{"id":2765,"date":"2014-10-03T10:38:45","date_gmt":"2014-10-03T14:38:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/picklesandtea\/?p=2765"},"modified":"2014-10-03T10:46:57","modified_gmt":"2014-10-03T14:46:57","slug":"tangy-tomato-shrimp","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/picklesandtea\/tangy-tomato-shrimp\/","title":{"rendered":"Happy 5th Birthday “The Asian Grandmothers Cookbook” and a Recipe for Tangy Tomato Shrimp"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"paperback2\"<\/a><\/p>\n

This October, my other baby,\u00a0The Asian Grandmothers Cookbook<\/a><\/em> turns 5!<\/p>\n

It\u2019s been a crazy ride. The hardback has sold out and the paperback is well on its way. (Nonetheless, I\u2019d be ever so grateful if you helped me out with this :)).<\/p>\n

To celebrate, I\u2019d like to highlight recipes that haven\u2019t gotten enough love. You know what I mean–those recipes that never see life beyond the printed page. But that’s just how it is. When a cookbook has over 100 recipes (mine has 130), it\u2019s hard to sift out the gems. Photographs often help\u2014I find I\u2019m more likely to try a recipe with a photo, a good one of course!\u2014as does luscious language or offbeat ingredient combinations.<\/p>\n

I’d like to remedy that. For the next 4 weeks, I\u2019ll be showcasing\u00a0under-the-radar recipes that deserve the spotlight and ones that I make for my family time and again. If you have my cookbook, dig it out and\u00a0cook along with me.\u00a0If not, I hope you\u2019ll considering purchasing a copy<\/a>\u00a0for yourself or a friend!<\/p>\n

We all love sweet and sour pork but have you tried sweet and sour shrimp? May Leong\u2019s take on this perennial favorite has a sweet story behind it too. No deep-frying is involved (phew) and since shrimp cooks in minutes, this is an ideal weeknight meal! I like to add frozen peas for color and to satisfy my veggie fixation. Plus, I use peeled shrimp because my husband has a phobia of using his fingers in any stage of the dining process.<\/p>\n

Enjoy!<\/p>\n

~~~<\/p>\n

Tangy Tomato Shrimp<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

From The Asian Grandmothers Cookbook–Home Cooking from Asian American Kitchens (Sasquatch Books, 2009)<\/em><\/a>, Pg 214<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Photo<\/a>

Photo credit: Lara Ferroni<\/a><\/p><\/div>\n

By cooking the shrimp in their shells, all the moisture is preserved and the shrimp meat remains nice and plump. For Hong Kong-born May Leong and her family, the fun part of eating this dish is licking the sauce off each shrimp before peeling. This way you taste the sweet juice of the shrimp mingled with the tangy sauce. When May was growing up, her Cantonese mother, Oi Yee Leong, cooked a variety of dishes and May couldn\u2019t tell the Chinese dishes apart from the others. She thought corned beef and cabbage was a Chinese dish until she met her Irish husband! Only then did she realize her mom must have gotten the recipe from one of their former Irish neighbors. This dish is one of the few Chinese-influenced dishes May remembers learning from her mom before she passed away in 1984 at the tender age of forty-four.<\/p>\n

Time: 30 minutes
\nMakes: 6 to 8 servings as part of a multicourse family-style meal<\/p>\n

3 tablespoons vegetable oil, divided
\n1 large yellow onion, sliced into 8 wedges and separated
\n4 medium ripe tomatoes, each cut into 8 wedges
\n3 cloves garlic, minced (1 tablespoon)
\n2 to 2-1\/2 pounds unpeeled medium (36\/40 count) shrimp, deveined
\n1-1\/2 teaspoons salt
\n1\/4 cup ketchup
\n2 tablespoons sugar
\n1\/2 cup rice vinegar<\/p>\n