The Shrimp Incident

    A recipe inspired by the Curb Your Enthusiasm episode The Shrimp Incident.

    Ingredients

    • 1 Onion (sliced)
    • Sesame Oil
    • 1 Cup Chopped Snap Peas
    • 1 Cup Chopped Baby Corn
    • 3 Cloves Garlic (minced)
    • 2 Pounds Shrimp (cleaned and deveined)
    • 3 Oranges
    • 2 Limes
    • 2 Tablespoons Soy Sauce
    • 1 Tablespoon Sesame Oil
    • Roughly Chopped Dried Chiles
    • 1 Tablespoon Corn Starch
    • 12 Tablespoons Water
    • Peanuts
    • Cooked Lo Mein Noodles

    Instructions

    1. Saute some onions for 3 minutes in sesame oil, add the peas and corn, cook 3 minutes, add the garlic, cook 2 minutes, add 2 lbs shrimp, juice from 3 oranges and 2 limes, soy sauce, sesame oil, and a huge handful of dried chiles. Cook until the shrimp are mostly opaque and thicken with a cornstarch slurry.
    2. Finish with the nuts and serve with some lo mein noodles tossed in more sesame oil. I normally am not a huge fan of the cornstarch thickening method, but when you are trying to recreate Americanized Chinese, its pretty necessary!
    3. This came out fiery hot. Use less chiles or less chile seeds if you want less pao in your kung.

    Notes

    It’s always a big event when Curb your Enthusiasm comes back for another season. Larry David seems to make episodes whenever he feels like it, often resulting in fans having to wait 2 years between seasons! Its ok though, because it’s always worth the wait, curb never disappoints. I wasn’t sure what to cook for the season 8 premiere last weekend. I first thought of making the Larry David Sandwich, but it sounds awful, and the whole point of that episode was him trying to trade sandwiches with Ted Danson. I also pondered whipping up a batch of Benadryl Brownies, but most people I know who get sick are more than willing to take medicine on their own. I finally settled on kung pao shrimp from the classic season 2 episode “The Shrimp Incident”

    This recipe came together pretty easily with stuff I mostly had on hand.

    Veggies cook a bit, then garlic and chiles, then liquids and shrimp.

    Love this stuff!

    It is STRICT POLICY to put 11 shrimp in ever kung pao order. When you make this at home, you don’t need to worry about getting only 3 shrimp, or getting your orders mixed up with your enimies.

    Everybody steals shrimp, and everybody lies about it! This is Hollywood!!! If Larry’s shrimp were this good, I would have stolen them too.