Stir-Fry Shrimp without Black Bean Sauce, by Steph

(Sorry in advance about the crappy spacing on all my posts. I use Picasa, and it has issues. Not as many issues as Blogger, but still. How annoying.)
We made a unanimous decision this week to veto Martha's recipe for Shrimp Stir-Fry with Black Bean Sauce. Sounds simple enough, right? I thought so when I originally chose it for this week's recipe. But don't let the unadorned title fool you. The recipe was filled with ridiculous indredients like fermented edamame beans and hao shing sauce. I wasn't about to go to an Asian specialty market to get some weird stuff that would probably cost too much and taste gross.

So I found a different (ahem, better) shrimp stir-fry recipe in our Better Homes and Gardens cookbook. But in order to not completely take Martha out of the picture (after all, it is Martha Stewart University), I was willing to try her "Perfect Rice." (Although in my experience, anything Martha says is perfect is my perfect opportunity to ruin a recipe.)
















I chopped up all my vegetables, which is honestly the hardest part of a stur-fry. I had to peel my shrimp, but it wasn't too bad. I have learned from experience that it's better to buy uncooked shrimp. I'm no longer scared of them. Raw shrimp are my friends! Apparently I was really boring while working on this meal, because you can see my daugther asleep in the background. On the counter. That was a first.












I used my wok, which worked great. Stir-frys (stir-fries?) move so fast and take so little time that I knew I had to have all my ingredients ready beforehand to avoid any mid-fry stress. I did quite well this time, for once. (Andrew, aren't you proud of me?)
















And here is the finished product. The rice was, indeed, perfect, and I think I'll do it that way every time. The secret is to use less water. Normally the ratio is 2 cups of water to one cup of rice, but Martha uses 1 1/2 c. water for 1 c. rice, and it was nice and fluffy. Good flavor, too, with the 1/2 tsp. salt in there. For once, she was right about something being perfect.

The stir-fry...not so perfect. The vegetables were great. The broccoli was perfect, and the mushrooms tasted yummy. But the shrimp tasted like fishy rubber. I tried to eat it, as shrimp is one of my all-time favorite foods, but after 3 pieces, I just couldn't do it. And I dumped the leftovers down the drain in the end. (Seems to be a theme with me, doesn't it?) I still ate enough to get full, and Leighton went to town on it all (except the shrimp), so I guess it wasn't a total failure. But I'm still on the hunt for the perfect stir-fry sauce. Martha doesn't have the answer for this one.