April 8, 2009

Maine Shrimp in Peanut Sauce

This simple dish is inspired by A Teen's Guide to Going Vegetarian by Judy Krizmanic, a book I read a lot in my teenage vegetarian days. I used to meatify it by adding chicken dredged in cornstarch, but I wanted to sub in some local Maine shrimp.

I was told by the nice seafood guy at Hannaford that Maine shrimp are out of season... what? food that actually can't be gotten out of season? Unheard of! But he was helpful and pointed out frozen Maine shrimp that were on sale (the brand is Cozy Harbor, out of Portland).

For the sauce, I used (with a little help from the Joy):
1/2 c. peanut butter
4 t brown sugar
1 T. fish sauce
1 T. soy sauce
juice of 1/2 lime

Combine ingredients in a saucepan and heat over medium heat. Whisk in 1/2 cup hot water and simmer over low head until flavors are well blended, 15 to 20 minutes.

Stir in thawed shrimp and heat through, serve over angel hair pasta or spaghetti, garnished with julienned carrots and cucumbers, chopped peanuts, and sliced green onions. I love this dish and hope you do too, because it's simple, fresh, delicious and can be tweaked to your own preferences.