Apple Veggie Shrimp Stir Fry

What You Need:

 

3 TBSP canola oil, divided
1 lb. shrimp, peeled and de-veined
2 Golden Delicious apples, cored and thinly sliced
1 C green onion, chopped
1 sweet  red pepper, seeded and cut into strips
1 (6 oz.) pkg. frozen snow peas, thawed
1/2 C cold water
1/4 C cider vinegar

1/3 C firmly packed brown sugar
4 tsp. cornstarch
1 TBSP soy sauce
1 tsp. ground ginger

 

How to Make It:

 

Place 1 TBSP of canola oil in to a large skillet over high heat.

Heat until the oil is hot but not smoking.

Add the shrimp and stirring constantly cook 2 minutes or until the shrimp turns pink.

Place the shrimp in a bowl and set off to the side.

Place another TBSP of the oil into the skillet and allow to heat.

Add the apple slices and stirring continuously cook 1 minute.

Remove and place in the bowl with the shrimp.

Pour the last TBSP of oil into the skillet and heat again.

Add the onion, pepper and snow peas.

Stirring continuously cook for 2 minutes.

Place in the bowl with the shrimp.

Combine the water and vinegar together in a bowl being sure to stir well.

Add the brown sugar, cornstarch, soy sauce and ginger.

Mix well being sure all the ingredients is incorporated together.

Pour into the heated skillet.

Stirring continuously bring the mixture to a boil.

Continue cooking until the sauce thickens to your liking.

Add the shrimp ingredients to the skillet once the sauce has thickened.

Place the heat on low and continue cooking 6 minutes or until completely heated through.

 

Serves 4

 

Place over Chow Mien noodles before serving for that perfect Chinese meal 

Where to Find Chinese Recipes

Finding Chinese recipes is usually pretty easy. Chinese food is loved all around the world and many people are more than willing to pass on their favorite recipes.

These can be in cookbooks, on television shows, and on the Internet. If you are new to Chinese cooking, you might want to try out a few free recipes before spending any money on a new book though.

For a beginner who really wants to learn the basics of Chinese cooking and find some great and easy recipes, nothing can beat the Internet. There are tons of websites out there that have nothing but recipes for all kinds of cuisine.

Many are specially geared toward Chinese food. Some might make you register with the site but most give you recipes for free. You can print them out or save them for when you are ready to start cooking.

Television is a great way to learn about Chinese recipes and what it takes to make them. The food networks get a lot of ratings with Chinese cooking shows and competitions.

The food is interesting to watch being made and always looks delicious. It can be hard to write down a recipe while watching someone cook it so a digital recorder can help make sure you dont miss anything.

The old fashioned way is sometimes the best way. A nice Chinese recipe cookbook can’t be beat most of the time. If you get a very large one, you can pick and choose from any Chinese dish you can imagine.

They often include common substitutions and cooking tips as well as helpful advice for the beginner.

Types of Chinese Recipes

Chinese recipes come in thousands of different varieties. Everyone has their favorite dish but every restaurant you go to will have a different recipe for it.

This can be a pain if you are trying to recreate it and you might have to try a couple different times to get it just right. The best recipes have been handed down through family lines and it may be hard to get them without shelling out some cash for a cookbook.

The standard types of Chinese recipes are rice, noodle, meat, seafood, and vegetable. There are also recipes that belong to the many different regions of China. Your Lo Mein in Beijing might taste nothing like your Lo Mein in Shanghai.

Regions play a very important role in different Chinese recipes. Many restaurants incorporate the various regions into their menu so you can get a feel for what is popular all over the different areas of China.

The Northern regions use more wheat and noodles as opposed to the Southern regions which use a lot of rice and rice flour in their dishes. China is a huge country so the climate in the North is much different than the South.

Spices play a key role in many types of Chinese recipes as well. A familiar spicy dish is the famous Kung Pao. Used with shrimp or chicken usually, this type of recipe is made with pepper sauce and the level of heat can vary.

Even with the regions and spices involved, Chinese recipes still usually are rice or noodle based and have a meat and vegetable accompanying or mixed with it. Soups and pancakes are an exception and are great recipes to try out.

Good Chinese Recipes for Beginners

Choosing a good Chinese recipe can be hard if you have never prepared much Chinese food in the past. With ingredients you may not be used to and cooking styles you are unfamiliar with, it might seem a little scary when looking through recipes.

Its best to start with something easy and fun unless you are an experienced cook or you know exactly what you want. If you absolutely love pot stickers, you might try making those.

For most people, the best Chinese recipes to start with are single course dishes. The easiest are usually rice, a few vegetables and one kind of meat.

If you get more complex than that, you might have too much going on at once and it can feel overwhelming. Its very easy to start some rice and cook your meal while the rice is cooking.

Rice usually takes about 20 minutes and it should take about that long to cut some meat and vegetables and get them cooking. Stir fry is the easiest thing to cook. Its basically meat and vegetables seared over high heat while stirring constantly.

When choosing a Chinese recipe, you should keep in mind how many people you are going to feed. If its just a meal for one or two, you can get a little fancier and try a couple different types of sauce.

If you are feeding kids, you cant go wrong with something familiar like sweet and sour chicken. If you try to serve up a bunch of Chinese bean pancakes, the kids might protest.

Its always best to start small and try something familiar.

Chinese Vegetable Recipes

Chinese vegetable recipes are very popular these days because everyone is always on a diet. With the right recipes on hand, you could easily drop a few pounds a month by eating delicious Chinese food a couple times a week.

Many people immediately think of things like bamboo shoots, water chestnuts, and bok choy. While these are common Chinese vegetables, not that many recipes use them.

They are just usually prepackaged in the frozen food section with anything that says Chinese on it. There are many more vegetables you can use to give your recipes a distinctly Chinese flavor.

Chinese cabbage is one of the best tasting and useful vegetables you can buy. Its not as tangy or large as normal cabbage and has a great flavor.

You can use this in salads, soups and stir fry to add a more authentic Chinese taste and look to your food or improve any standard Chinese recipe. It doesnt hold up well under high heat so it should always be added last.

A great way to make your Chinese recipe really special is to add a handful of fresh snow pea pods. These are very sweet and are commonly found in soups like won ton. They can really add something special to any stir fry and go great with seafood.

Every grocery store has a section that will have some Chinese vegetables. If you like the taste of ginger, it can be used to spice up almost any recipe you have.

It can be overpowering though. You will also see many things that look like leeks and green onions. If you dont know what they are, it doesnt hurt to buy some, take it home and find a recipe for it. You might find a new favorite vegetable!

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