XO Shrimp

This is one of the many ways in which Hong Kong chefs use XO sauce as the dominant flavoring ingredient in a recipe. The dish is made with what local chefs often call a “dry” sauce because the recipe contains no stock and the XO sauce and all of the other ingredients are absorbed by the shrimp as the dish cooks. A small amount of water in the sauce keeps the mixture moist, but it evaporates in the cooking. The shrimp are first blanched in stock to seal them, which does not affect their “dry