I thawed the shrimp, then went to get out the three ingredients needed for the simple sauce--hoisin sauce, soy sauce, and rice wine vinegar. Except oops! No hoisin sauce. Google being my friend, I found a recipe on Livestrong for a sort of faux hoisin. The thing is, I liked this sauce better than any bottled hoisin sauce that I have used before.
Also, it turned out that I liked the sauce better before I added the additional soy sauce and rice wine vinegar. The recipe called for 1/4 cup of the hoisin sauce but I ended up adding the whole thing. I still didn't like it as much so added a little more molasses. So next time I am not going to use the sauce recipe from the gimmesomeoven recipe at all, just the faux hoisin sauce.
I then followed the Gimmesomeoven directions to peel the shrimp, pat it dry, and salt and pepper the shrimp. The recipe called for a 1b, I had 12 oz of shrimp.
The recipe calls for olive oil, but I used toasted sesame seed oil because I like the flavor better, especially with the hoisin sauce. I heated the oil in a large pan over medium-high heat and added the shrimp in a single layer, letting it cook for 3 minutes.
Speaking of the sauce, in it went. As said above, you then heat it for another 1 minutes together. The sauce gets nice and sticky and thick.
I clearly had more sauce than was needed, or I could have had more shrimp as well. I served mine over rice, with a sprinkling of sesame seeds. Per the gimmesomeoven recipe, sliced scallions to top would also be nice.
The nice thing about the Livestrong recipe for the hoisin sauce is it lists ingredients and then gives you suggestions for alternate ingredients from your pantry. So the recipe essentially becomes your own.
Merri's Faux Hoisin Sauce
2 Tablespoons smooth peanut butter
2 teaspoons toasted sesame seed oil
4 Tablespoons soy sauce
1 Tablespoon molasses
2 tsp white vinegar
1/8 tsp garlic powder
1/8 tsp black pepper
Gently whisk the sesame seed oil into the peanut butter, then add and whisk after each addition.
Here is the link to the Livestrong site for the original with suggestions:
http://www.livestrong.com/article/483050-how-to-substitute-sesame-oil-for-hoisin-sauce/
Faux Hoisin Sauce and Shrimp (how I made/will make it in the future)
Faux Hoisin Sauce (see above)
12-16 oz raw shrimp
Toasted Sesame Seed Oil
Sesame Seeds
Make the faux hoisin sauce following the steps above, set aside.
Peel and devein the shrimp. Thawed frozen shrimp is fine. Pat the shrimp dry and season with salt and pepper.
Heat the oil in a large saute pan over medium high heat. I didn't measure, but probably a tablespoon is fine. When the oil is shimmering, add the shrimp in a single layer. Don't overcrowd. If necessary, cook the shrimp in batches. No need to stir, just let it cook for 1 minutes.
Turn the shrimp individually, using tongs. Cook two minutes more.
Give the sauce a final whisk and pour into the pan with the shrimp. Heat together for two minutes, stirring gently.
Serve the shrimp over rice and sprinkle with sesame seeds.
Here is the link to the original Gimmesomeoven recipe:
http://www.gimmesomeoven.com/?s=shrimp+with+hoisin&submit=Search