Chinese-inspired Jambalaya

A few months ago, I joined a Facebook group called Food Bloggers Central founded by the amazing Nagi of RecipeTin Eats and Megan of Culinary Hill. I was blown away by how supportive the bloggers are to one another. Food blogging is often a one-man team and having someone (or a group of like-minded people) who will have your back, when you're trying to figure out how to do the million things that's usually required to maintain a food blog, just helps a ton.

I had already befriended Nagi a while back before joining the group (I interviewed her just last year for my blog series Meet My Inspiration) So when she approached me about being a member of Food Bloggers Central, I immediately said yes.

Fast forward to last month, Nagi had initiated this project called Food Blog Hop. The idea is that each blogger who's interested in the project would be matched with two other bloggers, and we would basically cook each other's recipe.

Then maybe a week later, Nagi being her awesome ambitious self posted a spreedsheet of the big list of bloggers, and who each blogger was matched with. What a task! Bravo, Nagi! I quickly went down the list, and found my name next to Neli of Delicious Meets Healthy. I didn't know Neli before so I starting poking around her blog and spotted something I've been wanting to try - Jambalaya.

If you've been following my posts, you probably have noticed my growing love for Southern cuisine ever since I watched the first episode of A Chef's Life. I mean, I did go after Vivian's chicken and rice, and cooked it back to back for two weekends. Would I take a trip down to North Carolina and eat at Vivian Howard's restaurant, Chef & the Farmer? HECK YEAH, in a heartbeat I would. Did you know that A Chef's Life was just nominated for multiple James Beard Awards? I just love what Vivian is doing and the awesome stories that she's been sharing. It's so inspirational to me. My desire to learn about food and culture has been growing faster than I can keep up, and then when I saw Neli's jambalaya, my light bulb bursted into a shower of meat, vegetables, and rice (insert imagination).

Jambalaya reminds me a lot of Hong Kong style clay pot rice. Clay pot rice is such an iconic Hong Kong winter dish. When I was in the Kong 2 weeks ago, I was thrilled when Emily (who I met on Instagram and spent the day hiking the Dragon's Back with) suggested that we'd get clay pot rice for dinner in Yau Ma Tei.

And it was amazing.

Hong Kong style clay pot rice

I love the similarities between Jambalaya and clay pot rice. Both have meat and vegetables cooked in one pot, and it's so rich and savory, it will just shoot you to the moon and back.

So without having much knowledge about this iconic Southern dish, I went off to find out all kinds of things about the Jambalaya.

Jambalaya is a Louisianan dish that has a lot of French and Spanish influences, and it's made differently depending on the region you're in. Many debate over rather the jambalaya was evolved from the Spanish paella or French Jamalaia, or perhaps both given the region's cultural history with Spanish and French settlers in the 18th Century.

Jambalaya is a lovely and rich stew that has four main ingredients: meats, vegetables, stock, and rice. The most common version is probably the red jambalaya, also known as the Creole jambalaya which is referred to as "city food". Creole jambalaya is more popular near New Orleans, on the Eastern part of Louisiana. The other kind of jambalaya is the brown jambalaya, also known as Cajun jambalaya which is referred to as "country food". And Cajun jambalaya is commonly found in Western and Central Louisiana.

So how the heck do you tell between a Creole and a Cajun jambalaya? The main difference is the use of tomatoes in the Creole jambalaya. And Cajun jambalaya is known as brown jambalaya because of the natural camelization of sugar in meats and veggies in the browning process, and it later gets incorporated into the stock.

After giving both styles some thoughts, I chose to do a Cajun jambalaya over the Creole jambalaya. The Cajun culture and their history reminds me a lot of my Hakka roots. Cajun food is rustic country food that is generally very well seasoned which shares a lot of common ground with Hakka cuisine. Based on the typical Cajun jambalaya recipes, I switched out some things like onion and smoked sausage with Chinese turnip (lor bak) and Chinese sausage (lap Cheong). I also added five-spiced pork belly, fresh ginger, hoisin sauce, garlic chili sauce, and scallion to kick this Chinese-inspired jambalaya into high gear.

I was ecstatic with this Chinese-inspired Jambalaya that's totally comforting with a touch of my Chinese heritage.

