Honey Walnut Shrimp

One of the things I miss about living in Seattle is the really good Asian food you can get there. There are a couple Chinese restaurants in Phoenix I like, but I have yet to find anything that compares to Seattle Chinese restaurants. I've lived here 10 years--trust me, I've checked! I think I've found my most favorite Chinese restaurant up there, Lee's Asian Restaurant in West Seattle. It's so deliciously yummy and tasty!! I've eaten there the last two times I've been in Seattle, and it's like heaven on a plate. When we were up there a month ago I think I had thirds when we got take-out from there for dinner one night. And then ate leftovers for breakfast the next day. Oh man...I dream about good Chinese food!

One of the menu items we've gotten each time from Lee's is honey walnut shrimp. My brother is a pescetarian (vegetarian who eats fish, for those of you not "in the know"), so we get a few shrimp dishes so he can eat with us. The first time I tasted this I was amazed--it was so good! I was kind of surprised because I thought the sauce tasted like it had mayonnaise in it. I did some Googling after dinner for recipes and found out that the sauce does indeed have mayo in it! Crazy!

I had something else entirely planned for dinner tonight, but upon reviewing the recipe I realized that we don't have any cheese. We always have cheese, so I have no idea how this happened. I knew I had some shrimp in the freezer that needed to be used, so I looked up recipes for Honey Walnut Shrimp and was delighted to see I have everything on hand for it. Well, except walnuts, but I'm thinking of either skipping that or using pecans instead. I found this recipe on RecipeZaar.com.

Honey Walnut Shrimp
RecipeZaar.com Recipe #31581

1/2 cup walnuts
1/2 cup sugar
2 cups oil
1 lb jumbo shrimp, peeled and deveined
1/2 cup cornstarch
3 egg whites
1/4 cup honey
3 tablespoons mayonnaise
1 tablespoon lemon juice or white vinegar
1 tablespoon sweetened condensed milk
1/2 head shredded cabbage

Boil walnuts in 5 cups water for 10 minutes; drain. Place walnuts and 1/2 cup sugar into 2 pints of boiling water. Boil for another 10 minutes. Remove walnuts from water and coat with honey.

Heat 2 cups oil until almost smoking, then fry walnuts until they are shiny and brown, about 5-8 minutes. Remove and place on cookie sheet to cool.

Mix cornstarch and egg whites together to form a thick, sticky mixture. Mix shrimp into this mixture and set aside.

Mix mayonnaise, lemon juice and condensed milk in a medium bowl until smooth.
Heat 1/2 cup oil and deep fry shrimp until golden. (Put only a few in at a time or they will stick together).

Drain shrimp and then fold into mayonnaise sauce.

Serve over the cabbage the sauce is great with it.

*****

I'm skipping the cabbage because I don't have any, and I don't think it's really needed. I'm still not sure what to do about the nuts. I'll think on it while I'm getting everything ready. I'm going to make some WW fried rice to go with this, and we have some Trader Joe's egg rolls in the freezer. I'm really excited for this dinner!!