This past week I made Peel-and-Eat Shrimp with Garlic, Scallions, and Chiles from J. Kenji Lopez-Alt’s The Wok cookbook.

No new ingredients to this recipe, but it introduces a brine preparation for stir-fried shrimp. It’s supposed to keep the shrimp plump and firm during the cooking. Optional for the recipe is the Soy and Fragrant Oil Dipping Sauce, which I also made.

The stir-fry is very straightforward: a ton of garlic, a hot green chile, and the brined shrimp.

I thought the shrimp were good, but it is hard to go wrong with shrimp. Not a whole lot of flavor came through from the garlic and chile. My family is from the North Carolina coast and we are not strangers to boiled shrimp dinners where everyone is peeling their own shrimp. While your hands get messy peeling shrimp regardless, the oil-stir-fried shrimp left a greasiness on my hands that I don’t experience with the water-boiled shrimp.

The real star of the dinner was the Soy and Fragrant Oil Dipping Sauce, and my wife agreed. My daughter ate several of the shrimp so long as I peeled them for her. My son opted not to try them.

I am cooking my way through J. Kenji Lopez-Alt’s The Wok cookbook. Read more about it.