This sweet and sour pineapple shrimp recipe is similar to Jing’s sweet and sour pineapple pork dish. Both are traditional Cantonese dishes. This delicious recipe is a guilty pleasure recipe: high in sugar, carbohydrates, and fats from cooking oil, but also rich in vitamins A & C, calcium and potassium. However, for healthier shrimp recipes, you may want to consider Jing’s Dry Pot Braised Shrimp, or Dry-braised Jiwei Shrimp and Cucumber.
You can serve sweet and sour pineapple shrimp as an appetizer, or a main course for two or three people with a stir-fried or steamed vegetable dish on the side.
Options for serving sweet and sour pineapple shrimp
Like the sweet and sour pineapple pork, the traditional way to serve this is to toss the fried shrimp, pepper chunks (optional), and pineapple in the warm sauce just before serving. If you choose this approach, you need to serve the dish right away, as the crispy batter quickly becomes soggy from the sauce.
I prefer to serve the shrimp with the sauce on the side to maintain the texture of the batter.
Making the sauce ahead of time
The sweet and sour sauce will keep in the refrigerator for several days, so you can make it in advance, or in larger quantities than you need for this recipe. The sweet and sour pineapple shrimp recipe calls for about 1 cup (250 ml) of sauce.
If you plan to serve this as an appetizer, or cannot serve it right away, keep the fried shrimp warm in a low temperature oven (200 degrees Fahrenheit / 93 degrees C). When you are ready to serve, cook the sauce or warm 1 cup (250 ml) of the sweet and sour sauce, then toss with the shrimp, peppers, and pineapple chunks.
Peeling the shrimp
This recipe calls for a pound (454 grams) of medium sized shrimp, which is about 30 shrimp in total. You can peel and devein these quickly. First, rinse all the shrimp in a sieve under cold running water. Then take each shrimp, cut off the head if still attached, then grasp the flippers below the tail and use a rotating motion up and around the body to break and twist off the shell. Then grasp the tail fin and pull the tail from the body.
Next, lay each shrimp on its side on a cutting board, and using a sharp knife, make an incision along the back to expose the vein. Repeat until all the the shrimp are cut, then, under cold running water, rinse the vein away from the body. With a little practice, you can prepare a batch of shrimp very quickly.
Glenn Emerson for My Chinese Home Kitchen, 2022
Three styles of batter for sweet and sour pineapple shrimp
Master chef Irene Kuo, in her cookbook The Key to Chinese Cooking, provides recipes for three styles of batter:
- crunchy cornstarch and flour batter (equal parts starch and flour)
- crispy, fluffy egg batter (flour and egg yolk)
- sesame seed batter
We use a simple version of the crunchy cornstarch and flour batter in this sweet and sour pineapple shrimp recipe, but the others make fine choices too. We’ll post these batter recipes soon. For demonstration, I prepared all three batters, and fried one third of the shrimp in each. You can see the results below.
Sweet and Sour Pineapple Shrimp Cantonese
Equipment
- 1 wok
Ingredients
- 454 grams medium shrimp raw, shelled and deveined
- ½ pineapple cut into chunks, or 1 small can pineapple chunks
- 470 ml cooking oil for deep-frying (enough to fill your wok about 1/3)
Optional ingredients:
- 1 mild red pepper (Anaheim or bell) optional, cut into bite-sized chunks
- 1 mild green pepper (Anaheim or bell) optional, cut into bite-sized chunks
Crunchy batter:
- 78 ml flour ⅓ cup
- 78 ml corn starch ⅓ cup
- 10 ml baking powder 2 tsps
- warm water
- 5 ml cooking oil 1 tsp
Sweet and sour sauce:
- 25 ml white sugar The ratio of seasoning is: sugar: vinegar: salt = 5:4:1
- 20 ml white vinegar
- 15 ml ketchup
- 250 ml water
- 45 ml starch water 15 ml corn starch dissolved in 45 ml water
- 4 slices fresh ginger julienned
- 1 green onion, white part sliced in half and cut into 1-inch sections
- 15 ml cooking oil
Instructions
Preparation:
- Peel the pineapple and rinse.
- Cut the pineapple cross-wise into slices.
- Then cut the slices into quarters and cut away the core. Then cut the quarters into bite-sized chunks.
- If you are using peppers, rinse and chop the peppers. Remove the inner pulp and seeds. Cut into bite-sized pieces.
- Peel and devein the shrimp. To peel the shrimp, cut away the head and abdomen where it meets the tail (if the head is on), then holding the tail with one hand, grasp the flippers along the bottom and pull them around the body to break the shell away.454 grams medium shrimp
- Then gently grasp the tail fins and pull the tail portion of the shell away.
- Lay the peeled shrimp on a cutting board, and gently cut along the center line of the back just enough to expose the vein. Then rinse away the vein under cold water.
