Stir Fry Shrimp with Fresh Ginger and Snow Peas

I found this recipe the other week in our monthly Food and Wine magazine. I absolutely love it. It's fresh, healthy, and has a bite to it from the chinese chile-garlic sauce. This recipe takes about 30-45 minutes depending on how slow/fast you can prepare everything! My mom's homemade chicken stock is usually frozen, so it has to defrost, resulting in 10 extra minutes of prep time. 


Ingredients
Serving Size: 4
1/2 cup chicken stock or low-sodium broth
2 tablespoons low-sodium soy sauce
1 teaspoon Chinese chile garlic sauce
1 teaspoon corn starch
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1/4 fresh ginger, cut up into matchsticks
1/2 pound snow peas (about 50 snow peas)
1 pound shrimp, shelled and deveined (31-40 count per lb)
4 small scallions, thinly sliced
4 servings of cooked brown or white rice
* If you don't have shrimp, you can always substitute it for your favorite protein! Shrimp cooks within a minute or two but something like chicken or beef would obviously take longer. 


Directions:
Before you do anything you want to have all of your veggies and shrimp chopped and ready.You want to cut the ginger up into small thin slices so that they resemble a "matchstick." Next you want to   cut off the tips of the snow peas. The scallions should be chopped up as well (both the white and green part of it). Slicing it on a diagonal makes it look nicer!

Next...
In a small bowl, whisk the chicken stock with the soy sauce, Chinese chile-garlic sauce and cornstarch.
* If you don't have chicken stalk, you can use water as an alternative. The chicken stock adds flavor but it's an ingredient that isn't always in the pantry. 


In a large nonstick skillet, heat the vegetable oil until shimmering (shimmering= it looks a little glossy). Add the ginger matchsticks and stir-fry over moderately high heat until they are softened, about 1 minute. Add the snow peas and stir-fry until crisp-tender and the ginger is beginning to brown, about 2 minutes. Add the shrimp to the skillet and stir-fry for about 1 minute. Add the scallions and stir-fry for 30 seconds. Whisk the chile sauce, add it to the skillet and stir-fry until the shrimp are opaque throughout (have turned a light pink color) and the sauce is thickened, about 1 minute longer. Serve with steamed rice.

The Final Product

(Served over brown rice with some rice noodles for crunch)