Improvised shrimp dish

I was going to make a shrimp curry [1] for supper, but realized on my way our of the store that we had had curry quite recently, and as I got back to my door that this meant we didn't have the apple I had been planning on using.

I spent some time jotting down possible alternatives. What I wound up with was shrimp cooked with onions and a bit of celery, in a sauce made from chicken broth, black bean paste, and ginger paste. That's based on what we had in the house: in particular, there was fresh celery because cattitude made split pea soup yesterday.

By the time I needed to cook, I was feeling quite tired (if I'd been that tired at 4:30 I wouldn't have bought the shrimp in the first place), so am pleased that I came up with something that worked without a recipe.

Dinner basically worked, but if I make this again I will definitely reduce the amount of black bean: it makes things salty, and overwhelmed the meal. I'm writing it down so I can improve it next time, not because I'm satisfied with it.

Approximate method:

Ingredients:

One medium yellow onion, chopped
One stalk celery, cut fairly small
Half a pound of medium shrimp, peeled

Black bean paste, as much as comes out when I stick a knife into the bottle 2-3 times, and scrape it into a bowl with a spoon (that's the amount I will try next time)
Ginger paste, something like half an ounce, squeezed out of the tube until it looks right. (In New York I got a thick ginger paste in jars, from an Indian grocery on Lexington Avenue. Tonight I used Gourmet Garden brand, which comes in tubes and mixes more easily with other things. It also has more ingredients, some of which are probably in there to help it flow.)
Chicken broth (something out of a box this time), a couple of tablespoons
Olive oil
Rice, to be cooked separately

Start the rice first, so things will come out at about the same time. (I use white basmati and cook it in a saucepan on the stovetop, but Carolina or brown basmati or even a short-grain white rice would probably work; use what you like here [2].)

To make the sauce, mix the ginger paste, black bean paste, and broth with a spoon, then set it aside.
Saute the onions in the olive oil over low to medium heat, so they cook gently
Somewhere in here, microwave the sauce for a few seconds, then set it aside again (I had set the microwave timer to 33 seconds and took it out after about 20, and 15 would probably be about right: the goal here is for the sauce to be warm when it goes over the shrimp and vegetables, not to caramelize it).
After a few minutes, when the onions are soft, add the shrimp and celery. Cook, stirring, until the shrimp are pink all the way through.
Pour the sauce onto the shrimp and vegetable mixture, stir to coat, and serve over rice.

Notes for next time: as noted above, less black bean paste, and maybe more broth (for volume of sauce). I should have used the whole rib of celery.

[1] My modified curry spicing is based on the Penzey's "Singapore seasoning," which gets most of its heat from black pepper; dried ginger; and cumin. I'm still fiddling with it, and plan to try a bit of cinnamon next time.
[2] "take into account special interest groups, such as five-year-olds"