The Sinosphere · Volume 29, The Delta, the Salt Road and the Mountain Behind It
Longjing xiaren, Longjing tea shrimp
Hangzhou
An illustration of the dish, not a photograph of it cooked.
- Time
- 45 minutes
- Reviewed
- Not yet reviewed from inside the tradition
- Cooked
- Not yet cooked and reported
Hangzhou. Tea as a genuine cooking ingredient, not a garnish, and a dish that only works at real speed.
As tradition built it
Serves 2 to 4. 45 minutes, mostly marinating.
Ingredients
- 300 g small river shrimp (or small UK shell-on prawns), peeled
- 1/4 tsp salt, 1 egg white, a pinch of chicken bouillon powder, 1 tbsp cornstarch salt, egg white, a little chicken bouillon, cornstarch
- 1 tsp tea leaves, steeped in 60 ml hot water Longjing tea, brewed, leaves reserved
- 1 tbsp Shaoxing wine
Method
- Butterfly the shrimp along the back to remove the digestive vein, rinse until the flesh runs pale, and drain thoroughly.
- Marinate around 30 minutes in salt, egg white, a little chicken bouillon and cornstarch.
- "Oil-pass" the shrimp: fry briefly at low-to-medium oil temperature for around 15 seconds, just until jade-white, then drain immediately.
- Bring a wok to very high heat. Add the shrimp back in with the brewed Longjing tea, both liquid and some whole leaves, and the Shaoxing wine.
- Toss through very quickly, seconds rather than minutes, and serve immediately.
What a modern chef changes
Tea grade and timing, both taken seriously.
Rung 4
Method
- Use genuine pre-Qingming Longjing with a verifiable origin label (see Sourcing, below), not a generic supermarket green tea sold under the same name; the whole dish depends on a fragrance a poor-grade tea does not carry.
- Time the oil-pass with a stopwatch, not by feel, since a few seconds either way is the difference between jade-white and overcooked.
- Reserve a small amount of the steeped tea liquid separately and add it only in the last five seconds of the toss, protecting its aroma from the wok's heat rather than letting it cook off through the whole stir-fry.