Chinese-inspired Jambalaya

Prep time: 35 mins  Cook time: 35 mins  Total time: 1 hour 10 mins Serves: 5-6

Ingredients

  • 1/2 lb skinless and boneless chicken thighs
  • 1 tsp soy sauce
  • 1/8 tsp white pepper powder
  • 1/2 lb pork belly, skinless
  • 1/4 tsp five spice powder
  • 2oz Chinese sausage (lap cheong)
  • 1 tbsp minced garlic
  • 1 tsp minced ginger
  • 1 cup diced Chinese turnip (lor bak), about 1/2" dices
  • 1 cup diced bell peppers
  • 1 1/2 cups long grain white rice
  • 1 tbsp hoisin sauce
  • 2 tsp garlic chili sauce
  • 1 tsp dried thyme
  • 1 tsp oregano
  • 1 tsp garlic powder
  • 3 bay leaves
  • 3 cups chicken stock
  • 1/2 lb medium or large shrimp, shelled and deveined
  • 3 stalks chopped scallion
  • 2 tbsp lemon juice
  • 2 tbsp soy sauce

Instructions

  1. Slice pork belly diagonally into 1/4" thick slices. Marinate with five spice powder for 30 minutes.
  2. Cut chicken into 1/2" cubes. Marinate with soy sauce and white pepper powder.
  3. Slice Chinese sausage into 1/8" slices. Set aside.
  4. Mince garlic and ginger, and dice turnip into 1/2" cubes. And dice bell peppers.
  5. Place a Dutch oven over medium-high heat, drizzle about 2 tablespoons of oil, and twirl the pan a couple times to spread oil evenly. Add pork belly, stir several times until meat is browned and caramelized, about 3 minutes. Remove from pan. Add chicken, and cook until it's no longer pink on the outside, about 2. Remove from pan. Add Chinese sausage and let it cook for 2 minutes. Remove from pan.
  6. Turn the heat down to medium, stir in garlic and ginger, cook for 30 seconds. Add turnip and bell peppers, and let it cook for 3 minutes, stir frequently.
  7. Stir pork belly, chicken, and Chinese sausage back into the pot. Add rice and stir. Add hoisin sauce, garlic chili sauce, thyme, oregano, and garlic powder, and stir one more time until everything is mixed well together. Throw in the bay leaves, then add chicken stock. Give it a quick stir, and turn the heat up. Once it boils, return the heat to low, cover and let it cook for 15 minutes.
  8. Sprinkle chopped scallion, and lay the shrimp on top, then drizzle with the lemon juice. Cover and let it cook for another 5 minutes, until shrimp has turn completely pink.
  9. Drizzle 1 to 2 tablespoons of soy sauce, then serve hot.

Chinese Long Beans with Ground Pork (豆角炒肉碎)

Remember when I wrote that post a while ago about my Hakka heritage? Well, I kinda promise myself that I'd cook more Hakka dishes for the blog this year, and this Chinese long beans with ground pork is one of them. It's a stir-fry so it's really easy to prep, and you can have dinner on the table in a jiffy!

In Cantonese, we call Chinese long beans "dau gok" (豆角), and they are also known as Yardlong beans (but they're really not a whole yard long, more like half a yard). You can find them at most Asian grocery stores or markets. I've been eating dau gok since I was a kid, and can tell you that Chinese long beans are a little "chewier" and has a stronger green bean taste than regular green beans, they're usually skinnier in thickness, darker in color (although there are a handful of variety and I know there's even purple ones!).

There are a few ingredients that make this Chinese Long Beans with Ground Pork a Hakka dish. The use of pork, soy sauce, and fermented black soybeans called "dau si" (豆豉) in Cantonese. Fermented black soybeans are usually sold dried but sometimes you can also see them being sold in jars which the beans are soaked in liquid/oil. I'm used to the dried kind, and you'd just soak them in water for a few minutes then drain.

Fermented black soybeans are used in a lot of Hakka dishes as they carry a robust flavor that can be added to many hearty Hakka cooking. And if you grew up in a Cantonese household, you would know that a can of "dau si leng yu" (豆豉鯪魚), dace fish and fermented black soybeans, can go a long way with just a bowl of warm rice on those cold winter nights!

This Chinese long beans with ground pork dish, though, it's one of many Hakka dishes that my mom would serve on any given day. It just reminds me of her cooking and sitting at dinner with my family!

