Food and Feng Shui

So now you’re ready to use all of your burners every day, cook elementally and Yin/Yang balanced Chinese meals, fill your home with amazing aromas, and sit down to a glorious meal at your prosperous dining table. Here’s my Feng Shui Chinese Food Recipe for Sweet and Sour Shrimp to get you started.

Leslie's Feng Shui Sweet and Sour Shrimp
2/3 pound medium Shrimp (peeled and de-veined)
1 tsp. soy sauce
1 tsp. cornstarch
Sauce:
2 ½ Tbsp. cornstarch
1/3 cup soy sauce
4 Tbsp. rice wine vinegar
4 Tbsp. (packed) dark brown sugar
1 tsp. ground ginger
1 tsp. garlic powder
20 ounce can pineapple chunks (in juice)
1 celery stalk, diagonally cut very thin
1 carrot, diagonally cut very thin
1 medium onion, julienne cut (thin strips from halved onion sliced from root to top)
1 red bell pepper, cut into thin strips
1 Tbsp. oil

Marinate shrimp in 1 tsp. soy sauce and 1 tsp. cornstarch for about 20 minutes (in the refrigerator.)
In a bowl or large measuring cup mix sauce ingredients: 2 ½ Tbsp. cornstarch, 1/3 cup soy sauce (add soy sauce slowly and stir to avoid lumps), rice wine vinegar, dark brown sugar, ground ginger, garlic powder, and the juice from the pineapple chunks (reserve the pineapple chunks for later in the recipe.) Set sauce aside.
Heat wok or stir-fry pan over medium-high heat and add oil. When oil is hot, add shrimp (with marinade) to the pan and stir-fry until just cooked (shrimp will start to curl and turn pink.) Remove shrimp to bowl or plate.
Add more oil to wok or pan if needed and stir-fry celery and carrot to soften and remove the vegetables to a bowl (not the one with the shrimp.)
Add more oil if needed and add onion and stir-fry briefly to soften. Add back carrots and celery along with bell pepper and stir-fry for 1-2 minutes. Add pineapple chunks to wok or pan and add back the shrimp. Stir-fry for a few seconds. Mix sauce and pour into wok or pan. Stir everything in the wok or pan and bring to a boil so the mixture can thicken.
Immediately remove from heat and serve with Chinese white rice or over crispy noodles. Enjoy your Feng Shui masterpiece!
Makes 3 servings
Notes: Sweet and Sour is a wonderfully delicious way to experience the Yin and Yang of Chinese cooking. In this recipe a variety of colors are used in the vegetables to increase the elemental balance. Additionally, in Chinese cooking it is common for most of the ingredients to be the same shape. This is done so the ingredients cook evenly together, so the ingredients balance each other, and because it looks pretty. If you decide not to use the celery and carrot you can cut all the vegetables into chunks to match the pineapple and the shrimp shapes. Chunks of celery and carrot would overpower the dish and take too long to cook.

Recipe reprinted with permission from Certified Feng Shui Consultant Leslie Jacobson.