In The Kitchen: HONEY WALNUT SHRIMP

This is by far one of my favorite dishes to order at a Chinese restaurant.  I admittedly always wince slightly at the price because it's always one of the more expensive items however you can make your own home version for a fraction of the cost!

Ingredients:

1/2 cup water
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup walnuts
1 lb. Shrimp
1 egg
2/3 cup cornstarch
Oil
2 Tbsp Lite Mayo
2 Tbsp Honey
2 Tbsp Condensed Milk
1/2 Tbsp Lemon Juice

Bring water to boil and add in sugar and stir.

Keep stirring until the sugar turns golden colored and is slightly thick.

Add in your walnuts and give it a quick stir to make sure they are evenly coated

Once they are evenly coated take out, drain sugar and spread your walnuts on parchment paper.

Peel, de-vein  and wash your shrimp.

(Sidenote - I use frozen cooked shrimp.  So if you do too you'll want to defrost them first.  The reason I use frozen pre-cooked is they're really affordable.  Also frying breaded shrimp can be finicky.  When you deep fry the whole things cooks really well however when you're frying sometimes the outside cooks a lot faster then the inside.  And yes I've ended up with the outside burned and the inside still raw before lol!)

Pat the shrimp dry with paper towels and add in one egg and coat the shrimp evenly

To make the sauce combine your mayo, honey, condensed milk & lemon and stir together.  I like to prepare the sauce BEFORE I fry the shrimp - after you fry you have a very small window from when you finish frying and when the crispy shrimp will start to turn soggy.

 Take your shrimp with egg coating and coat both sides evenly with the cornstarch.

I like to prepare some paper towels on plates before I fry that way you'll be able to take your shrimp out and immediately plop them on the paper towels to soak up oil.

Heat the oil until it starts to bubble and add your shrimp and fry.  You should cook your shrimp in batches otherwise if you add too many in at once they tend to stick together!

And flip.. you'll know they are done when they are golden in color.  They should take no more then 2-3 min.

Take out and blot on your paper towels.

Take the mayo sauce you've prepared earlier and spread it out evenly on a bowl.  

(This is roughly about the time the Hubs "wanders" in the kitchen to "see what I'm up to" and tries to eat a few of the freshly fried shrimps lol!!  They're actually really tasty without the sauce I have to keep myself from eating them too many of them too! hehe)

Add your shrimp into the sauce and coat evenly!

Plate and sprinkle with your candied walnuts that you made in the beginning and you're done! :)

BTW do you like my sad little rice mound on the left..... lolololol.  I try not to eat rice (my Chinese nick name is "Rice Bucket" because I can eat rice literally by the bucket *sigh*) when we eat Chinese food.. but when it's a mayo covered shrimp dish.. it callllls out for rice lol!