Recipe: Mum’s Ginger & Lime Shrimp

I hardly ever remember to make food *before* I get hungry, which is a serious problem. I end up ravenous, unable to think straight, and head directly to foods which require no prep time. This explains my diet of chocolate pudding cups, raw avocado, Jamaican patties and take-out sushi from the shop behind my home.

Just last night I stalled at making dinner by checking email, filling the dishwasher and joining the anti-proroguing group on Facebook, and before you knew it my stomach was growling like a caged tiger. The granola bars in the pantry were starting to look like a nice idea for a main course.

Fortunately, I had planned ahead, and bought some baby bok choi and frozen shrimp at the grocery store on Thursday night. Hooray! Mum’s delicious speedy ginger & lime shrimp to the rescue. (Note: most of Mum’s cooking involves wrapping meat or eggs in pastry, so don’t be fooled into thinking she’s a health freak just because this one dish is good for you).

I swear the whole thing can be chopped, cooked and served in 15 minutes:
2 tbsp. olive oil
1 shallot or small onion, diced
1/3 cup finely chopped fresh raw ginger root
2 cloves fresh garlic, diced fine
2 tbsp. fish sauce
1 generous sprinkling dried spicy red pepper flakes
2 cups shrimp (I like frozen & shelled; less mess)
1/2 cup firm tofu, sliced finely into thin strips (vegetarians: skip shrimp, make it all tofu)
2 cups baby bok choi, sliced into strips
2 limes
lots of fresh cilantro
(optional) an avocado and a cucumber
salt & pepper to taste

Put a frying pan on low heat, drizzle the olive oil about, then toss in the onions to get them browned up. Add garlic as soon as it’s chopped. Next goes the fish sauce, the juice of one lime and red pepper flakes.

Now turn the heat up to medium-high and you can pop in the shrimp and/or tofu. Poke it all about in the pan vigorously with a spatula, coating it with sauce. Remember: nothing says “I love you” like a spatula.

Cook this for about 7 minutes until everything is sizzling and steamy. Add bok choi last and cover your pan to let it steam. This should only take 2-3 mins. Voila! You’re done.

Garnish with salt & pepper, add a generous fistful of fresh cilantro leaves (unless you hate them), slice the other lime into quarters and put on the side.

Bonus: if you have cucumber and avocado in the house, slice into small wedges and scatter over the steaming bowl, to add some cool & creamy contrast to steamy hot & sour shrimpy-ness. Yum!

Serve on its own, or with rice or noodles if you possess the forethought I lack to make those sorts of things in advance (start rice 20-40 mins before, noodles 10 mins before).

Nuts.

Last night I took the GOTrain home to the Oak to visit Mum. I actually almost didn’t make it because I fell asleep, and was awoken by the sound of my cell phone ringing. It was Steve calling to ask if I’d gotten any amusing stalker gifts at work on Valentine’s Day at the store. I didn’t find that out until later, though, because our actual conversation went a lot like this:
Me: Zzzwha? Hello? Whozzit?
Steve: Uh, hi, Moira? It’s me, Steve.
Me: Stevewha? Wait. Time?
Steve: I think it’s quarter to five.
Me: Shit! Gotta go catch train. Must find pants. Call you later. *click*

Ah, indeed, I am the Queen of Phone Etiquette. I should teach courses in it, or perhaps take up a position where I answer calls of a delicate nature about governmental policy. Oh, wait, hang on, that *is* my job. Huh.

Anyway, getting back to Tuesday night; Mum had the makings of supper all ready, and we dined on some scrumptious thin-sliced butter-crisped scallops with rice and vegetables, and a glass of nice white wine on the side. Followed up by baked apples stuffed with raisins and marinated in currant liqueur with a dabble of cream. Deeelish.

In exchange for these culinary wonders, I brought home a passel o’ DVDs for Mum to watch on her new player, because nothing says “that was some damn tasty broccoli” like the gift of Orlando Bloom and Johnny Depp in pirate gear. We ended up watching some of the first episode of ‘Ultraviolet’ with the lights off, in between making runs to the kitchen to check on the nuts.

Ah, the nuts… Union Square Cafe Bar Nuts
courtesy Nigella Lawson
500g assorted unsalted peanuts, cashews, Brazil nuts, hazelnuts (Mum’s favorite), walnuts, pecans (my favorite), and almonds
2 tbsp coarsely chopped fresh rosemary
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
2 tsp dark muscovado sugar
2 tsp Maldon salt
1 tbsp unsalted butter, melted

Preheat the oven to 180C. Toss the nuts in a large bowl to combine and spread them out on a baking sheet. Toast in the oven till they become light golden-brown, about 10 minutes. In a large bowl, combine the rosemary, cayenne, sugar, salt and melted butter. Thoroughly toss the toasted nuts in the spiced butter and serve warm. Once you start eating these, you will never want to stop.

So now I’m sitting at my desk, eating these nuts and thinking of Mum. And trying desperately NOT to think of how nuts are essentially just tasty packets of fat, even BEFORE you roast them and coat them in sugar.