Crispy Spicy Salt And Pepper Shrimp

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This is one of the recipes I created after eating a crispy salt & pepper shrimp at a restaurant in Houston, TX a couple of decades ago. Most recently, I was having dinner with my son at a different restaurant in Seattle, WA and found a similar dish - which was equally good, but I still don't think it was as tasty and full of flavor as my revised version. In fact, and I'm not bragging, but I knew when I ordered it from the Seattle restuarant, it would not be tastier than mine. Now both of the restaurants had the salty and pepper flavor but then each had the aftertaste of the oil. For my version, after the initial hit of the saltiness and the mild sting of the pepper, you get a hint with the sweetness of the yellow onion, the sharpness of the green (spring) onion, followed by that punch of the slight jalapeño heat and finally, the spiciness of the red pepper flakes and then the longer lasting heat from the thinly sliced slivers of Serrano peppers leaving you begging for more. I mean, why would you want to drop your guest's taste buds off at a oily spot when instead their taste buds could be dancing with delight and pure joy.
Of course, after eating the version in Houston and then going home to replicate it, it took me several attempts before I found the flavor where the shrimp were pleading and begging to go. Since then, I've only made very slight tweaks to the recipe as I've been told by friends who have been fortunate to try my version of this classic Asian dish "you change it and you die". Because I really didn't want to die, I left my final creation alone.
A few things to note about this recipe is to pay attention to the heat of your oil as this was the biggest challenging area during my refinement stage. One of the reasons I had so many, and I do literally mean many, revisions were because I didn't (and still don't) have a liquid thermometer, which would have told me if the cooking oil were not hot enough or were too hot before putting in that first shrimp.
Another key part of the cooking process (probably the most important key) is making sure not to drench the shrimp into the flour mixture too far in advance of frying them. The optimal time for dredging your shrimp in the flour is when you are ready for cooking it. By letting the flour sit on the shrimp, the flour becomes pasty on the shrimp which later in the frying process causes a major separation between the shrimp and the oil. This becomes quickly noticeable as the shrimp gets placed in the oil. The separation between the flour and the protein becomes real ugly and messy, which is kind of like a divorce involving kids and property, resulting in the shrimp and flour marriage no longer be appealing to your eyes or your mouth, and should be just thrown away and started over. I wouldn't even feed it to the homeless community as they would pass on it due to the shrimp's lack of flavor and the not so crispy texture of the flour paste.
Okay, may it's not that dramatic, but it's pretty hard to salvage if the frying process does not seal the flour to the protein. Below is the tried and true cooking method of how I landed on the final version of my crispy, spicy, salt & pepper shrimp.
Ingredients:
1 LB shrimp (deveined and trimmed - horn, antenas, legs cut off)
2-3 jalapeños (cut into rounds)
1/2 yellow onion (sliced into wedges)
1 stalk of green onions (cut on a diagonal)
3-4 cloves of garlic (finely minced)
1-2 teaspoons fresh ginger (finely minced)
1/2 teaspoon of red pepper flakes (add more if you like heat)
1/2 Serrano pepper (thinly sliced) [optional for additional heat]
salt & pepper (about 2 teaspoons each)
Pre Cooking Directions
1. heat oil in a frying pan / deep fryer (test heat by sprinkling in a pinch of flour. When it fries up immediately, it 's good and ready
2. lightly flour the cleaned and trimmed shrimp
Cooking Directions
1. Fry the flour coated shrimp in small batches (3 or 4 at a time) until they are golden brown. Ensure the shrimp are not crowded
2. In a wok or frying pan, heat 1 tablespoon of oil
3. Add a handful of onion wedges (about 1/4 of an onion) - cook for about 30 seconds and stir
3. Add teaspoon each of garlic and ginger - cook for about 30 seconds to bring out the aromatic and stir to keep the garlic from burning
4. Add a pinch (1/2 teaspoon) of red pepper flakes (to activate the heat) and stir
5. Add cooked shrimp and stir
6. Add jalapeño rounds and stir (add enough to your liking)
7. Add 1/2 teaspoon minced Serrano peppers (optional for that additional kick)
8. Add teaspoon each of salt and fresh ground pepper and stir. Add additional teaspoon if you like it saltier and more peppery.
9. Serve immediately as a snack, appetizer, or part of a meal.
Enjoy this Crispy, Spicy, Salt & Pepper goodness!!