Dry Curry of Shrimp

This dish is based on a recipe from Neil Perry's Good Food. It's a good example of my inability to follow a recipe exactly. I always change something. Usually I add more of at least one ingredient: garlic, cheese, etc. In this case, I had to substiute yellow mustard seeds for black as I could not find black. I also read a bit too quickly and prepared the tomatoes wrong. Maybe not wrong, but differently. But, you know what? It tasted great and I'd make the same changes again!

Served over white rice flavored with a little sea salt and sesame oil, we really enjoyed it! I had planned to serve it one night but we ended up going out so I had all the ingredients prepped. That done, it came together in minutes. So if you're pressed for time, do the prep a day ahead!


Dry Curry of Shrimp

• About 20 large shrimp, peeled and deveined
• 3 vine-ripened tomatoes
• Vegetable oil
• 1 1/2 inch piece of fresh ginger, peeled and roughly chopped
• 6 cloves garlic, chopped
• 2 tsp. yellow mustard seeds (use black if you can find them)
• 2 dried red chillies, seeded and roughly chopped
• 1/4 tsp. turmeric
• 1 tsp. sea salt
• 1/4 tsp. ground pepper
• about 12 1-foot long Asian long beans (snake beans) or a bunch of green beans if you can't get snake, cut into 1 inch pieces
• juice of 1 lime

Bring a small pot of water to a boil. Preheat oven to 300F. Cut and X in the bottom of each tomato, then dunk into the boiling water for about 10 seconds. Remove with a slotted spoon and then dunk in cold water. When cool enough to handle, peel the whole tomatoes. Put them on a baking sheet and drizzle with just a little oil. Roast them for about 1 1/2 hours. When you take them out of the oven, put them in a bowl to cool a bit then mash the flesh with the back of a fork.

Pound the ginger and garlic with a mortar and pestle to form a rough paste. Remove and set aside.

Crush the mustard seeds with the chilli in the moratr then stir in the turmeric, salt and pepper. Set aside.

In a wok, heat about a tablespoon of oil. Cook the ginger-garlic paste until lightly colored and caramelized. Add the spice mixtures and stir until fragrant. Add the tomatoes and cook until just slightly thickened, about 3-4 minutes. Pour into a bowl and then wipe the wok clean with a damp papertowel.

Heat another tablespoon of oil in the wok and stir-fry the shrimp over high heat until cooked, working in batches if needed. Set them aside in another bowl. Add the beans and stir-fry until they are heated thru and bright green. Add the shrimp and tomato mixture and mix together well. Finish with the lime juice.

Serve over steamed rice - use white, brown, jasmine or even basmati.