These were incredibly good. And incredibly easy to make. Buy a kilo of very fresh small to medium sized shrimp (not too small though). For me, they MUST be alive to ensure they are as fresh as possible. If you are squeamish, wait for them to die, then trim their whiskers and sharp horns off. But if you want to be authentic, cook these alive. I know that may bother some of you, but just get over it. Lobsters are best cooked alive, so are crabs, and so are shrimp and prawns. They taste better that way. In a large bowl, add the shrimp, then sprinkle with say 5-6 tablespoons of Shaoxing rice wine or similar wine, sprinkle with a couple of tablespoons of kikkoman soy sauce and 3 tablespoons of sugar. Let the shrimps soak up this liquor for about 5 minutes, mixing gently every so often…
Meanwhile, put a large pan (for which you have a cover) over high heat and let it get really hot. Put the shrimps and marinade into the hot pan and do one of two things… light the liquor and flambe the jumping shrimp, or simply cover the pan and toss it to move the shrimp around. If you use live shrimp, trust me, they will jump indeed. In Chinese restaurants, they tend to do this at the table in a glass bowl so you can watch this all for yourselves. After just a couple of minutes, and when the shrimp have just turned pink, serve hot with a dipping sauce of your choice. Superb. Simple. Delicious. Count on 1 kilo serving just 4 people if this is your main viand.
39 Responses
my choice of dip is sukang iloco with minced ginger, crushed garlic,chopped bird’s eye peppers,salt or patis. eat with bare hands and lots of fried rice. steamed veggies and kapeng baraco on the side. i’m drooling right now.
This is muy delicioso, MM! Most of the time, when I make the Hainanese chicken using whole chicken, the dark meat always gets ignored! So, I shred the meat and let it marinate in the same stuff you have. I use the Chinese rose wine, or sometimes sake and alittle of the poaching liquid. If I do it this way, then the shredded dark meat gets UBOS!!! This dish is for son no.1 ….youngest son gets the drunken shrimp like your dish and hubby gets to eat both! Our dipping sauces are the ginger-green onion sauce, and the light soy with grated ginger and sesame oil and then topped with smoking hot oil!
Unfortunately, live shrimps are hard to get where i live. Will this recipe work with frozen ones too?
Hey Ted…It works for the frozen ones, too…that’s what I buy unless I see those live spotted prawns in tanks!
When I was in Shenzen China I have this drunken shrimp with a caucasian colleague. He almost finish the whole bowl of it. The waitress put a chinese wine on a lively shrimp who at that time are still jumping till they are drunk (not moving anymore) then she light the bowl and when the flame dies off sprinckle some salt and thats it. The wine must be of a higher content alcohol as the flame takes some time. Hmmmm MM, maybe you lambanog will be better off with drunken shrimp.
wow… yummy. shrimp is one of my super fave…
it’s also best if you have a balsamic.vinegar-sesame.oil-finely.chop.ginger as a dip…
thank god am not allregic to shellfish…. thank you thank you lord….
good food. and one of fastest things to whip up if you are really busy. the Chinese prefer them almost half-cooked.
but bad, bad, for uric acid.
The small suahe sold live in markets are much sweeter in flavor than those sold in aquariums in places like SM Hypermart. They’re smaller though but it’s well worth the effort in peeling them than using the other blander variety, especially in the drunken shrimp recipe.
chinese black vinegar is my favorite dip. however, i still prefer the simple steamed live shrimp over the drunken ones.
the way my husband cooks shrimps is just to put 7-up and salt and it’s sooo yummy! i dont even need a sauce to eat with the shrimps! and yes my hubby cooks and not me, lucky wifey!
I remember when I was a kid we went to a beach in Ilocos my uncle purchase one small pail of small shrimp from a fisherman who just arrive. He Wash the shrimp with sea water and put kalamansi into it and told me it is a jumping salad and it’s really nice.
MM which tastes better, the fresh water shrimps or the ones from the sea? They’re both sold at the same price in some groceries here in Cebu, so i don’t know which to pick.
Makes me wanna head off to the beach and 2 kilos of this in one sitting…sprite please!
Lucky you, Robstar.
:(
i had flashes just now of being in a bath tub being splashed around with alcohol and soy sauce…waiting for imminent death….but i’d still eat shrimp. i think deep frying to a crisp would work as well
anonymous paul, deep fried shrimp is good too, but the essence of a drunken one is that the flesh is still so soft and fresh and incredibly sweet… joan, for grilling and sinigangs, I often find that saltwater shrimps have more flavor, taste more natural, of the sea. They also tend to be tougher, more muscular than pond shrimp. However, for small shrimp like these, I am not sure if they are pond or sea caught… Jun, yes, kinilaw na hipon is enjoyed by some… I personally haven’t had it, but was tempted to try it when the vendor of these shrimp said to just wash them in some water, peel while alive and plunge into a dipping sauce and eat… terrey, 7up and salt, that sounds easy and good to eat… chungwan, yes, barely cooked is right, sometimes I find the juices in the head a bit rawish… Jun…haha, I should have tried lambanog shrimp… Ted it would work with frozen prawns, but the flavors will differ. It is superb with fresh shrimp, and less so with frozen…
Hi MM, I have a problem cooking live alimango (mud crab). I find that if I dunk them into a steaming pot, they shed their claws! I tried the slow kill which is to put them in a cold pot and wait for them to steam. Same result.
