Red Cotton Shrimp

Red Cotton Shrimp is traditionally made with white shrimp from Taihu Lake in southern China’s Jiangsu Province. Shrimp from the lake are renowned for their flavor and tender, fatty texture. The dish is sweet, sour and crisp.

Legend says the dish was invented during the Han Dynasty. After winning out among a swathe of competing rebel forces that felled the despotic Qin empire, Liu Bang founded the Han Dynasty in 206 BC. Like many wise statesmen, he was aware that his success in power depended not only on the support of the people, but also on the support of his wife, Lü Zhi.

Not long after Liu Bang began his rule, his wife helped him consolidate his power by setting a trap to kill Han Xin, a former ally-turned-potential usurper.

To show his gratitude to Lü, Liu Bang decided to gift her a priceless dress, to be made from extremely rare natural red cotton.

But finding the red cotton proved more difficult than anticipated. Much time passed before one day a local businessman was traveling past a village and saw a red cotton tree in full bloom in a yard. The owner of the yard was a scholar surnamed Xia.

The businessman immediately bought the tree, and later produced a fine red cloth out of the fibers it grew. He offered it to Liu Bang, who, overwhelmed with joy, paid him handsomely and ordered the people of that village to grow red cotton exclusively for the royal house.

Soon it was Empress Lü’s birthday, and a banquet was scheduled. The Empress was grateful for her valuable present and wanted to thank Xia, the scholar, since it was thanks to him that the tree had grown in the first place. She invited Xia to the palace and asked her chef to make a special dish for him.

After careful consideration, the chef made a dish of cotton-boll-shaped balls with shrimp, whose pronunciation in Chinese is the same as the villager’s surname – Xia. Liu Bang and Empress Lü were both very satisfied with the chef’s effort, and since that time, Red Cotton Shrimp has been a popular dish throughout China.

Ingredients: 500g white shrimps, 50g thin cooked ham, 50g dried pork floss, 15g black sesame, two eggs, 100g lard, 10g yellow rice wine, 10g Sichuan pepper powder, 10g sesame oil, 25g salt, 20g Chinese water chestnut powder and a little spring onion.

1. Clean and peel shrimp, then smash. Drain water and place smashed shrimp in a bowl. Mix salt, yellow rice wine, spring onion and sesame oil with the smashed shrimps and mould the mixture into 20-odd balls. Separate egg- white and whip until foamy. Add Chinese water chestnut powder as batter to the shrimp balls.

2. Sprinkle minced ham on the balls.

3. Heat lard in a pan and fry shrimp balls until they float on the oil. Place on serving plate.

4. Sprinkle dried pork floss and black sesame around the shrimp balls as decoration. Your Red Cotton Shrimp dish is ready to be served!