Saturday, October 2, 2010

Shrimp with Egg Yolk Sauce

So we've cracked the code on the secret egg yolk sauce recipe served at some teppanyaki restaurants, but what the heck do you do with it?

This is easy, too.

Shrimp with Egg Yolk Sauce

Large uncooked shrimp, shells removed, cleaned, de-veined, and butterflied
Egg yolk sauce (recipe here)
Wine (I used a Chinese cooking rice wine)
Oil, for cooking.

Heat an appropriately sized stainless steel frying pan on medium heat (you'll need a lid, so make sure you've got one to fit the pan) and add a small amount of oil. Heat until the oil is shimmering, but not smoking.

Add the shrimp, and the carefully place a small blob of the egg yolk sauce on top of each shrimp.

You need to move quickly, so it's better to make this in smaller amounts than to try to make twenty of them at once unless you're really nimble. Shrimp cook quickly, and you don't want to overcook the first ones while you're still setting the last ones in the pan.

Also, it's easier to deal with larger shrimp than with smaller ones, both in the butterflying and the egg-dolloping. And since larger shrimp take a little longer to cook, you've got a bit more time to get the sauce on and slam the lid on to cook the tops and the sauce before the bottoms go rubbery.

The shrimp I had were inexplicably mixed sizes. The larger ones behaved much better in butterflying and cooking, and some of the smaller ones curled a bit more than I would have liked if this was a more formal meal. No matter. They tasted fine. Buy large shrimp, and they'll be a lot prettier.

When all the shrimp have been egged, splash some wine in the pan (you're looking to generate steam) and cover the pan. Cook another minute or so, until the shrimp are cooked through.

Remove the shrimp from the pan and serve immediately.

This sauce would also be good on vegetables and would probably make an old shoe taste good, too. Don't blame me, I'm just the messenger. Save it for special occasions if you're worried about the calories.
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