The shrimp at the Asian supermarket this morning were nice, and the price was good, so I bought some. I had been hoping for mussels, but the mussels were not happy. So shrimp it was, a foundation for what ended up being a shrimp-centric meal. I shelled the shrimp and stir-fried them, in a riff on a Barbara Tropp recipe, with handfuls of minced ginger and loads of chopped scallion, a little double black soy, and not much else.
For veg, there were a mix of green pea and snow pea sprouts chased through the wok with a fair whack of grated ginger and some minced dried shrimp. The brownish-red bits are shrimp. I added a little black vinegar as well.
And there was soup. It’s one of our favorite Chinese soups, and one that reminds my Belovedary of childhood. It’s intensely savory and good, though not much to look at. It can be made with almost any kind of stock, providing that the stock has been made with Chinese seasonings and not, say, thyme and parsley and carrots and bay leaves.
This one was made with a shrimp stock I’d made some while ago. I pulled it from the freezer earlier today after coming home with the shrimp. To the stock, I added pickled mustard greens and stir-fried ground pork seasoned with garlic and wine, and let it simmer while I fussed with the rest.
Now, because when I have both paid for shrimp and done the work of shelling them I don’t want to waste any of the money or effort or goodness, I have the shrimp shells in a pot on the stove, simmering into another batch of shrimp stock. Shell stocks are quick, and need to simmer for only about a half an hour, so it’s no big deal to do one after supper. Particularly if you are, as I am, doing it in small quantity. I’ll end up with about a quart of stock… exactly the amount I used to make the soup.
