A tumble of greens tossed with tons of garlic, ginger and scallions? Sure. Cookbook author Fuchsia Dunlop long ago introduced us to hot oil-flashing, the Cantonese trick of dousing leafy greens with sizzling hot oil as a way of gently tenderizing them while drawing out tons of flavors from the aromatics. A potent one-­two punch of cooking and flavoring.

But doing the same thing to shrimp? That was new to me. Deliciously so.

I was at Brother Seafood Restaurant in Hong Kong, a family-run spot that specializes in old-school Hong Kong cooking, seafood and not. Eddy Au Man Kit, who runs the kitchen his father and uncles opened decades ago, offered to show me this simple recipe that delivers perfectly tender, wonderfully seasoned shrimp.

And it was impossibly simple. He started with raw, shell-on shrimp that he sliced in half lengthwise and arranged on a platter. He topped them with minced garlic and a bit of sugar and salt, then steamed them for just a couple minutes, cooking them, but just barely. That, of course, is key to keeping them tender, not rubbery and overcooked.

Next, more flavorings. Fresh ginger, of course. Also sliced scallions and slivers of fresh chilies. But the magic was the ingredient that alone offered little flavor of its own—blazing hot neutral oil.

Au Man Kit liberally drizzled the hot oil all over the shrimp. The sizzle was immediate. So were the aromas, the oil drawing out everything delicious from the garlic, ginger, scallions and chilies. When the oil had done its work, the finishing flourish was a drizzle of soy sauce, adding a briny-savory note that tied everything together.

The result was at once simple and boldly flavored. And though we ate the shrimp as is, they begged for a plate of rice, which is ideal for sopping up all those flavors. The perfect way to coerce tons of flavor from simple ingredients.