Classic Dry-Fried Pepper and Salt Shrimp

How can you go wrong with a dish that is all about the shrimp? Especially shrimp that is ready to pop in your mouth and savor. I am amazed at how few ingredients this recipe has but it is powered with so much flavor. Usually when we do a recipe I cut up some of the veggies in the morning before I go to work so I don't have too much prep when I get home. But this recipe came together fast. Now that's my kind of fast food.

I bought medium sized shrimp that were very good but next time I will spring for the larger tiger shrimp. I also added a couple of fresh chinese red chilis at the end for my husband. He likes it hot!

I served the shrimp with the vegetarian fried rice dish from The Breath of a Wok, it's my go to rice dish that I make weekly then bring a small portion to work every day to eat with fresh tomatoes or other fresh fruit.

This dish is so delicious and so easy that I am going to cook it while we are camping next week in the mountains. I have a large group to cook for and I think this will be perfect.

Kung Pao Chicken

Kung Pao Chicken, the dish we cooked this week from what is now becoming almost an every day resource for me, Stir Frying to the Sky's Edge. 


How relaxing it is to come home from a hectic day at work and dive into pulling together all of the ingredients for the dish. 


I decided to use 6 chilis and regretted that I didn't use 8. I was looking for the flavor of them to impart onto the other ingredients but with 6 it didn't seem to do that. All I had to do though, is take a small bite of the chili itself and it satisfied all my expectations for flavor and heat. 


The peanuts were such a nice additions especially since I am such a fan of crunch. I may have roasted them just a little too much but my husband loved the extra smokiness it added.


This is the first recipe from SFTTSE that I had every single ingredient the recipe called for. In the past I have substituted Basalmic for the Chinkiang and dry sherry for the Shao Hsing rice wine. It seems every time I visit my neighborhood Super H Korean grocery store I find more and more of the right ingredients. At first was daunting to be in a grocery store with a whole lot of foreign ingredients but I am becoming a lot more comfortable and find that if I take my time and compare the labels to the information from SFTTSE I can locate exactly what I need. It sure has made a big difference in the taste of the dishes that I have been cooking.


I am looking forward to cooking the next recipe...Until then!

Yin Yang Beans

Wok Wednesday Extravaganza

So as I continue my adventure of cooking my way thorough Stir-Frying to the Sky's Edge on Wok Wednesdays, I totally enjoy this weeks recipe. The Yin Yang Beans wereabsolutely delicious. I was so surprised of how far the 2 tablespoons of pork went in working it's way all among the pound of green beans. I decided to pair it with Millie Chan's Chili Shrimp from The Breath of a Wok and white rice. To say the least it was a memorable meal. I am always amazed at how easy it is to create such lovely flavors with just a little effort.

Stir-Fried Sugar Snap Peas with Shitake Mushrooms

Really flavorful dish, my husband really loved it. I served the dish on rice with Stir Fried Shrimp with Garlic Sauce from The Breath of a Wok page 106, as the side dish. It was the perfect pairing. As usual, I had all of the ingredients chopped, minced and ready to fly, making it an easy and quick task once the wok was hot. I did run into a couple of things that didn't quite go as the recipe implied. For instance the mushrooms didn't absorb all of the liquid and to keep them from getting mushy I pulled some of the excess liquid out, continued on with the recipe and added the mushroom liquid back in at the end. Oh yum! There was one other thing that didn't quite work as the recipe said and I totally think it was the age of the product. The sugar snap peas took about 6 minutes to get tender instead of the 3 minutes and even then they were a little tough. But like I said I think the sugar snap peas that I used were older and therefore didn't cook up just right. I am having a problem finding local tender sugar snap peas, is it the time of year? I warmed it in the microwave the next day at work and had people asking me what that aroma was and did I really make it. LOL
Another great recipe from Stir-Frying to the Sky's Edge. Wok On! GG