Chinese Long Beans with Ground Pork (豆角炒肉碎)

Prep time: 15 mins  Cook time: 15 mins  Total time: 30 mins

Serves: 2-3

You'll need:

  • 1/2 lb ground pork
  • 1 tsp soy sauce
  • dash of white pepper powder
  • 1/2 lb Chinese long beans
  • 1/2 cup chopped onion
  • 1 tbsp minced garlic
  • 1 tbsp dried fermented black soybeans
  • Sauce:
  • 1/4 water
  • 1 tbsp Chinese Shaoxing wine
  • 1 tbsp soy sauce
  • 1/2 tsp sugar
  • 1/2 tsp cornstarch

Approach:

  1. Season the ground pork with soy sauce and white pepper powder. Set aside and let it marinate while you continue prepping.
  2. Rinse, and cut Chinese long beans into 1 1/2" long.
  3. Soak the dried fermented black soybeans in 1/4 cup of water for 5 minutes, then drain.
  4. Mix the sauce ingredients together.
  5. Set a wok or pan over medium-high heat. When the pan is hot, add oil and twirl the pan to spread.
  6. Add garlic and cook until fragrant, about 15 seconds. Then add chopped onion, and cook for 1 minute. Add the ground pork and cook for 3 minutes, then add the fermented black soybeans. Add Chinese long beans and sauce, cover, and let it cook/steam for 3 minutes. Uncover, and cook for another 5 minutes.

Notes:

Adapted from The Hakka Cookbook by Linda Lau Anusasananan.

Chinese Broccoli with Chinese Sausage

Kai Lan (Chinese broccoli) is one of my favorite vegetables! It's a little like broccoli, a little like broccolini, a little like kale and mustard greens. If you were to combine all of the veggies above, you'd pretty much get Chinese broccoli. You've probably seen Kai/Gai Lan on the menu at Chinese restaurants or other Southeast Asian cuisine like Thai or Vietnamese. It's a cold-weather vegetable so fall and winter would be the best season to eat Chinese broccoli (although it's not hard to find year-around, it may be limited at the market during off-season). The literal translation of Chinese broccoli, Kai/Gai Lan, means "mustard orchid" so it is definitely in the mustard greens family. The leaves have a similar thickness and characteristic of kale but tougher. And the stem is a lot like the regular broccoli but bitter. How about broccolini? Part of the family? Yep! The broccolini is a hybrid of Kai Lan and broccoli that the Japanese had married together some years ago.

I remember my mom making this Chinese broccoli with Chinese sausage (Lap Cheong) dish often in the winter in my younger days. And as a picky-eater, this was one of the few dishes that I'd just gobble up along with a bowl of freshly made rice. The drizzle of soy sauce is key! This is definitely a dish that reminds me of those cold nights having dinner with my family.

Do you have a dish that reminds you of winter from childhood?

Chinese Broccoli with Chinese Sausage

Prep time: 15 mins  Cook time: 15 mins  Total time: 30 mins

Serves: 2

You'll need:

  • 1-2 Chinese sausage, sliced, about 4 tbsp
  • 1 tsp olive oil
  • 1 tsp sesame oil
  • 3 garlic cloves, sliced
  • 1/2 lb Chinese broccoli (Kai Lan)
  • 3 tbsp chicken broth
  • 1/4 tsp sugar
  • 1/2 tbsp soy sauce
  • salt and pepper, to taste

Approach:

  1. Rinse and drain Chinese broccoli thoroughly. Cut the leaves roughly, about 1/2". And slice the stems thinly on an angle, about 1/8".
  2. Slice the Chinese sausage on an angle, also about 1/8".
  3. Heat a skillet on medium-high and add olive oil. Twirl the pan around to spread the oil somewhat evenly on the pan. Add Chinese sausage and cook for 3 minutes, until it's turned slightly transparent. Remove from pan into a bowl.
  4. On the same skillet, add sesame oil and garlic. Let it cook until fragrant, about 12 seconds. Add Chinese broccoli and chicken broth, and let it cooking for 4 minutes, stir occasionally.
  5. Add Chinese sausage, sugar, and soy sauce and cook for another 4 minutes.
  6. Plate and serve with rice on the side.

Chinese Inspired Baked Potato Wedges

Potato might just be my favorite starch. I can totally eat it for dinner everyday because it can be cooked in so many different ways! What sparked me to make these Chinese Inspired Baked Potato Wedges was simply an instagram photo of some potato wedges someone took. That picture lit my fire, and I was on a mission to bring you some potato wedges baked with Chinese bacon, muenster cheese, and scallion!

