Chinese sweet and sour shrimp is a delicious dish often served in restaurants. However, it can be easily prepared at home. Its feature is the absence of gluten in the composition, which is why it is perfect for people who can not tolerate gluten. At the same time, it only takes thirty minutes or less.
In Chinese cuisine there are a lot of fried dishes that can be cooked according to a homemade recipe, but for some reason many do not dare to cook shrimps in sweet sauce in Chinese. Usually chicken is made with such ingredients. Moreover, the cooking technology is absolutely the same. If you get a large package of large shrimp, you can simply replace them with chicken in a familiar recipe.
Why a ready-made meal in a public catering is not the best choice
Sweet and sour chicken fillet is a favorite food of many people, especially in a takeaway catering. Similarly, in these establishments offer shrimp in Chinese. Crispy seafood cooked in this way is very appetizing. However, it should be understood that the number of calories and fat in takeaway foods is very large, so it’s best to try to avoid this. Just think about the amount of oil used to fry food.
In addition to frying, one should not lose sight of the amount of sugar used in sweet and sour sauce. If you look at various recipes, you will find that most of them use somewhere from half a glass to a full glass of sugar, and this is in addition to the sweetener, which is already in ketchup. Some cookie and cake recipes contain less sugar than Chinese fast food, which people buy as their main food.
How to make the dish healthier?
If you decide to cook shrimp in sweet and sour sauce in Chinese yourself, you can make the recipe healthier. The first change to make when creating a sweet and sour sauce is to reduce the amount of sweetener used. It’s best to switch from using granulated sugar to honey. It is advisable to add natural sweeteners when possible, and honey looks great in this sauce.
Another useful change is to skip the shrimp dipping into the dough to give them a crispy coating. This not only saves time and calories, but it is not necessary at all when you supplement seafood with fresh vegetables and aromatic sauce.
Cooking time can also be shortened. As a rule, vegetables are first cooked for a couple of minutes, and then shrimps are added to them. This seafood needs only two to three minutes to heat until cooked. These components need to be fried first, and then add pineapple, green onions and sauce, which only needs one or two minutes to thicken. In this case, when the shrimp is cooked in Chinese, the vegetables will become tender, but will remain a little crunchy. This will not only change the texture of the dish for the better, but also preserve most of the vitamins.
What is better to serve?
Shrimp in Chinese sauce can be served with rice or cabbage with rice, if you want to cook a lower carb option. As soon as you try this version of the dish, you will never again eat excessively sweetened, deep-fried fast food.
What do you need for home cooking?
As noted above, shrimp in Chinese can be easily cooked at home. All the time of preparation and frying will take you about 25 minutes. You will need the following ingredients.
For the main course:
- 2 teaspoons of any vegetable oil;
- 500 grams of peeled and thawed shrimp;
- salt and freshly ground black pepper to your taste;
- half a glass of thinly chopped carrots;
- half a glass of diced red bell pepper;
- half a glass of chopped green onions;
- 1 garlic clove, grated;
- half a glass of canned or fresh pineapple, dried.
For sweet and sour sauce:
- a quarter cup of ketchup;
- a quarter cup of pineapple juice, you can use syrup from a can;
- 3 tablespoons apple cider vinegar;
- 2 tablespoons honey;
- 2 tablespoons low-salt tamari or soy sauce;
- 1 teaspoon Sambal Oelek (chili garlic sauce);
- a quarter of a teaspoon ground ginger tea;
- 2 tablespoons of tea powder arrowroot or corn starch.
How to cook it?
Whisk the sweet and sour ingredients and set aside.
Heat the oil in a large skillet over moderate heat. When it warms up, shake the pan to cover its bottom with oil and add carrots and red bell peppers. Sauté for two minutes. Add shrimp and spring onions and season with pepper and salt. Sauté for about three minutes, or until seafood turns pink.
Add the garlic, pineapple and simmer for thirty seconds, being careful not to burn the garlic. Pour in the sweet and sour sauce and stir to coat all the ingredients. Cook a couple more minutes or until the sauce thickens. Adjust the seasoning content. Remove from heat and serve over rice or cauliflower.