Shrimp Stir Fry with Bok Choy and Mushrooms
The classic combination of baby Bok Choy and mushrooms is made better with shrimp in a tangy sauce. The secret to great shrimp stir-fry is brining the shrimp briefly before cooking, then stir-frying the components separately so nothing is overcooked.

Ever wonder why shrimp tastes so much better in good Chinese and Asian restaurants? Some of it is the chef's skill, but it is also the techniques used. Most Chinese restaurants brine their shrimp ahead of time so that it stays plump and juicy and is more flavorful. This brine is nothing more than a little sugar, salt, and baking soda an it takes as little as an hour to get a very nice effect (although you can brine shrimp overnight). It is one of the secrets of a great stir-fry.
Secrets to Great Stir-Fry
Brining Shrimp
As stated above, brining your shrimp for an hour up to overnight can help improve its taste and texture. This is especially true for shrimp that have been in the freezer a while or areof lesser quality. Here is an inconvenient truth for seafood snobs: a farmed shrimp that is brined tastes better than a wild shrimp that has not. Brining is one of the best ways to save money on shrimp.
The brine recipe is simple:
1 Tablespoon of Kosher salt
2 Tablespoons of sugar
1 teaspoon of baking soda
1 cup of cold water
Some ice.
1 to 2 pounds of peeled, deveined shrimp
Mix everything together and refrigerate your shrimp for at least an hour or up to overnight. When you are ready to cook them, pour off the brine and add several cups of cool water. Swirl the shrimp around to rinse lightly and pour off the water. Dry the shrimp lightly with paper towels. The shrimp is now ready to stir fry. If you have frozen shrimp that is peeled and deveined already, just mix everything up frozen and put it in the refrigerator for a couple of hours (at least). If your shrimp is shell-on, thaw and peel the shrimp before brining it.
A word on shrimp for stir-fry: Many retailers sell very good large shrimp for right

around $5-6 per pound. If you brine, this shrimp is more than good enough for this recipe. Aldi has a very good large shrimp, as do Walmart, Wild Fork Foods, Costco, and Sam's Club. Buy your shrimp raw (never cooked), and if you don't mind peeling it yourself, it is better quality. In the US, these modest shrimp now sell for around the price of a pound of ground beef. It is easy to treat your family to a great stir fry.
Cooking Components Separately
Once you have brined your shrimp to perfection, the other secret to great stir-fry is to not overcook it. When I look at stir-fry recipes online, I notice that about half are overcooked in the photos, and some are grossly overcooked. If you like crunchy

and crisp stir-fry, avoid overcooking any of the components. The easiest way to do this is to cook the elements separately and combine at the end. After you make this recipe a few times, you can try timing the cooking of the elements together so that they are all perfectly done simultaneously. But that is quite hard to do, and the first few times, cook the components separately. This can be done in one wok, with no additional clean-up. Even after you have mastered cooking times, cook your shrimp separately and set aside until the other components are ready, and add it back in at the end. Shrimp is the easiest element to overcook and it is so disappointing when shrimp is dry and stringy.
A Good Stir Fry Sauce
The next secret to a good stir-fry is to have a good basic stir-fry sauce made ahead of time and ready to go. I love the following recipe:
1/2 c. of chicken stock
1 1/2 T. soy sauce
1 t. dark soy (just use more regular soy if you can't find this)
2 t. oyster sauce
1 t. Chinese cooking wine, mirin, or other good cooking wine
1 t. sesame oil
1 t. brown sugar
1 T. cornstarch
Lots of white pepper (black pepper will do)
If you like spice, add dried pepper of some sort.
If you like a hotter sauce or one that tastes more Southeast Asian, swap out fish sauce for the dark soy and add some sambal obelek, siracha, or other chile paste.
Shop at Your Local Asian Grocery
If possible, shop for Bok Choy and the sauce ingredients at your local Asian grocery. The cost is typically much less, and the quality, particularly of the produce, is much higher. I found baby Bok Choy for $3/pound the day before I cooked this recipe. You could pay much more at an upscale grocery and not get nearly as good a product. If you like stir fry, slowly accumulate dark soy, oyster sauce, hoisin sauce, fish sauce, sambal obelek, siracha, sesame oil, and rice vinegar so that you can experiment and make better stir-fry and other sauces.
Instructions
Brine your shrimp ahead of time and refrigerate. Cut the Bok choy into fourths and soak in cold water to remove all sand or impurities. Rinse well and dry the Bok choy with paper towels.
Make the stir-fry sauce and mix well. Set aside.
Heat one tablespoon of neutral cooking oil in a wok over high heat. Add the shrimp and cook until just before doneness, avoiding overcooking. If your wok is hot, a minute or two will be enough. Remove the shrimp and set aside.
Put another tablespoon of oil in and sear the baby Bok choy, a few pieces at a time. When the roots soften and have a bit of color, flip over and cook on the other side for a minute. Take out and set aside.
Heat another tablespoon of oil and reduce heat to medium-high. Add the garlic, ginger, and onions and stir-fry quickly until fragrant.
Add the peppers and cook for a minute or two until they have softened a little. Add the mushrooms and cook for a couple minutes more, until they have softened.
Add the reserved Bok choy. Pour the stir-fry sauce over everything and stir for a minute. Add the shrimp and cook for an additional 30 seconds until everything is warm. Serve over jasmine rice.
Note: I cook jasmine rice in the Instant Pot. Just rinse 2 cups of jasmine rice well and add it to the Instant Pot with 2 cups of water and a teaspoon of salt. Cook for 3 minutes and allow steam to escape naturally. Perfect jasmine rice in about 5 minutes.
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