Bang Bang Shrimp and Brown Rice for Sunday Night Dinner

. . . Okay, only one "Bang" because they aren't so spicy!

I love Sunday Night Dinners

 

As I start to write this I have two kids that are AWOL - one is swimming at the neighbor's house and the other is on a bike ride. It's a beautiful day and the sun is shining. I love a lazy Sunday with the prospect to read a good book on the front porch once I have most of dinner ready to go. The house is really quiet and it smells so good. I have a "Kicked Up" banana bread in the oven right now, topped with brown and turbinado sugars, with pecans and chocolate chips like I have made previously. I think it might be an extra notch to put the warm slices in a bowl with ice cream and hot fudge. . . Mmmm hmmmm.  I also have risotto simmering on the stove as I do not anticipate leftovers from dinner for lunch tomorrow.

Dinner tonight is based on a recipe for Bang Bang Shrimp at  Cinnamon Spice and Everything Nice. Apparently Reeni over there made a copycat recipe for this dish from Bonefish Grill. Like Reeni I have never been there but this is good stuff. We tried this last week for a quick impromptu meal and while I had my hesitations about everyone liking it, all of us did. Her version is an appetizer but if I'm going through this kind of work, I believe we should make it a meal. Of course that required some small revisions from the original recipe - I had to omit the green onions and reduce the spice factor in the flour that we dipped the shrimp in and I used Old Bay to make it easier, hence the one "bang" instead of two. I also had to make some changes to the sauce, decreasing the amount of sweet chili and serving it on the side rather than drizzling it on the top.

This tastes really good with brown rice and I use the Trader Joe's microwavable packets to make it even simpler. I also couldn't resist and made another side of corn bread pudding but there's nothing fancy about that - it's just a packet of Fiesta Sweet Corn Cake mix from the grocery store from the Old Chi Chi's restaurant chain. You add a can of creamed corn, some melted butter and water and just bake it.  I wonder if they even have restaurants anymore or if they only sell salsa and corn bread pudding? I used to really enjoy their seafood enchiladas and also the fried ice cream.

So here is my version - Plain Old One Bang Shrimp!

One Bang Shrimp Recipe

Ingredients:
1 lb of frozen cooked shrimp, tail off, Large Size, thawed
1 cup flour
1/2 teaspoon of garlic salt
1/2 teaspoon of Old Bay
1/4 teaspoon of Herbs De Province
1 cup Panko crumbs
4 eggs, beaten

Sauce:
3/4 cup mayo
4 Tablespoons sweet chili sauce
1 teaspoon rice wine vinegar

Oil for frying

Instructions

Thaw shrimp ahead of time under cool running water. Drain in a colander, setting a dish under the colander to place in the fridge.

Sweet Chili and Mayo Sauce

Mix mayo, chili sauce and wine vinegar and place in fridge, covered to chill.

Flour and Seasonings

Mix the flour together with seasonings

Set up an assembly line for battering shrimp. Dredge the shrimp individually first in the seasoned flour, then egg, letting extra drip off, and then into panko crumbs. Place on plate. 

Put the plate of shrimp in the fridge to chill for at least a half hour.

Preheat oil in deep frying pan. In batches fry the shrimp and transfer when done to a plate lined with paper towels.

Place on cooked rice and serve sauce on the side.