Salt and Pepper Shrimp - Imperial Valley Style
I eat Chinese food once or twice a year and that's plenty. I like it but not that much. Imagine moving last year from a place that had several excellent Chinese restaurants that served my favorite Salt and Pepper Shrimp to a place where there is one Chinese restaurant and it pretty much sucks eggs (and don't even get me started on Mexican food up here)!
What was I going to do about my biannual Chinese food fix? Make my own.
I searched the internet for Salt and Pepper Shrimp recipes and found many, many variations, but none like the one I wanted.
So, here is my version of Imperial Valley Salt and Pepper Shrimp. There are so few ingredients that it's hard to mess up and it tasted excellent... right up there with what I could get in the Valley.
Start by slicing up some green onions and hot yellow peppers into rings. I imagine the Mexican influence in Southern California is how this dish came to be prepared with chiles. Put them in a hot pan with some vegetable oil for just a few minutes. Thaw a pound of shrimp and toss them in a little cornstarch laced with lots of freshly ground black pepper. Add the shrimp to the pan and cook for 3 to 4 minutes until the shrimp are cooked.
Serve over white rice with soy or teriyaki sauce. Because of the black pepper and sliced chiles (don't remove the seeds) this is a very spicy dish... just the way I like it!
