Skinny and full of flavor Chinese ketchup shrimp—a sister dish to Shanghai style oil fried shrimp.
In order to distinguish with sweet and sour tastes created by vinegar and sugar, any dish using ketchup is called as 茄汁. For example this ketchup shrimp is called 茄汁虾. It is a super easy dish with just basic Chinese home cooking ingredients. But it has a well-balanced flavor with the help of the three solids stones of Chinese cuisine: ginger, garlic and scallion.
I know that some of you may feel it is quite ode as I did not remove the shells and heads. Chinese dishes never bothered by shells and bones. We get two main reasons to keep the shells. Firstly, it enhances the flavor, which can be proven by Chinese shrimp oil (oil fried with shrimp shells). Secondly, it works as a protector to prevent the meat from overcooking.
To enjoy the shrimp, firstly you can taste the shell. Suck the sauce on the shell carefully and then remove the shell, take the meat out, roll it in the sauce in the serving pan and enjoy. It is not fancy!! I know, I know. But great tastes sometimes need prices just like another popular Chinese ingredient–chicken feet.
How to devein shrimp with shells and heads
Firstly use a kitchen shear to trim off the legs and the sharp part at the top of the head.
Use a toothpick to pick the devein part out. Then remove the dark part in the heads too. You can watch the video for the process.
To make this Chinese ketchup shrimp stir-fry, you will need
400g shrimp (around 25g middle size shrimp)
1 cup oil, for frying
2 scallions, white part and green part separated
1 tablespoon ShaoHsing wine
1 tablespoon light soy sauce
1 and 1/2 tablespoon ketchup
1/2 cup warm chicken broth or warm water
1 teaspoon sugar
salt to taste
Use a toothpick to pick the devein part out. Then remove the dark part in the heads too. Wash carefully and then drain completely. Use kitchen paper if necessary.
Heat oil in a deep pan until really hot; add shrimp in to fry 15 seconds. They should turn red quickly. Transfer shrimp out and pour off extra oil.
Leave in 1 tablespoon of oil, fry garlic, ginger and scallion over slow fire until aroma. Add ketchup and broth. Mix well.Return shrimp, add sugar, light soy sauce and ShaoHsing wine.
Continue cook for 2-3 minutes until the sauce is well thickened (with large bubbles) and stick to the shrimp like the picture below. Add salt to taste and scallion sections.
- 400 g shrimp , around 25g middle size shrimp
- 1 cup oil , for frying
- 2 scallions , white part and green part separated
- 1 tbsp. ShaoHsing wine
- 1 tbsp. light soy sauce
- 1.5 tbsp. ketchup
- 1/2 cup warm chicken broth or warm water
- 1 tsp. sugar
- salt to taste
- 1 thumb ginger , sliced
- 2 cloves garlic , peel and sliced
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Use a toothpick to pick the devein part out. Then remove the dark part in the heads too. Wash carefully and then drain completely. Use kitchen paper if necessary.
-
Heat oil in a deep pan until really hot; add shrimp in to fry 15 seconds. They should turn red quickly. Transfer shrimp out and pour off extra oil.
-
Leave in 1 tablespoon of oil, fry garlic, ginger and scallion over slow fire until aroma. Add ketchup and broth. Mix well.
-
Return shrimp, add sugar,light soy sauce and ShaoHsing wine. Continue cook for 2-3 minutes until the sauce is well thickened and stick to the shrimp. Add salt to taste and scallion sections.
Recipe Video
hi~Elaine very nice blog!
i fell so prond of you~
and i’m kellyhu
can i get a online interview for you?
Hi Kelly,
Sorry for the late reply. I am just back from the National Holiday. I will contact you soon via webchat.
Hi Elaine,
maybe this is a silly question, but here it goes. I assume that you can get ketchup from one of the global brands like Kraft, Knorr and Heinz in China, too. Is this what you are using or is there some special Chinese brand Ketchup that tastes differently? I’m asking because in my supermarket there is a variety of ketchup brands about half of them from local suppliers which often differ considerably in sweetness, sourness and well.. “tomatoness”.
Andreas
That’s good question, Andreas. There are several ketchup brands in China too, either local or international. I am using Heinz recently and that’s the one I used in this recipe.
Dear e:-) Elaine
You are so wonderful. Today I will cook the catch up shrimp. Thank you so very much
I have been fallowing you for the longest time, and everything comes out perfect
Thanks again
Nice to hear that Susana.Happy cooking!
I love this dish. And I like it extra saucy so I will add a lot more ketchup. And my favorite flavor ketchup is Heinz jalapeño ketchup. Yum,,
Enjoy!
Hi Elaine thank you for posting this!
Btw, I see you require ginger and garlic for the recipe, what quantity is required and how to prepare? Thanks!
I already updated the recipe with the amount of garlic and ginger. Thanks very much for the correctness.