i finally made it to some asian grocery markets in san diego this past weekend! whoohoo! honey walnut shrimp is kevin’s favorite chinese dish, so i couldn’t help but want to learn how to make it! before being married, i wasn’t too crazy about eating fried food or food with lots of condiments, but love does funny things to you.
while we were at it, we decided to make some bok choy too! got the recipe for the honey walnut shrimp and the bok choy from a blog called Rasa Malaysia. we followed the recipe for the shrimp to a tee but for the bok choy, just topped the greens with fresh garlic, oyster sauce, and sesame oil (so that we wouldn’t have more pans to wash).
we completed the meal with some pickled cucumber, made my kevin’s grandma, and some turnip cake (with SPAM!!) made by his other grandma. we are so blessed (and spoiled).
a few notes:
- kevin cooked the shrimp to perfection! minus the first few which clumped together and got a little burnt because the oil was too hot. i think we’ll be investing in a cooking thermometer. all to say, make sure your oil is not too hot!
- on making candied walnuts…i didn’t think you could mess this up but apparently you can! haha. the recipe says to add the walnuts after the sugar/water mixture turns thick and golden color, so i waited and waited for that golden color. the mixture did look somewhat yellow, but not “golden” according to my book. in any case, i waited too long so that by the time i added the walnuts, most of the water evaporated and the walnuts turned into SUPER sugary walnuts! haha. so moral of the story, “yellow” means “golden.”
- too much sesame oil on the bok choy keeps the oyster sauce from sticking to the greens so make sure to not use too much oil.
next week we will be tackling….BURGERS!
alice in cook-ING land 