Shrimpy snacks

I’ve got a problem with shrimp. Not so much a problem with shrimp, per se, but with the fact that most of the shrimp you can find at your average grocery store tastes sort of, well, like poo. I don’t mean this in the figurative sense of, “geez, this shrimp tastes vaguely gross.” Nope. I mean it in the very, actually, literal sense of tasting like excrement. This is quite possibly because most of the farmed shrimp in the world are bathing in hideous bacteria, and therefore also taste awful. I’ve found exactly one type of shrimp in the past year that was phenomenally good – wild caught shell-on red shrimp from Argentina. These lovely creatures taste more like sweet lobster meat than shrimp. Probably not coincidentally, according to Consumer Reports, these are among the least bacterified of them all.

Unfortunately, my local grocery store is no longer carrying them, so when I went shopping last week, I made do with some wild caught North American shrimp. These shrimp have been peeled, deveined and frozen. I typically really enjoy shrimp that have been cooked in their shells, as I find them way more tasty and delicious. So, I am left with a bit of a dilemma. These shrimp taste better than their farm-raised, bacteria-coated counterparts, but still lack the rich, shrimpy flavor that I love so much in the less-processed beauties from Argentina. To solve this problem, I decided to pep them up a bit with some Southeast Asian flavors. Hence, the tod mun goong, or fried curry shrimp cakes, with sweet and tangy dipping sauce.

You can also make these with fish, by the way, but here’s the process that I followed for the shrimp cakes:

Thaw out 1 lb. frozen shrimp. Mine were peeled and deveined, so once they were thawed, all I had to do was throw them in the food processor and grind them into a gooey paste. Once you have your shrimp goo (sorry, that sounds gross, and it sort of is, to be honest), then you put it in a bowl and mix in the following herbs and seasonings: minced lemongrass, finely minced kaffir lime leaf, a touch of fish sauce, a little salt, a little sugar, and about a tbsp of red curry paste. Add an egg yolk, a little bit of tapioca starch (I used corn starch, since I was out of tapioca starch), and also some little tiny bits of cucumber in place of the traditional long bean slices. Mix, form patties, and if you like, dip in panko breadcrumbs (this is not necessary, but it does make the gooey patties easier to handle when you are putting them in the hot oil). Fry until brown and crispy, and then serve with a sweet chili sauce made of vinegar, water, sugar, salt, garlic and chilis, and slices of cucumber.

This appetizer takes some really lackluster shrimp and makes them so much more delicious. If you’re bored of always just pouring plain shrimp into a pan with some oil and garlic, give these shrimpy snacks a shot. You won’t regret it.

 

 

 

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

DF Mudslides

So, first, I know my photography skills stink. I know nothing about lighting and I am using my iPhone camera with its dirty lens to take photos. There’s a glare off of everything, and I didn’t take the time to artfully arrange my ice cubes in an artful arc across a charming wooden cutting board. But that’s okay. I just don’t have time for that. Instead, please accept this garishly lit photo of my ingredients in front of my toaster.

I recently found some coconut milk in these fun little cardboard cube packages and decided to give them a try. So I bought a pack of 6 (if I remember correctly, it was way cheaper than the cans). I’ve been using it in some recipes (the coconut and pandan leaf jello dessert, a Panang curry sauce). Also, I generally don’t drink milk because of the um… er… unpleasant side effects, so I’ve been enjoying the coconut cream in my morning coffee.

The other night as I was rummaging through the liquor cabinet, I stumbled across a half-full bottle of Kahlua that some friends passed on to us when they moved. Sudden inspiration struck, and I started googling Kahlua drink recipes. Most of them seemed to involve some kind of milk or heavy cream, so I started thinking about how I could still have a mudslide without the dairy. And this is what I came up with: 1 oz Kahlua, 2 oz vodka, 1 oz coconut milk poured over ice and then stirred. Delicious, coconutty, and sweet, it was a nice dessert drink to enjoy while sitting around the kitchen table rehashing the details of the Mueller probe.