On a side note, you know where I first tried oven-baked potatoes? WENDY'S. I remember when I was a kid, my dad would bring me to Wendy's once in a while, and I'd get the cheese and broccoli baked potato (if I wasn't already tired of their waffle fires with cheese sauce!) Wait. For those of you who grew up in America. Did the Wendy's here ever served waffle fries? Well, I loved them so freaking much, I still remember paying the person behind the counter at Wendy's $16 HK dollars for an order of waffle fries.

Potatoes rule!

These are Chinese bacon, or lap yuk 臘肉 in Cantonese. You can find them in most Asian/Chinese supermarkets. They're mostly air-cured with soy sauce and spices. I bought some that came in vacuum sealed packages. Sometimes you can spot them being hung unpackaged next to the Chinese sausages at the store. In many recipes or packaging, it would call for soaking the bacon for a few hours before cooking. However, for this Chinese Inspired Baked Potato Wedges recipe, I decided to skip the soaking step because I didn't think it was necessary since it'd need to be crisped in the oven anyway.

And why muenster cheese? Because why the heck not!? Try it next time when you make a grilled cheese. You won't be disappointed!

Potato wedges all lined up, ready to be baked!

Toss them with Chinese bacon, muenster cheese, and scallion. Then load it all up on an oven-proofed serving plate, and pop the whole thing in the oven for an additional 5 minutes until the cheese has melted.

VOILÀ! There you have it! Dunk them in a side of sour cream for some satisfying bites!

Chinese Inspired Baked Potato Wedges

You'll need:

  • 3 medium Idaho potatoes, scrubbed
  • 2 deli slices of muenster cheese
  • ¼ cup sliced Chinese bacon
  • ¼ cup chopped scallion (about 2 stalks)
  • 2 tsp garlic powder
  • 2 tsp salt, divided
  • ½ tsp black pepper
  • some extra virgin olive oil

Approach:

  1. Preheat oven to 425°F.
  2. Line a 9"x13" baking sheet with tinfoil, coat the lined pan with 1 tablespoon of extra virgin with olive oil.
  3. Julienne the muenster cheese into very fine strips. Then slice the Chinese bacon, and chop the scallion. Set all aside.
  4. Cut each potato in half lengthwise, then cut each half into 4 wedges that are about the same size. You'll have a total of 8 long wedges from each potato.
  5. Place the potato wedges in a medium mixing bowl, add 2 tablespoons of extra virgin with olive oil, 2 teaspoons of garlic powder, 1 teaspoon of salt, ½ teaspoon of black pepper. Toss it all together until potato wedges are coated.
  6. Line them up on the baking sheet with skin side down. Bake for 10 minutes. Then bake each cut side for 15 minutes, until golden brown.
  7. In a large mixing bowl, toss the potato wedges, Chinese bacon, muenster cheese, and scallion together with 1 tsp of salt. Then load it all up on an oven-proofed serving plate. Pop the whole thing in the oven for an additional 5 minutes until the cheese has melted.
  8. Serve hot with a side of sour cream.

Hakka Stuffed Tofu (釀豆腐)

The fact that I am Hakka but have not yet featured a Hakka recipe on the blog is simply a crime. I can't say that I learned everything that I know about Hakka cooking from my Ah Gong (grandfather) who cooked and used the kitchen way more than my Po Po. But I can say that my desire to cook was partly influenced by him. And if you know me, you'd understand my craze for feeding a crowd. All that, was much influenced by my gigantic Hakka family. I mean, how can I not when I basically saw my entire extended family every, single, weekend growing up? A house full of 25-30 people? Checked. Food? DOUBLE CHECKED!

Being a Hakka in Hong Kong isn't all that out of the ordinary. There are many Hakka villages spread around the New Territories that are very much populated. People move around as lands develop so Hakkas living outside of villages are becoming very common these days. While a reasonable amount of Hong Kong-born-and-raised Hakkas had moved overseas, the Hakka tradition lives on with a handful of regular celebrations and gatherings throughout the year.

Have I bored you yet with my mumbo jumbo? Let's go back to the topic of today and talk food! You can certainly read more about my Hakka heritage in the Proud to be Hakka post I wrote a while back!

