Recipe: Ketchup Prawns

I am sincerely glad that M and I have such varied tastes. Indian, fusion, Chinese, Italian, Greek, Japanese, Afghan - we've had it and we love it all.

As I've said before, I just don't get people who don't like food. Even as a child, I loved food - my favourite foods included my mothers' pillowy soft water-steamed eggs mixed into steamed rice, and steamed broccoli and cauliflower. Yes! I was a four-year-old who loved broccoli!

Since we've been living together for a while, various family and friends have been pushing us to get married, with the ultimate result of having children. I am all for getting married, and I am all for having children, but logically, I realize that our current financial states might not allow us to do this soon.

On an irrational level, part of me fears that I'll have children that don't like food! Or rather, what if they don't like my food? Or even worse, what if they have some crazy food allergy that doesn't allow them to enjoy all the foods that we enjoy???!

yes....my brain is like that.

I came across a Chopstick Recipe for Ketchup Prawns last night. Of course, I just *had* to make it. It conjured up memories of my mothers' ketchup prawns, with their sweet, vinegary and salty flavour - and after all, all kids like ketchup right?

Ahhh. Yes....one day my kids will like ketchup prawns. My ketchup prawns.

Ingredients
2 T oil
5 slices ginger
1 green onion, cut into 2" sections
1 shallot, sliced
3 garlic cloves, smashed



~1/2 pound black tiger shrimp (I used 21/25 sized shrimp, thus I ended up with about 12 good-sized shrimp), peeled and deveined

2 T cooking wine
1/4 c water
3 T ketchup
1 T vinegar
1 t sugar
1/2 t salt
pepper to taste
1/4 t cornstarch

Method
In a medium sized pan, heat oil over medium high heat. Saute ginger, garlic, shallot and onion until fragrant.

Add shrimp and cook for 2-3 minutes. Flip over; deglaise with cooking wine. Allow to reduce slightly, then add water, ketchup, vinegar, sugar, salt and pepper to taste. Stir ingredients around in the pan until sauce thickens slightly and shrimp are cooked through (orange and no longer translucent). Dissolve 1/4 t of cornstarch in a teaspoon of water. Add to pan slowly, stirring until a thin glaze is formed.



Plate and serve.

I liked this, simply because it was kind of a nostalgic recipe. Although, if I were to do it over again, I'd make it more "adult" and add some piri-piri or Sambal Oolek hot sauce! (I'm kind of on a spicy sauce binge right now. Can you tell? :) I would also take out some of the sugar as I found it slightly sweet for my tastes (although I'm sure kids would LOVE the sugar), and I would also decrease the amount of water and cornstarch solution that I used. I'm just not a huge fan of cornstarch.

But. There you go. Nostalgic food.

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