But when I kill them first (skewer or ice pick their brains out) they keep their limbs. Also, I get to scrub the mud off and take out the plastic that bind the claws.
Does the heat shock their limbs off?
We like shrimp cooked in sprite with a little sprinkling of salt. Halfway through the cooking, we add lots of garlic and butter. Yummy!
risa, I do actually cook our alimango after killing and cleaning them, blue crabs can be cooked whole. But I do pierce the crab with an ice pick to “kill” it then dismember and clean it with a brush. But if you cook it soon after this, it still twitches as the nerves seem to still react to the heat.
Yummy shrimps!! I tried the live shrimps salad in Roxas City and they were great. It felt funny at first but it was really good. Fresh! With calamansi,vinegar,ginger,labuyo and garlic!! Great!! A chinese friend taught me to use sprite and salt on really fresh shrimps. Really good too!! Hmmmm…nakakagutom.
Risa,
Try adding 1/2 cup of distilled vinegar and lots of salt in cold water, put the crab in and start your steamer. The limbs will remain intact and the meat comes out whole off the claws. Added bonus with vinegar is your house wont get that fishy smell.
Thank you MM and bettyq for my delightful lunch today: drunken shrimps ala MM with betty q’s ginger peanut oil dipping sauce (how complimentary!), cucumber slices drizzled with Marukan seasoned rice vinegar and asparagus cooked in chicken broth and peanut oil and a bowl of steaming rice of course. I even ate with my hands!
Now I can take my afternoon nap. For dinner……, let me check out MM’s archives.
Hello Marketman,
What size of shrimp did you use? From the way I see it, seems like 50/60 count?
jdawgg
this is our lunch today, shrimp with a splash of white wine and 2 pinches of hawaiian garlic salt with parsley and rosemary and tortang talong plus 7-up Burp!!!
:) drunken shimp is good, as long as i get to glaze my rice with the sauce, or have the shrimps cooked in 7-up or royal tru-orange or with calamansi. better to cook it yourself actually than order from the resto – cheaper and more share! hehe! yummy MM!
Great coincidence to see this recipe! I had a staff who just came from Roxas city whom I requested to buy shrimps and crabs for me. Two recipes now in queue, MM’s chili crabs from the archives and this lina-shing na hipon. As always, big thanks MM!!!
…that’s is sooo funny, Navygolf!…”lina-shing na hipon”…are you related to Lee?
I love these kinds of dishes because they remind me of Sunday lunches or dinners with the family. My mom would buy kilos of swahe, cook them quickly with garlic, sometimes tomato paste for a tasty fingerlicking sauce, and serve it with hot rice. Bowls of shrimp shells, the heads sucked dry, and lots of talking several hours later. Good memories.
Rhea: cooked in sprite just like palapala in Bacolod.
Rhea and MM: I used to cooked live crabs starting in cold tap water and then boil it, till my hubby (whose mom hails from Louisina – crawfish and crab state), told me that doing so makes the crab cuddle-up the dirt inside; but if I put the crabs in strong-boiling water, they spit out the dirt and it the taste is better. Well, I did that and he is right, so I have been doing that. As for cleaning it and keeping the claws intact (before putting them in the pot), I learned from a vietnamese fisherman, that I submerged them in cold-icy water, it will “stunt” them for a while, enough time for you to clean them; then puth them in the boiling water.
Live shrimp – we don’t find them here. But when I come back to Quezon Province next year, (which they abundant live shrimps), I will follow MM’s way of dunken them – – using 80% LAMBANOG! and lighting them up. It will be a hit-heat!
Thanks.
hi marketman. i tried this at home last night and it tasted incredibly yummy like you said it would! however i used the “swahe” so the marinade did not really penetrate inside. will try this again with the small shrimps like the one in your photos above. love this easy-to-prepare dish. reminds me of rachael ray’s 30minute cooking :)
We have a sri lankan crab cooked in butter, cream , chili, and curry leaves yesterday night. Yummy!!!!
nice! will have to try this some time. any recipe for crispy nilasing na hipon?
MM, will Tanduay Rum work in this recipe kaya?
Marketman,
That is most “lupit” watching the shrimps jump in the flame. Whew! But the taste is all worth it! SARAP!!!
I just made these yesterday and they were yummy! The shrimps were tasty and a bit sweet but not too much. I just replaced 2 Tbsp of the cooking wine with mirin.
hi mr. mm, what’s your recommended dipping sauce for this dish?
salamat sa recipe! can’t wait to try it out!
Well my husband cooks well with thsi kind of recipe eh has as ecret to do it so you wont look for any otehr dip to make its tasty.