There are many classic Hakka dishes like the Stuffed Tofu (釀豆腐) that people would consider or have mistaken as Cantonese. The truth is, both cultures share a lot of similarities in cooking, and have been adapting and borrowing from each other for quite some time. With its rich migration history, dishes like Stuffed Tofu (釀豆腐) travels with the Hakka people wherever they land. To me, food is always about adapting and that's what makes food universal and interesting. When Hakkas take dishes with them to live somewhere else, they adapt local flavors, ingredients, and techniques. According to Linda Lau Anusasananan, when the Hakkas moved to southern China a long time ago, wheat wasn't widely available to make dumpling wrappers so they adapted by using tofu instead.

I don't expect Stuffed Tofu (釀豆腐) in other Hakka-influenced Chinese communities around the world to be all the same. The standard and common ingredients for Stuffed Tofu (釀豆腐) requires, of course, tofu. The filling is mostly pork but it can sometimes be mixed with fish or shrimp. The filling can also be used to stuff other vegetables like bell peppers and eggplant. While some people stuff the filling with tofu pockets, I always like to make the open-face version of Stuffed Tofu (釀豆腐). For sauces, soy sauce is used most of the time as well as oyster sauce, and fish sauce for Hakka Chinese who had migrated to South East Asia. Some like to steam, others prefer to deep-fry (I like to pan-fry), and each cooking method has its own beauty really. You could also choose to make a braised stuffed tofu dish after the tofu has been fried. Pan-frying, for me, produces the right balance of slightly crispy on the outside and soft on the inside. It's really one of the perfect ways, one of my favorite ways, to eat tofu.

Learn more about Hakka cooking, culture and history from Linda Lau Anusasananan in The Hakka Cookbook. Available on Amazon.

Hakka Stuffed Tofu (釀豆腐)

Prep time: 35 mins  Cook time: 5 mins  Total time: 40 mins

Serves: 12 pieces, 2"x2"

You'll need:

  • 1 lb (1 block) firm tofu
  • ½ lb ground pork
  • 1½ tsp minced fresh ginger
  • 2 tsp Shaoxing cooking wine
  • 3 dashes of white pepper powder
  • ½ tsp salt
  • 1 tsp sesame oil
  • 2 stalks scallions, finely chopped
  • ½ cup corn starch

Sauce:

  •  ½ cup chicken stock
  • 1 tbsp oyster sauce
  • 1 tbsp soy sauce
  • ½ tbsp dark soy sauce
  • 1 tsp corn starch and 2 tbsp water, mixed

Garnish:

  •  1 stalk scallions, finely chopped

Approach:

  1.   
  2. Extract excess water from tofu by sandwiching it with few sheets of paper towels on a plate (underneath and on top of tofu). Using something considerably flat and heavy, gently place it on top and center of tofu for about 10 minutes.
  3. Mix ground pork with minced ginger, cooking wine, white pepper powder, salt, sesame oil, and scallion.
  4. Prepare, and set aside the ½ cup of corn starch in a medium size bowl (for coating tofu later before frying).
  5. Prepare the sauce by heating up sauce ingredients (minus the corn starch mixture). Once it starts to boil, turn the heat down to simmer. Stir in corn starch mixture slowly which will start to thicken up the sauce. Continue stirring for another 30 seconds, then turn off the heat.
  6. Slice tofu into 12 pieces. Then make a cavity in each piece using a teaspoon as a scoop. Save tofu scraps for another use if you wish. Stuff each tofu with roughly 1 tbsp of pork filling.
  7. Heat up a cast iron pan with some oil. Carefully pick up stuffed tofu pieces, and coat them with corn starch on all sides (shake off the excess gently). Place them on the hot pan with filling side down. Cook for about 2 minutes, then flip them over with a spatula and cook for 2 more minutes. Add more oil to the pan as needed.
  8. Plate, then sauce. Garnish with finely chopped scallion. Serve immediately.

Singapore-Style Rice Vermicelli (星洲炒米)

I don't just like this dish, I LOVE this dish. In a way, Singapore-Style Rice Vermicelli (星洲炒米) (Singapore rice noodles or Singapore Mei Fun) is part of the identity of Hong Kong cuisine. It's a dish that every Hong Konger is familiar with growing up along with other east-meets-west fusion fairs that you can find in a Cha Chaan Teng. Now, listen, you can't find this dish in Singapore. It's not that they don't eat stir-fried rice vermicelli there (they DO!), it's just not the same thing with the same taste. So why is Singapore-Style Rice Vermicelli (星洲炒米) called Singapore-style rice vermicelli then?

