SHRIMP AND BROCCOLI IN BROWN SAUCE
This is definitely a takeout style copy cat recipe. It is very easy to put together on a week night (if you have all the ingredients) and even easier if you have leftover already cooked broccoli, as I did. One thing the recipe itself does not direct you to do, although it is strongly suggested in the write-up preceding the recipe, is prepping the shrimp with some baking soda, salt, and sugar before blanching. I skipped this (and actually ended up doing a quick, off recipe marinade of sherry, soy sauce, and cornstarch, so I could just proceed to stir frying - I gave it a partial cook and removed it from my wok and proceeded with the recipe as written).
With the simplicity of this recipe in terms of ingredients, everything really does benefit from taking the time to:
- clean and blanch (or pass through oil) the shrimp
- blanch the broccoli
- have all ingredients, including sauce and cornstarch slurry ready to go
- have your rice ready
If you used leftover broccoli like I did, the texture will suffer, but you pick your battles (and how many pans you want to deal with) on a weeknight.
Use a light hand with the cornstarch slurry. I added a touch too much and needed to thin the sauce with a little water and add a little salt to even out my seasonings.
Consider increasing the white pepper a touch and adding some fresh ginger slivers to the garlic in the recipe. It takes it away from the full on “takeout” flavor, but gives the overall profile some oomph (IMHO). The Chinese Cooking Demystified Substack (and video) include ginger in their version (and it is a great explainer about qian, the technique of thickening a sauce with a starch slurry).
