Honey orange shrimp

A quick and easy shrimp recipe with a spicy sauce. Served over rice, it's perfect for a weeknight dinner.

I haven't been cooking lately and my freezer was still stocked with proteins from the last time I had a short-lived burst of cooking enthusiasm. So it was time to dust off my "cooking" board on Pinterest and pull an easy recipe to try.

"Easy" usually means a shrimp recipe of some kind. I always de-vein and clean the shrimp when I first buy it and package it up in manageable amounts so it's ready to go whenever I get around to cooking. It cooks quickly and there's no slicing and dicing involved.

For this recipe, the sauce ingredients were also easy to throw together. I didn't grill the shrimp as the recipe called for but instead did a quick pan-fry until they were pink. Then I poured the sauce over it and let it boil until it thickened. This was a simple, straightforward dish although as with any saucy dish, I have to have rice with it to sop up the sauce. I was a little too heavy-handed with the red pepper flakes so it was a trifle on the spicy side for me but for anyone who doesn't have bland taste buds like me, they'd probably like it just fine. More importantly, this was pretty healthy and definitely quick to make.

Honey orange shrimp

1 lb. medium shrimp, peeled and de-veined

1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

For the sauce

1/4 cup soy sauce

1/8 cup ketchup

1/4 cup orange juice or blood orange juice

1/4 cup honey

1 tablespoon rice wine vinegar

3 cloves garlic, minced

1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes (less or more)

1/2 tablespoon dried chives (optional)

Sliced almonds (optional)

Korean wrinkled chili peppers, sliced (optional)

1 tablespoon cornstarch + 2 tablespoons water (optional)

1. Place shrimp on heated grill (outdoor or indoor). Season them with black pepper and grill until cooked.

2. To make the sauce: combine soy sauce, ketchup, orange juice, honey, vinegar, garlic, chives (optional), and red pepper flakes in a bowl.

3. Add the grilled shrimp to a pan over medium high heat. Add the prepared sauce to the pan and stir well. Reduce the heat to low and cook until the sauce thickens, stirring occasionally. (If the sauce does not thicken – seems to be a problem with a lot of people, then combine cornstarch and water in a small bowl, mix well, then pour it into the sauce, stirring frequently.)

4. Sprinkle with almonds and Korean wrinkled chili peppers if desired and serve over a bed of steamed white rice.