Vietnamese Salt and Pepper Crispy Shrimp

• Gluten free

• Seafood

  • 1/2 lb Prawns

• Produce

  • 3 cloves Garlic
  • 1/2 Jalapeno
  • 1 Lemon or lime, wedges
  • 1/4 Red onion
  • 2 Scallions, green

• Baking & Spices

  • 1 tsp Five-spice powder
  • 1/2 cup Give or take corn starch or potato starch
  • 2 tsp Kosher salt
  • 2 tsp Pepper, fresh ground
  • 1 tsp Sugar

• Oils & Vinegars

  • 1 drizzle Oil

Found on honestcooking.com

Description

Ingredients

• ½ lb prawns, with head on, or in our case, large shrimp, cleaned/deveined, careful to keep shell on
• 2 tsp kosher salt
• 2 tsp fresh ground pepper
• 1 tsp five spice powder
• 1 tsp sugar
• ½ cup give or take corn starch or potato starch
• 3 cloves of garlic, minced
• ½ jalapeño, sliced
• ¼ red onion, diced
• 2 green scallions, sliced on the diagonal
• drizzle of oil
• lemon or lime wedges, optional

Directions

• first, preheat oven to highest it’ll go, broil or in my case, 550F.
• next, prep everything and have all the ingredients ready to go. clean/devein the shrimp. there were some shrimps that lost their shell because i was a little indelicate but it was a price i was willing to pay to not eat poop. wandering chopsticks has a pic tutorial you can refer to. pat dry the shrimp.
• dry roast the salt, ground pepper and 5 spice powder. (NOTE: you will not be using ALL of the blend in this recipe). set aside to cool. when cool, mix in the sugar.
• line a shallow cookie sheet with foil or parchment paper. if using foil, oil it. dust the shrimp with potato or corn starch. or you can do it my lazy way, holding by the tail, dip the shrimp into the starch and shake semi-vigorously to let loose excess powder. lay on the prepared sheet. broil in oven for TWO MINUTES.
• meanwhile, in a frying pan, heat up a drizzle of oil on medium high. sauté the garlic, onion, green scallions and jalapeño. you’re aiming for fragrance, not so much burning or caramelization. this can be anywhere from 3-5 minutes. which means, in the middle of this sautéing you’re doing, you need to take the shrimp out of the oven. make haste. set aside the shrimp. when the onions and garlic have softened, add in the shrimp. WORK QUICKLY. sprinkle the shrimp with a few teaspoons of the salt/sugar/pepper/five spice mixture. (i ended up using 3 teaspoons, season to your taste). gently mix everything, heating the shrimp through. REMOVE from heat. this step should take 2 minutes, 3 minutes TOPS.
• the end result should be on the dry side, unless you’re like me and gpa and got a little generous with the drizzle of oil.
• serve with lemon or lime wedges.