- Heat the wok over high heat. Then fill the wok 1/3 of the way with oil, and heat to 375°F (190° C). While the oil is heating, prepare the sauce and the batter.470 ml cooking oil for deep-frying
Mix the sauce:
- Add the sugar, vinegar, and ketchup to a mixing bowl. Add 250 ml water. Stir until the sugar is dissolved. Set aside.20 ml white vinegar, 15 ml ketchup, 250 ml water, 25 ml white sugar
- Add 15 ml (1 tbsp) corn starch to a bowl, then 45 ml water (3 tbsp), and stir until the starch is dissolved. Set aside45 ml starch water
- Rinse and peel a green onion. Cut away the root, and cut the white part of the green onion from the green leaves. Slice the white part in half, lengthwise, then cut across into 1 inch (25mm) sections. Chop the green portion into small pieces to use as a garnish, and set aside.1 green onion, white part
- Peel and rinse a short section of ginger root, and cut four slices, the thickness of a coin. Julienne the slices. Set aside with the white portion of the green onion.4 slices fresh ginger
Prepare the batter:
- Mix equal parts flour and corn starch. and 10 ml of baking powder. After stirring until there are no lumps, add warm water (25-40°C, 77-104°F) in small amounts and stir well. Then add 5ml cold oil. Stir well.78 ml flour, 78 ml corn starch, 10 ml baking powder, 5 ml cooking oil, warm water
- The batter should not be too thick, but not so thin as water. Test the thickness by coating one piece of shrimp and frying. The batter should coat the shrimp evenly. The cooked shrimp should be slightly crispy and have a nice three-dimensional quality, but not crunchy like fried chicken. If the batter is too thick, add a bit more water. If too thin, add a little more flour and corn starch.
Cooking:
- The oil needs to be hot, about 375°F (191℃). If you do not have a thermometer, test the heat by dropping a small amount of batter into the oil. If it foams, the oil is not hot enough. If it sizzles instantly, the oil is hot enough.470 ml cooking oil for deep-frying
- Working in small batches, coat the shrimp with batter and gently drop into the hot oil (be careful not to splash). The shrimp will fry in a few seconds. Stir constantly with a slotted spoon or spider web strainer, then remove.454 grams medium shrimp
- If using peppers, dry-blanch them in the hot oil for 5 seconds, then remove.1 mild green pepper (Anaheim or bell), 1 mild red pepper (Anaheim or bell)
- Drain the oil into a heat-proof container. Wipe any batter residue from the wok.
Make the sauce:
- Heat the wok over medium heat.
- Add 15m of fresh oil to the pot, add the white part of the green onion and the ginger slices, stirring and tossing to flavor the oil. When you smell the aroma, after about 30 seconds, stir the sauce mixture again briskly, then pour into the the wok. Stirring constantly, bring the sauce to a boil, then add the starch water a little bit at a time to thicken the sauce to desired consistency. Add 5ml of oil to brighten. Stir well. (See Notes below: the goal is to have the sauce coat the meat and other ingredients.)5 ml cooking oil, 4 slices fresh ginger, 1 green onion, white part, 15 ml cooking oil, 45 ml starch water
- If you are going to serve the sauce separately, add the pineapple chunks and peppers (if using) and long enough to warm them, then pour the sauce into a serving bowl. If you are going to serve in the traditional method, add the shrimp, peppers, and pineapple to the sauce. Stir so that the ingredients are evenly coated with the sauce and thoroughly warmed.454 grams medium shrimp, 1 mild red pepper (Anaheim or bell), ½ pineapple
- Transfer to a plate and serve. (Sprinkle with the chopped green onion leaves as an optional garnish, if you prefer.)
Notes
- Be careful with hot oil. Keep utensils and hands dry. Water droplets in hot oil will boil instantly, producing steam and causing the hot oil to splatter.
- Do not put all the shrimp in the oil at once, or the temperature will drop too low and the batter will soak up the oil. Work in small batches, and allow the oil to return to temperature between batches.
- In winter, when the temperature is low, using warm water to prepare the batter can make the flour, cornstarch and baking powder react faster. Make a good batter. If the temperature is not cold, then you can use cold water.
- If you don’t have fresh pineapple, you can use canned pineapple instead.
- For best flavor in the sauce, try to find a good organic ketchup with tomatoes, vinegar, and sugar. Many brands use tomato sauces, high fructose corn syrup, water, etc. They have a ketchup flavor but lack the rich taste of a real ketchup.
Nutrition
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hi can you please give us the measurements in teaspoons, tablespoons, cups etc instead of the ml measurments? thanks so much
Hi Joan,
Both units of measure are available. In the recipe card, at the top of the “Ingredients” list, on the right side, is a button labeled “US Customary”.
Just click this and the cups, pounds, ounces, table and teaspoon measures will appear.
Jing lives in China, so every recipe she creates uses metric measures. The recipe card will convert these for you automatically.
Hope this helps.
Thanks for visiting My Chinese Home Kitchen!
Glenn