The Mystery of Crystal Shrimp

Did you ever taste something in a restaurant that’s so good, you don’t even bother looking at the menu anymore? You order the same thing, over and over again! Have you ever wanted to figure out said favorite’s elusive flavors…come hell or high water? That’s the case of The Mystery of Crystal Shrimp.

GingeRootz opened in Appleton, Wisconsin several years ago. Besides a charming décor, cozy atmosphere, and awesome happy hour, the restaurant has a vast and delicious menu featuring family dishes and flavor fusions from the greater Pacific Rim area. However, among my circle of friends it  really became known for “crystal shrimp.”

As frequent crystal shrimp fliers, we’ve often probed the bartenders, waiters and waitresses for what’s in it with no luck. We’ve even gone so far as to ask one of the owners, and the best she’d do is say “no” to our guesses. Grrr…

I set a goal to figure out how to make my all-time favorite thing to eat if it’s the last thing I do on the face of the earth (dramatic…I know). The best way to do that is just keep going to the restaurant, and keep ordering the dish so I could keep sorting flavors in my mouth. But, as much as I was enjoying that tactic, I was getting nowhere. Then one day a friend of mine randomly said, “Oh, Diane and I figured out crystal shrimp.”  WHAT? Are you kidding me? How could you be so casual about the greatest discovery known to….me?

So what is this you call crystal shrimp, grasshopper? It’s a mouthwatering, tropical-ish delight of very lightly battered and fried shrimp, pineapple sweetness in a delicious tropical-ish sauce over fluffy white rice. (Insert a sigh right about here). Now please…if you read the recipe and say, “That’s just walnut shrimp” I’m going to have to disown you…there are no walnuts in this recipe! What was so elusive for so long is that we all swore there was coconut milk or coconut cream in it. The owner’s comment, “Nope.”

I think what gives it this coconutty (is that a word?), tropical-ish, mouthwatering flavor is the combination of the sauce and the pineapple. Truth be told, it really isn’t until the pineapple is stirred in that it REALLY hits jackpot. And, it HAS to be canned pineapple chunks, not fresh. Weird, huh?

Here comes the hell and high water part…I was bound and determined to get their secret recipe in my hot little hands so…I stepped up to host one of our Cooking with Friends days, and cleverly called it “Asian Variety.” It was my not-so-subtle way of “forcing” my friend to disclose the goods.

On the day of our Cooking, my friend showed up with a wad of papers, all recipes, unsure exactly which one they’d used as the starting point of their crystal shrimp discovery. One of them had a random sticky note that had ingredients listed, slightly different than the recipe it was stuck to. Now, in my humble (and desperate) opinion, that sticky note should have been guarded like gold. But…my friend, Miss Casual No-Sweat, wasn’t really sure if that was really the recipe…you’re killing me, Smalls!

As we broke into teams to create our Asian Variety masterpieces, one small group with my friend in the lead got to work recreating the recipe. Through mix a little/taste a little, they got the recipe down pat…then doubled it so that there was enough for everyone to try. Another small group set to work gently battering and frying the shrimp. When the masterpiece came together, I thought I was going to cry….or embarrass myself by going face down in the dish! I know…dramatic, but folks this stuff is delicious!

Now that I know how to make it, what I love is it’s easy and really quite quick. I usually have uncooked shrimp, as well as leftover sweetened-condensed milk, in the freezer. The rest of the ingredients are simple pantry pulls. I can whip up a complete crystal shrimp dinner in about 20 minutes, or about the time it takes to cook rice in my cooker. That’s super cool!

So now, I can have my all-time favorite crystal shrimp anytime I want. Oh, it won’t stop me from going to GingeRootz…oh no, no! After all these years, I can finally try something new!