Quick & Easy Chinese (3 page)
Read Quick & Easy Chinese Online
Authors: Nancie McDermott
HOISIN SHRIMP IN LETTUCE CUPS
Whether you’re on a Beijing side street, a Shanghai street corner, or a winding Chinatown sidewalk in New York City, you will find evidence aplenty that the Chinese love food. Watch people cooking, eating, buying, and selling food, and carrying it along to share with someone else, anytime and anywhere Chinese people are awake.
The variety and range of things to eat on short notice is a testament to the dedication Chinese people have to eating with pleasure, and this kind of food translates wonderfully into starters you can make for any gathering. Street food is a natural for this category, since it tends to be simple-to-eat, stand-alone fare, rather than a component of a rice-centered meal. Favorite appetizers on the menu of Chinese restaurants in the West are often versions of street-food classics, from spring rolls and spareribs to dumplings and deep-fried treats.
Many street-food specialties take time and years of expertise to master, but a number of these small dishes translate wonderfully to a home kitchen and make a delicious addition to your repertoire of starters. In this chapter you’ll find
Honey-Ginger Spare-ribs
(page 26),
Soy Sauce Chicken Wings
(page 27),
Cold Sesame Noodles
(page 31), and
Hoisin Shrimp in Lettuce Cups
(page 21), each of which is simple enough for your standard party menus.
Pot Sticker Dumplings with Ginger-Soy Dipping Sauce
(page 23) and
Green Onion Pancakes
(page 29) can be wrapped up and rolled out ahead of time, and then quickly cooked and served when you are ready to enjoy them.
When Chinese hosts present an appetizer course, it often begins a multicourse banquet and is waiting on the banquet table when the guests arrive. Even if restaurant chefs are doing the cooking, the focus is on a gracious welcome for guests and minimum attention from the cooks, who have, perhaps literally, bigger fish to fry. Traditional starters include cold cuts, a pedestrian name in the West but a Chinese category of great bites including thinly sliced ham,
Char Shiu Pork
(page 98), abalone, and nuts, including freshly fried cashews or peanuts, or
Candied Walnuts
(page 166).
To follow this wise tradition, consider designing your party menu in the same spirit, weaving in recipes from your standard starter repertoire with a dish or two from this chapter. For cold cuts, arrange smoked salmon, prosciutto, and thinly sliced salami or summer sausage on handsome plates. For nuts, set out ready-to-eat pistachios and roasted, salted cashews, along with smoked almonds or honey-roasted peanuts. Add a pile of boiled, chilled shrimp with
Ginger-Soy Dipping Sauce
(page 171) and spicy cocktail sauce, and an item or two from this chapter, and you’re done. You may enjoy your small plates theme so much that you add a few more and call it a meal, with lots of room and time for guests to sample and savor along with you.
This dish pairs the delicate, sweet notes of shrimp with the earthy sweetness of hoisin sauce, with delicious results. Don’t let the long ingredients list deter you. You simply stir the seasonings into a sauce that is tossed with the shrimp and zucchini at the end of cooking. Serve this with lettuce cups on the side or spoon it into lettuce cups for a cool and flavorful starter, to be eaten out of hand.
¾ pound medium shrimp, peeled and deveined
1 small zucchini
1 tablespoon hoisin sauce
1 tablespoon dry sherry or Shaoxing rice wine
1 tablespoon chicken broth or water
2 teaspoons soy sauce
½ teaspoon sugar
½ teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 tablespoon chopped garlic
2 teaspoons chopped fresh ginger
½ teaspoon Asian sesame oil
2 tablespoons finely chopped cilantro leaves
2 tablespoons finely chopped green onion
About 20 cup-shaped lettuce leaves, such as Bibb, Boston, or iceberg
SERVES
4
NOTE
To chop the shrimp, cut the tail portion into two or three pieces. Then halve the thick upper portion lengthwise and cut it crosswise into two or three sections
.
Chop the shrimp into small chunks, about ¼ inch in diameter (see Note). Trim the zucchini and chop it into ¼-inch chunks too. In a small bowl, combine the hoisin sauce, sherry, chicken broth, soy sauce, sugar, and salt, and stir to mix well.
Heat a wok or a large, deep skillet over high heat until a drop of water sizzles at once. Add the vegetable oil and swirl to coat the pan evenly. Scatter in the garlic and ginger, and toss them well. When they are fragrant, about 15 seconds, add the shrimp and cook, tossing often, until pink on the outside, about 1 minute.
Add the zucchini and toss well. Cook, tossing often, until the zucchini are bright green and tender, and the shrimp are cooked through. Add the hoisin sauce mixture, pouring it in around the sides of the pan, and then toss to season everything evenly. Add the sesame oil, cilantro, and green onion, and toss to combine well.
Transfer to a serving platter, with lettuce leaves on the side, and invite guests to spoon shrimp into lettuce leaves to make small wraps. Or, spoon shrimp into lettuce cups and arrange the filled lettuce leaves on a serving platter.
