shrimp can not stay too long in the pan, because they were already cooked when they went in. I sauté them briefly and add the grated ginger almost immediately.

The boiled asparagus can go in now. I chop them into a few pieces and I add half a cup of cooking liquid too.

I use Japanese Kikkoman sauce of the soy sauce. It is super salty, so do not use too much.

I made the cornstarch into a smooth liquid with a little water. It will make the sauce thicken a little bit – this is done a lot with Chinese food.

This dish needs more sherry. I have to add another tablespoon to the shirmps. I bring it briefly to the boil to get rid of the alcohol.

But how does it taste? Because I make all Beb Vuyk’s recipes from her book, I have to go through my least favorites too. I love asparagus, do net get me wrong, but this sherry-soy sauce is not my favorite. I think it is too salty and ‘too sherry’ for my taste. Also I do not like the cornstarch through the sauce. Too thick and heavy.

I love the taste of the asparagus though. They have sucked up the saltyness and that is pretty tasty. Fortunately, I also made asparagus the traditional Dutch way with ham, egg and butter (I use this time creme fraiche -delicious).