San Antonio Express-News (Sunday)
GULF CRUSTACEANS OPENING UP A WORLD OF POSSIBILITIES.
GLOBAL FLAVORS TRANSPORT THIS LONE STAR FAVORITE
Shrimp tacos. Shrimp ceviche. Shrimp cocktails.
As much as Texas loves its Mexican-influenced shrimp dishes, there’s a whole world of delicious ways to enjoy those plump and pink beauties — and we’re going to explore several.
And the timing couldn’t be better: Hungry seafood fans can once again chow down on Gulfcaught crustaceans after Texas reopened its waters to commercial shrimping July 15. Shrimping had briefly been closed to protect brown shrimp populations, giving them much-needed time to reach a more
marketable size.
The natural sweetness of shrimp makes it a perfect foil to the fiery flavors found across several Asian countries.
That’s probably most evident in a Thai-style shrimp and squid salad called yum kratiem peppered with huge quantities of raw shallot and garlic. Some of the burn of the garlic and shallot mellows out in a bath of lime juice and fish sauce, but it’s the shrimp that balances those biting ingredients.
We explore sweetness versus pungency once again in a simple and speedy shrimp curry loaded with mustard oil, mustard seeds and a spice rack’s worth of exotic aromatics. Sure, it might resemble a shrimp taco when served with a disc of the tortillalike Indian flatbread called chapati, but don’t be fooled.
Shrimp also play nicely with more earthy flavors. In West Africa, for example, shrimp can be found served in a vegetablerich sauce thickened with peanut butter and coconut milk. In this case, shrimp bring a welcome dose of oceanic refreshment to the sweet party.
Familiar flavors, such as shrimp and pasta in pesto, are also worth a fresh look. There’s a Roman dish in which shrimp is paired with zucchini and mint, then stuffed into ravioli or tossed with fresh noodles.
We’ve taken those flavors and lightened them considerably by removing the pasta and transforming the zucchini into a noodlelike base with the help of a spiralizer or mandoline.
One of the biggest advantages of cooking with shrimp over, say, beef brisket or pork ribs is that dinner can be on the table in 10 minutes instead of 10 hours.
We’re not preparing anything quite that speedy with this batch of recipes, but none should take more than 30 to 40 minutes from start to finish.