Well, let me take a step back real quick and mention that an authentic Singapore fried rice vermicelli is actually called fried bee hoon which does not include curry, nor it is spicy. Fried bee hoon can be considered as "street food" because it's served in a lot of cooked food centre or food hawkers in Singapore, and it's fast, cheap, and filling (and often eaten as breakfast). Learn how to make economical fried bee hoon from Whisk and Knife.

So... where did the curry come from in most of the Singapore-style rice vermicelli dishes outside of Singapore? I have not been able to find the true answer but many seem to think that the curried rice vermicelli dish was born in Hong Kong's Cha Chaan Tengs. And because it's cooked with curry and it's very similar to fried bee hoon, "Singapore Noodle" was created.

The kind of rice noodle used in Singapore-style rice vermicelli (星洲炒米) should be very thin so Mei Fun (米粉) is used often. I found the Wai Wai brand to be the best when cooking stir-fry noodles because the soaking time is short, and the texture is just right.

I was soaking three pieces of rice vermicelli but two are actually enough for this recipe. Remember to use warm water. I've cut them into halves so they can all be submerged. Plus, it's easier to stir-fry noodles that have been broken up. To save time, soak the dried noodles while you prep for the other ingredients which takes about 15-20 minutes.

Here I have everything cut up and ready to go! Stir-fry happens quickly so you don't want to get held up while things are already getting cooked in the wok. When I was at the store, I saw these small bell peppers so I used them instead of just a red bell pepper. Here I also have half of an yellow onion, 2 cooked and sliced eggs, some char siu, and some minced garlic and grated ginger. If you like to eat spicy, some hot pepper slices would be good, too.

And what can I say? :) I just can't get enough of Huy Fong's chili garlic sauce! It's just the perfect condiment for this singapore style rice vermicelli!

Singapore-Style Rice Vermicelli (星洲炒米)

Prep time: 15 mins  Cook time: 15 mins  Total time: 30 mins

Serves: 2

You'll need:

  • 2 pieces of Wai Wai brand dried rice vermicelli
  • 4 garlic cloves, minced
  • 1 tsp peeled and grated fresh ginger
  • 8-10 medium raw shrimp, shelled and deveined
  • 1/2 lb char siu, thinly sliced
  • 2 eggs, beaten, cooked, and sliced
  • 1 cup of red bell pepper, thinly sliced
  • 1/2 medium yellow onion, thinly sliced
  • a few slices of long hot green peppers

    Sauce:
  • 5 tbsp soy sauce
  • 2 tbsp cooking wine
  • 2 1/2 tsp curry powder
  • 1/2 tsp sugar
  • 1/2 tsp white pepper powder

Approach:

  1. Start by soaking the dried rice vermicelli in a large mixing bowl with some warm water while prepping for other ingredients. You may choose to cut them down in halves, in order for them to be fully submerged.
  2. Mix the sauce together and set aside.
  3. In medium-high heat, drizzle some oil in the pan or wok. Cook the shrimp for about 2 minutes each side then set aside.
  4. Drain the rice vermicelli. (For easier stirring while cooking it with all the other ingredients, you may choose to cut the noodle down roughly. I like it this way also because it’s easier to eat, shorter noodles make better “bite sizes”. But that’s just a completely personal taste.)
  5. Drizzle some oil in the pan/wok. Cook the garlic and ginger until fragrant, then add all the vegetables. Cook for 3-4 minutes until soften or until onion is transparent in color. Set aside.
  6. Drizzle some more oil in the pan/wok. Cook the rice vermicelli until it turns soft, about 3 minutes, then add the vegetable, shrimp, char siu, and eggs. Give it a big stir while adding the sauce. Let it cook for another few minutes until the sauce is all mixed in. Stir frequently.
  7. Serve immediately (with some garlic chili sauce on the side).

Notes:

If char siu isn’t available, try ham, bacon, or shredded pork.[br][br]Here’s a tip I picked up when cooking shrimp: straight shrimp are undercooked, shrimp that have just curled into a C-shape are perfectly cooked, and shrimp that have twisted into an O-shape are overcooked.