You guys
know me I love anything remotely Asian and gobble the stuff up like candy! There hasn’t been a lot of new and exciting stuff at Trader Joe’s recently, so I have been picking up products that I see that seem to be popular that I don’t normally buy and I saw this Shrimp Stir Fry just sitting forlornly in the frozen section and I didn’t have high expectations since the frozen Asian food has been hit or miss at Trader Joe’s go
ing from the sublime to the downright awful!
Trader Joe’s Shrimp Stir Fry! This actually looks pretty good on the package and I had high hopes that it would somewhat resemble the cover picture. I was a little concerned about the “Gourmet Pepper Seasonings” whatever in the world that might be. I kind of expected some type of sauce in a smaller bag that you squeezed into the shrimp stir fry when you were cooking it. (One little aside, I hate when they put the seasoning pack in the bag at the bottom of the bag underneath the main dish so you have to empty the bag of it’s contents and retrieve the seasoning bag then put everything in the skillet. It just makes for a big mess!)
As usual, we have a choice to microwave or skillet this one. I always choose the skillet option when doing this type of stir fry thing. I would only microwave this if I had no other choice. Heating it in the skillet just gives you better flavors. So, you heat up the skillet with a bit of oil and cook on medium high heat for several minutes until everything is nice and hot. Then you dump in the seasoning packet. But wait! This one is completely dry! It’s like dumping some salt and pepper on it and saying that it! OK, I followed directions because that’s what I do when I review these dishes. Of course, there is no sauce…
I plated the dish and snapped a picture and tasted a few pieces and thought it was mediocre. The pepper seasoning just didn’t bring enough to the dish. I threw everything back into the skillet added some soy sauce, hoisin and some chili/garlic sauce and that really kicked it into high gear!
I really appreciated all the fresh vegetables. Of course, there wasn’t enough shrimp for me but I know they need to keep costs down. The snap peas, bamboo shoots, broccoli and red peppers all had a good snap to them and tasted fresh. The shrimp was raw out of the bag, which I really appreciate since it cooks in an instant and you don’t want to over cook them. I didn’t serve it over rice, but I could see doing that too.
All in all, I thought this was pretty decent and I wish Trader Joe’s was around when I was single living in my little apartment. I didn’t want to eat TV dinners and ended up cooking a lot for myself but dishes like this would’ve been so easy. College student could appreciate this too!
Out of the bag, this Trader Joe’s Shrimp Stir Fry dish is a 7 bells. Just OK. Doctor it up with some of your own sauces and it goes to an 8 Bells!
