Honey Walnut Tempura Shrimp

Tomorrow is national shrimp day, I don't know who comes up with all these food holidays, but I am more than happy to celebrate them! The honey walnut shrimp from Panda Express is one of my favorite quick Chinese dishes, while this recipe isn't exactly the same it tastes so similar and is so sweet and yummy! 

This recipe is for two people, if you are feeding more double recipe for 4-5 servings. 

Ingredients
For walnuts:

• 1/2 cup chopped walnuts
• 2/3 cup brown sugar
• 1 cup water

For sauce:

• 3 tbsp honey
• 1/2 cup mayonnaise 
• 1 tbsp milk
• 1 tbsp brown sugar
• 1 tsp salt

For shrimp: 

• 1/2 box tempura batter - found in Asian section at grocery store. 
• 1 cup ice cold water
• 1/2 pound medium shrimp, already cooked. 
• 1-2 cups vegetable oil for frying. 

Directions:

To make candied walnuts:

• ​Bring 1 cup water, chopped walnuts, and brown sugar to a boil. 
• Allow to boil for a few minutes and then drain out the water in a colander and put walnuts on a paper towel lined plate to dry. 

To make the sauce:

• Mix mayonnaise, honey, milk, brown sugar, and salt in a sauce pan and stir over low-medium heat until fully combined. 
• Set aside. 

To make the tempura shrimp:

• Heat vegetable oil in a wok / deep saute pan. You want around an inch of oil so the shrimp will be fully submerged. Heat over no higher than medium heat. You do not want the oil so hot it's popping out of the pan. Shrimp should take a couple minutes each to fry up. 
• ​Follow instructions on tempura batter box, I only need to use half of the box for half pound shrimp. This was about 1 cup ice water to half the bag of tempura mix. 
• Set up your stove as pictured above to make the whole process easy on yourself. You want the oil, tempura batter, cooked shrimp, and a paper towel lined plate. 
• Use kitchen tongs to grab each shrimp, dip in tempura mix, and place in the oil. When golden brown move from oil to a paper towel lined plate. 
• You can continuously place new shrimp into oil as you take out the completed ones, going through the process until all are fried. You never want more than a single layer of shrimp in the oil at once so they don't stick together. 

Putting it all together:

• ​Place cooked shrimp in a bowl, pour the walnuts and honey sauce over the shrimp. 
• GENTLY stir to fully coat shrimp in the sauce. Seriously, do this gently so you don't break the tempura batter off of the shrimp! 
• Serve up and enjoy!