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Preparation
45 minutes
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Difficulty
Medium
If you haven’t thought of a dish for dinner, you should try the delicious and nutritious sweet and sour stir-fried seafood. Let’s get cooking with TasteVN to learn how to make this dish simple yet amazing.
Ingredients for Sweet and Sour Stir-Fried Seafood Serves 3
Squid 1 piece Shrimp 150 gr Bell pepper 3 pieces Tomato 2 pieces Onion 1 bulb Celery 100 gr Minced garlic 1 tablespoon Shrimp paste 2 tablespoons Fish sauce 2 tablespoons Cooking oil 1 cup Seasoning powder 3 tablespoons
How to choose fresh ingredients
How to choose fresh shrimp
- If buying frozen shrimp, you should choose shrimp that still have all parts intact, feel firm to the touch, naturally soft and flexible (to avoid purchasing shrimp that has been injected with gelatin to increase weight), and most importantly, they should not have a fishy or spoiled smell.
- Choose live shrimp to ensure freshness, with shiny shells, looking strong and healthy; when squeezed, the shrimp should be elastic, and the shell should not be too soft.
How to choose fresh squid
- Fresh squid should have a dark brown head, not pale, and the body should be opaque white like milk, usually with shiny skin.
- Fresh squid should feel firm in hand and have very good elasticity.
- Fresh squid’s eyes should be very clear, and you can see the pupils inside; if the eyes turn cloudy, it means the squid is no longer fresh.
- The squid’s tentacles must be intact and firm. The squid’s beard must be tightly attached to the head; if it is soft and easily comes off, the squid has gone bad.
How to choose fresh bell peppers:
- When buying bell peppers, you should choose ones with a shiny skin, thick, smooth and still have the stem. You should buy the ones that feel heavy in hand and have a bright color as these are fresh, delicious, and nutritious bell peppers.
- Do not choose bell peppers that are soft and mushy, feel insecure in hand, with skin showing blemishes, cracks,… as these are spoiled and lack nutrients.
- For this dish, you should choose male bell peppers (those with the tail divided into 3 parts) as they will make the dish more flavorful and will not become mushy when grilled.
How to make Sweet and Sour Stir-Fried Seafood
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Prepare the shrimp
Wash the shrimp, remove the head, peel the shell, and remove the black vein on the back of the shrimp.
Tip to quickly remove the black vein on the back of the shrimp
- Count backward from the tail of the shrimp to the second groove connecting the two shell segments, pierce a toothpick through this spot and gently pull the black vein to remove it.
- You don’t need to cut the back of the shrimp with a knife; you can also use a toothpick to pry out the head part of the shrimp body to see the black vein. Gently pull this black thread out, and the shrimp will be clean.
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Prepare the squid
After buying, remove all internal organs and the ink sac, then cut into bite-sized pieces.
Wash the squid with 2 tablespoons of white wine and crushed ginger. The wine and ginger can help reduce the fishy smell of the squid and make it crispier.
Boil a pot of water, then add the squid and blanch for about 30 seconds, then remove and place in a bowl of cold water to keep the squid crispy.
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Prepare other ingredients
Bell peppers are washed, drained, then cut off the stem and sliced into bite-sized pieces. The onion is peeled and chopped into small pieces, tomatoes and pineapple are stemmed and chopped into small bite-sized pieces. Celery is washed and cut into sections.
The cleaned squid and shrimp are marinated with 1/3 teaspoon of seasoning, 1/3 teaspoon of sugar, 1/2 teaspoon of chili sauce, and a little fish sauce, mixed well, and marinated for about 10 minutes.
Tip on how to quickly peel pineapple without cutting the eyes:
- First, cut the pineapple lengthwise from top to bottom into 4 equal parts
- Next, cut along the length of the pineapple piece, then stop at the end of the fruit and cut strongly to separate the flesh from the skin
- Do not cut too close to the skin to avoid leaving any eyes. Finally, cut into small pieces as needed
See more: Chow to prepare onions without making your eyes sting.
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Stir-fry seafood
Heat a pan on the stove, add oil and garlic to sauté until fragrant, then add shrimp and squid to stir-fry on high heat. Once the seafood is cooked, transfer it to a bowl.
Then, using the same pan, stir-fry the vegetables with 1 tablespoon of seasoning, 1 tablespoon of sugar, and 1 tablespoon of oyster sauce. Stir until the vegetables are slightly cooked, then add the shrimp and squid back to the pan, mix well, and turn off the heat.
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Final product
The sweet and sour seafood stir-fry has a sweet and sour taste from tomatoes combined with the freshness of shrimp and squid, creating an irresistible dish.
Tips for successful implementation
- To keep tomatoes looking bright red, they should be stir-fried over high heat, but must be stirred constantly to avoid burning
- You can replace squid with snails or fish
See more:
With the simple recipe above, TasteVN hopes you will successfully make sweet and sour stir-fried seafood to treat your family and friends. Wishing you success!
*Refer to images and recipes from: YouTube channel Wife’s Kitchen
