Crispy Shrimp Balls with Fresh Lemon
A creative Zhejiang-style dish of shrimp paste shaped into balls and fried until golden, drizzled with a tangy lemon sweet-and-sour sauce. Crisp on the outside and tender within, with a refreshing sweet-and-sour finish.
Ingredients
Shrimp paste (shaped into balls)
300 g
Fresh lemon (half juiced, half sliced)
100 g
Salt
3 g
Sugar
20 g
White vinegar
10 g
Shaoxing wine
10 g
Cornstarch (for coating the shrimp balls, plus a slurry for thickening)
15 g
Cooking oil (for deep-frying the shrimp balls)
to taste
Stock (for the sauce)
to taste
Instructions
1
Deep-frying the shrimp balls
Squeeze the shrimp paste into balls and coat with cornstarch. Heat oil in a wok over high heat, add the shrimp balls and deep-fry until golden brown. Remove and drain off the oil.
2
Preparing the lemon
Squeeze the juice from half of the lemon, and slice the other half to arrange on a serving plate.
3
Making the sauce and tossing
Leave a little oil in the wok, add the lemon juice, stock, white vinegar, sugar, Shaoxing wine, and salt, and bring to a boil. Thicken with a cornstarch slurry, add the fried shrimp balls and toss quickly to coat evenly. Transfer to the plate and serve.
