Thai Tamarind Shrimp

This is another lovely recipe from Hot Thai Kitchen, with minor modifications to better fit my family's tastes. Be absolutely sure you want a very sour dish if you decide to try this! I love tamarind - one of my favorite sweets in mainland China was a tamarind candy from the southwest - but even so this dish is at the upward end of how much sour I can handle in a dish! If you do give this a try, I hope you enjoy!

Thai Tamarind Shrimp

(3 servings)

Ingredients

4 small shallots (chopped)

5 cloves of garlic (crushed/minced)

4 cilantro roots or 10 cilantro stems

4 bird's eye chilis (as desired)

2 tablespoons of vegetable oil

450g / 16oz of shrimp* (peeled/deveined)

1 cup of stock

6 tablespoons of Thai tamarind paste

3 tablespoons of fish sauce

57g / 2oz of palm sugar (chopped)

1/4 cup of red and green chilis** (thinly sliced)

Cooked rice (to serve)

Fried shallots (to garnish)

Fresh cilantro (to garnish)

*We usually buy shrimp in bulk and divide it up to hang out in the freezer till it's needed. So sometimes I'm using 400ish grams, sometimes 500ish.

**Jalapeños, bell peppers, whatever's on hand.

Directions

1) Use a mortar 'n pestle or a food processor of some sort to make a paste from the chopped shallots, garlic, cilantro roots/stems, and bird's eye chilis.

2) Put the oil in a wok or large pan and set the heat to medium-high before adding the shrimp to the hot oil and searing on one side until browned, then flip and sear the other side. Once the shrimp are nicely browned remove them from the wok and set aside. Deglaze the wok with a touch of water if necessary.

3) Turn the heat to medium-low and sauté the paste from step 1 until it is fragrantly and lightly browned.

4) Stir the stock, palm sugar, tamarind paste, and fish sauce to the wok, return the heat to medium-high, and cook - stirring continuously to avoid burning - until the palm sugar dissolves and the sauce has thickened.

5) Return the shrimp to the wok to coat them with the sauce. If they weren't fully cooked at the end of step 2, then keep simmering them in the sauce until they're cooked through.

6) Add the sliced chilis to the wok, turn off the heat, and give everything a stir.

7) Serve the shrimp as is with rice or garnished with fried shallots and/or fresh cilantro, and enjoy!