Stir-fry!

Tonight's Menu

• garlic-ginger shrimp stir-fry
  
• steamed basmati rice
  

I used to make stir-frys all the damn time, but I don't think I've recorded one here since I started the blog. I guess it's been a while!

Here's how I made this one, and keep in mind that as with most of my recipes, I have no emotional investment here. I picked up a few things that looked good at the store, threw them together, chose a couple of complimentary seasonings, and that was that. Feel free to use this as a loose guideline. It ain't the stir-fry Bible, y'all.

1 pkg (about a pound, maybe? I dunno) large frozen shrimp (normally I'd use fresh, but they didn't look so hot today)
half an onion that was cut lengthwise, not cross-wise
1 orange bell pepper
about half a pound of fresh snow peas, more or less
1 knob (about thumb-sized) fresh ginger
4-5 cloves of garlic
1 Tbs. or so of pineapple juice
canola oil

Okay, first you want to thaw the shrimp and remove any shells. The ones I bought today had tails on only so this was pretty easy. Set them aside.

Cut the onion lengthwise into thin wedges. Cut the bell pepper into thin strips, about the same width as the onion wedges. Trim the stem ends and any tough strings from the snow peas. Mince the hell out of the ginger and the garlic.

Heat a large high-sided skillet or wok over medium-high to high heat. (If high heat is north and medium high is northwest, you want NNW.) Add maybe 1 Tbs. canola oil once pan is hot and then immediately add onions. Stir like hell for a few seconds until you can tell they're starting to cook a bit, then add the bell pepper and snow peas. Stir, stir, stir. When the veggies are just shy of the crisp-tender stage, dump in the minced ginger and garlic and STIR YOU FOOL, STIR! You do NOT want these to burn. Add the shrimp once the garlic and ginger have released their fragrance and stir like hell until the shrimp just start to curl. Stir in maybe a tablespoon of pineapple juice just to deglaze, then remove from heat and serve over rice or noodles or whatever you're into.

This was really good and I would definitely make it again! You could spice it up a bit with a minced serrano pepper if you like a little heat (add it with the garlic and ginger), but DH isn't into it so I left it out. I'd probably put it in if I were making this just for me, though.