Cookbook review by Tracey Zabar
This dish whips up in a flash, and you can make it as spicy as you like, or not spicy at all. Then you have 659 more dishes to try, and add to your recipe repertoire.
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Changing one or two ingredients in a classic dish can be enough to catapult it into another continent’s flavor boundary. I am talking about Italy’s basil pesto, which includes sweet basil, pine nuts, and olive oil. Switch the pine nuts to peanuts (India’s favorite nut from its northwestern region), incorporate chiles into the puree, and you have a chutney-like sauce. It not only makes succulent shrimp a joy to eat but also offers a beautiful light green backdrop. Serve this with either store-bought rice noodles or the homemade ones called Idiappam.
serves 4
1 pound large shrimp (16 to 20 per pound), peeled and deveined, but tails left on
1/2 teaspoon ground turmeric
4 medium-size cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 cup unsalted dry-roasted peanuts
1/2 cup firmly packed fresh holy basil or sweet basil leaves
2 teaspoons white granulated sugar
1 teaspoon coarse kosher or sea salt
2 or 3 fresh green Thai, cayenne, or serrano chiles, to taste, stems removed
Juice of 1 medium-size lime
2 tablespoons canola oil
1. Toss the shrimp, turmeric, and garlic together in a medium-size bowl. Cover and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes, or as long as overnight, to allow the flavors to permeate the delicate shellfish.
2. Put the peanuts in a food processor, and pile in the basil, sugar, salt, and chiles. Turn the processor on and mince the ingredients, drizzling 1/2 cup water through the chute to form a thick, gritty paste. Then, with the machine still running, drizzle in the lime juice.
3. Heat the oil in a medium-size skillet over medium-high heat. Add the shrimp and sear them evenly, about 30 seconds per side. Add the pesto and stir to coat the shrimp with it. Lower the heat to medium, cover the skillet, and simmer, stirring occasionally, until the shrimp are salmon-orange, curled, and tender, 3 to 5 minutes. Then, serve.
Excerpted from 660 Curries by Raghavan Iyer (Workman). Copyright © 2008 by Raghavan Iyer.
