I've been making this dish for probably 40 years, and it's a staple of our Christmas menu. About 30 years ago we had a favorite restaurant in Pasadena, called Panda Inn, and they called it "Spicy Shrimp with Cashew." They had the freshest shrimp, and they had a way of deveining them that caused them to shrink into a spiral when cooked, and it was just delicious. So I took my recipe that came from a very, very old Better Homes and Gardens cookbook, and worked on it until it closely approximated what we remembered from Panda.
As an aside, Panda Inn was the original restaurant of chef Ming-Tsai Cherng and his son Andrew. Andrew knew us well, since we ordered take-out every Friday night for years. Steve would call and Andrew would recognize his voice and say, "the usual," which was double orders of Spicy Shrimp with Cashews, Assorted Pan-Fried Noodles, Hot Burned Pork, Pot Stickers, and Szechwan chicken. We were particularly addicted to the Hot Burned Pork, which has disappeared from their menu, and I can't find a recipe anywhere, so if anyone out there knows how to make it, please, please let me know. Anyway, Andrew was the businessman, and he came up with the idea of expanding in a very controlled way. That resulted in the Panda Express fast food restaurants that you're undoubtedly familiar with. We find that if you get the dishes right after they come out of the wok, they're every bit as good as what we remember from Pasadena. Like any food, the longer it sits in a steam table, the less tasty it gets. Oh well.
KUNG PAO SHRIMP
Prep time:
20 minutes
Cooking time: 10 minutes
Cooking Sauce:
3 Tablespoons soy sauce
1 ½ Tablespoons rice wine
vinegar
1 ½ Tablespoons Chinese rice
wine
4 Tablespoons water
1 Tablespoon cornstarch
Marinade:
1 1/2 Tablespoons Chinese
rice wine
1 ½ Tablespoons cornstarch
3/4 teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon white pepper
1 ½ Tablespoons canola oil
2 lb medium shrimp, shelled
and deveined
4 Tablespoons canola oil,
divided
6-8 small, dry, hot chile
peppers
1 1/2 cup raw cashews
salt
1 ½ teaspoons minced garlic
1 ½ teaspoons minced ginger
3 whole scallions, cut in 1”
lengths
Prepare the sauce. In a bowl, combine
cooking sauce ingredients and set aside.
Marinate Shrimp. In a bowl, combine wine, cornstarch, salt and pepper. Add shrimp and stir to coat, then stir
in the Tablespoon of oil and let stand for 15 minutes to marinate.
Stir-fry cashews. Heat a wok or wide frying pan over
medium heat. When pan is hot, add
1 Tablespoon of the oil. Add whole
peppers and cashews and cook, stirring, until peppers just begin to char. (If peppers become completely black,
discard. Remove cashews from the
pan and repeat with new peppers.)
Remove from pan, salt, and set aside.
The dish:
Add remaining 2 Tablespoons oil to pan and increase heat to high. When oil begins to heat, add garlic and
ginger. Stir once, then add shrimp
and stir-fry until they turn pink, about 2 minutes. Add peppers, cashews, and scallions to pan. Stir cooking sauce, add to pan, and
cook, stirring, until sauce bubbles and thickens. Be sure to turn it out into a serving dish immediately to stop the cooking.
Serves 6.
