cashew shrimp

Just using up some leftovers. And we're going full-on Hegel:

thesis: shrimp, shrooms, chili peppers, red bell pepper

antithesis: regular rice mixed with glutinous rice

synthesis: Amurrican-style Chinese food

I had originally planned to make shrimp quesadillas, spicing up the shrimp with my own "Mexican" mix, stir-frying the veggies fajita-style, adding cheese, slapping everything into tortillas, then pan-frying the whole thing while shouting incoherently. But I saw that bag of cashews on my table, and my mind swerved in a totally different direction—Chinese (or "Chinese") food! Besides, I hadn't had cashew shrimp in a million years, so I elected to throw everything together this morning. The sauce I made was that standard, American-style, generically "Asian" sauce that is variously labeled "teriyaki" or something vague like "Chinese sauce." It's a staple of American-style "Chinese" cooking. You start with a half-and-half (by volume) base of soy sauce and brown sugar. Add in garlic, ginger, black pepper, a small glug of vinegar, and whatever other little curlicues you need to make the sauce your own. Bring the sauce to a boil, then add a cornstarch slurry to thicken. Et voilà!

Assuming you know how to cook the veggies, cashews, and shrimp, the dish stands or falls based on how good the sauce is. I've made terrible versions of this sauce before, but today's version was quite good. There are many variants of this generically "Asian" concoction; I really ought to write mine down so I don't mess things up next time. Today, I got lucky.