Mmmm, shrimp.

Commuter: 1. One that travels regularly from one place to another, as from suburb to city and back.

This definition fits me like a finely tailored suit. I commute. I commute a great distance daily, about 170 miles round-trip. That is roughly 3 hours per day in my truck for those of you keeping score at home. This commute wears heavily on me from time to time, and I try very hard not to crank the wheel hard to the left and smash my way into oncoming traffic.

So, how do I keep my sanity, you ask? I spend the night at a friend’s(who lives close to where I work) house from time to time. The system is simple and works like this: I cook for them, they let me sleep in a bed, and no one is killed in a fiery head-on collision. I think the system is perfect. Everyone wins, as long as I don’t have too many Sierra Nevada Pale Ale’s while I’m cooking and almost forget to check the rice and the veggies steam a little too long and well, you get the point.

On to the shrimp.

I stayed at Derek and Theresa’s last night. What a great couple they are! We had a blast eating, drinking, and talking. Well, Derek and I drank anyway. Theresa is 6 months preggers, and looks great. I don’t have the urge to have any more children, but I felt a pang when I saw her last night. I liked having a pregnant wife. That must be a primal male response or something. But I digress since I’m not really getting on with the shrimp.

I picked up a couple of pounds of 21 ct. shrimp at Captain’s Select Seafood in Minneapolis. Good prices, excellent seafood. All of the good seafood joints in town buy wholesale from this guy, and he also sells retail to walk in customers. Derek, his son Maelin, and I journeyed to Byerley’s to pick up the rest of the dinner supplies and we headed to the house. Here is the recipe for Aromatic Shrimp Stir-fry.

Peel the shrimp, around 1 lb or so. Put shells in a small sauce pan with 3/4 cups of water and bring to a simmer. In a medium bowl combine cleaned shrimp, 1 TBSP. dry sherry, and a TBSP or so of soy sauce, letting the shrimp marinate for about 10 mins. Mince about 1/2 inch of fresh ginger, 2 garlic cloves, and 3 green onions. Set aside about 2 TBSP’s of the green onion stems. Put the garlic, ginger, and remaining onions in a small bowl and combine, set aside the bowl. After the shells have simmered for a while, strain the water(now a simple shrimp broth) into a small bowl. You should end up with around 1/2 cup of broth. Add 2 tsp oyster sauce, 2 tsp sesame oil, a three finger pinch of sugar, and 1 tsp of corn starch. Mix well and set aside.

O.K., now everything goes pretty quick from this point on. Heat a couple of TBSP of oil (vegetable, peanut, sesame, whatever) in a large non-stick skillet, high heat. Add the shrimp and fry for 1 minute. Turn shrimp, and push to sides making a hole in the middle of the skillet. Add a little oil to the opening and drop in the ginger/garlic/onion mix. Press the mix into the oil with a wooden spoon and fry for 1 minute. Shake the pan mixing the shrimp with the mix. Quickly stir the broth and add to the skillet, cooking until the broth thickens. This should all take less than 3 minutes.

Spoon the shrimp onto a bed of jasmine rice and enjoy!! Thanks again, Derek and Theresa!

~ by jormundr on April 26, 2007.