WokWednesday: Chinese Trinidadian Stir Fry Shrimp with Rum

Recipe at: http://www.bigredkitchen.com

This is the third recipe from Stir-Frying to the Sky's Edge and I am enjoying every minute of cooking my way through this amazing cook book. I must say that I own all three of Grace Young's cookbooks and they are my favorite reading material. The amount of information that she shares hold my interest as I love hearing all of the stories about her family and the origin of the recipes contained in each of the books.
The flavor and aroma that emits from the Chinese Trinidadian Stir Fry Shrimp with Rum recipe is absolutely amazing and the taste puts it all over the edge.
I didn't know what to make of the ketchup and rum sauce since I really do not do much cooking with wine or liquor of any kind. I quickly changed my mind about using the rum because the flavor was so intense and seemed to linger on my taste buds.
I love preparing all of the ingredients, lining them up on the counter and then executing the stir frying technique. With the addition of each ingredient the aromas kept getting more and more intense.
I am always amazed at how the simple combination of ingredients that now preside in my pantry can deliver such a flavor intense dish within minutes.
I served it with sticky white rice which surely made for the perfect canvas for this work of art.
My wok is coming along nicely. I have been making it a point to cook almost everything in it. The patina is developing and the non stick surface is now present.

Wok Wednesday: Chinese Burmese Chili Chicken

Wok Wednesday: Chinese Burmese Chili Chicken


It was kind of a late dinner for our Wok Wednesday experience so I am posting my experience on Thursday.


Okay this recipe was delicious but I have to tell you that when I added the fish sauce I was having second thoughts. I literally had to put the aroma (?) out of my mind so that I could enjoy eating my efforts. The dish was delicious and I was able to easily get beyond the stigma of the fish sauce.


Because there was a lot of prep work I actually took off from work a few hours earlier then normal so I could come home and get all the prep work competed before our evening errands. When we got home from our errands all I had to do was stir fry and we all know how fast that goes. there isn't a finer site then seeing all of the ingredients lined up in the order they are added to the Wok.


I did make on slight change to the recipe. I couldn't find zucchini in the store I was in (I know, huh?) so I bought a package of Gray Squash. It looked sort of like zucchini and I love all kinds of squash, so I decided to go with it. I was pleasantly surprised that it that cooked up just like zucchini and took on the flavors of the recipe nicely, oh did I mention they were very affordable.


My husband ate the leftovers, the next best thing about stir-fry, for his lunch today and loved it.


Looking forward to the Trinidad Shrimp dish in a couple of weeks, in the meantime I am woking everything that crosses it's path. Watch out Layla (our Lab) just kidding of course.


Thanks go to Cathy for hosting the event, I loved your blog and the photos that went with it.

Layla oh Layla

Layla oh Layla what a joy you have brought to our family, human and critter alike. I can hardly believe you are turning 2 years old next month.
I'll never forget how I first heard about Layla. Actually it wasn't Layla I heard about, it was a free Labrador that I heard about. It was in October of 2010 and I was in Fawnskin Ca for a weekend of family time. Maryann, Tim and I got to the cabin ahead of the others. While we were waiting for the others to get there, we were hanging out on the deck and drinking a little wine. Tim asked me if we wanted a Labrador, he went on to tell me that one of his students had Labrador's that they were giving away and he thought they had a chocolate and a yellow lab. I couldn't believe my ears but at the same time I was thinking that we couldn't have a Labrador when we had 3 dogs at home already but it was fun to dream. When Todd got to the cabin the next day I told him about the free Lab and we both dreamed about it a little, then decided that we couldn't possibly have another dog.
After our fabulous weekend with family, we  went about our work week but we couldn't stop thinking about the free Lab so we called Tim and he got us the contact information for the family that had the Labs. We made several attempts to contact the family but we were not having any luck. We figured it was a sign that we really shouldn't be getting another dog. Well we persisted and finally set up a date to see the puppies on the way home from work.
Imagine our surprise when we pulled up in front of the house and there was another couple there looking at the dogs. Mind you, up until now we thought we were coming to look at a yellow lab but we were very surprised to see there was a yellow and a chocolate lab playing in the yard with their parents who looked like the perfect specimen of a Labrador. Luckily while we were getting out of the car the couple were getting into theirs to leave. We spent the next hour visiting with the family and playing with the puppies. Needless to say we left with a new puppy.
We toyed with different names for Layla. For a brief period we were calling her Muddy (as in Muddy Waters and she was brown after all) then we tried B.B. Queen (that shouldn't need explanation) and we finally settled on Layla. Her family had been calling her Lola and her sister Layla so she was used to hearing that name and took to it right away.
Needless to say Layla is fitting in with all of our family of critters and humans alike.
Happy Birthday lovely Layla and may we have soooo many more with you.