Sichuan Shrimp

Sichuan is province in southwestern China.  Their food uses garlic, chile peppers, and Sichuan peppers.  The food is often hot and spicy.

Sichuan has an abundance of foods.  One city in Sichuan province, Chendgu, was declared a city of gastronomy by UNESCO.  I'd never heard of that honor before, but it sounds legitimate and good.

Some popular Sichuan dishes are tea-smoked duck, mapo tofu, dan dan noodles, and sichuan hotpot.  I have eaten mapo tofu and sichuan hotpot, and both were delicious.

I doubt that this Sichuan shrimp recipe from allrecipes.com is authentic, especially because it calls for ketchup.  I used Siracha sauce instead of ketchup, but a Thai condiment doesn't help with authenticity.

I swapping the ketchup for siracha sauce, and used raw shrimp instead of cooked shrimp.

The ingredients are 4 tablespoons water, 2 tablespoons siracha sauce, 1 tablespoon soy sauce, 2 teaspoons cornstarch, 1 teaspoon honey, 1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper, 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger, 1 tablespoon vegetable oil, 1/4 cup sliced green onions, 4 minced garlic cloves, and 12 ounces of shrimp.

I stirred the siracha, water, soy sauce, cornstarch, honey, crushed red pepper, and ground ginger together.

I warmed the oil up in a skillet over medium-high heat.  I added the garlic and green onions.  I cooked the garlic and green onions for 30 seconds.

I added the shrimp and coated the shrimp with the hot oil in the pan.

I poured in the sauce mixture and cooked the shrimp until the sauce was thick and the shrimp were pink and cooked.  I stirred the entire time.  It took around ten minutes.

I served the shrimp with white rice.

It was a spicy dish, but not overwhelmingly spicy.  It had a perfect amount of kick.  The aromatic onions and garlic were desirable and alluring.

The sauce was a little sweet from the honey.  The dish was satisfying but not heavy.

 It was a appetizing meal that used mostly pantry stables.  I enjoyed the dish and would make it again.