Sambal, anyone?

I have enlisted my sister, Marcia, to be a new regular contributor as the food editor. Here is her first installment. Trust me, this is just what you need for your next Bunko night when all your girlfriends are over and you need something that looks fancy but is doable even with small children hanging all over you.

From Marcia…
Before I just give over my recipe for Shrimp Sambal, you should probably know…
1. I throw away toys smaller than my palm while my kids are at school. [cue evil laughter]
2. Even though it’s glued to my ear, I have an aversion to the phone…except for when I‘m talking to my sisters because I can say, “Ok, bye” at any point in the conversation and hang up within 2 seconds and nobody gets hurt
3. I am secretly a Dolly Parton fan, boobies and all
4. I can taste recipes as I read them … so, yeah, I have super powers.
5. I am a bona fide cookbook junky. At three in the morning, my kids are tripping over Jacques, Julia, and Martha to crawl into bed with me. But my latest fetish is for vintage regional cookbooks … like my 1955 Baton Rouge Ladies’ Society cookbook where recipes are signed by “Mrs. Dudley W. Coates, Jr.” and the like, and every recipe calls for either gelatin or bourbon.
6. And despite the Go-Gurt I sent to work with Kenton today, I am food snob. There. I said it.


Shrimp Sambal

2 T chili garlic sauce
3 medium cloves garlic, peeled
1 one-inch piece fresh ginger, peeled and coarsely chopped
Red pepper flakes, to taste
1 tsp ground turmeric
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp good curry powder (I actually really like McCormick)
2 ½ T vegetable or canola oil
1 red pepper, thinly sliced
2 medium red onions, thinly sliced
1 14oz can coconut milk, shaken (light coconut milk also works here)
2 T light brown sugar
½ tsp coarse salt
2 lbs shrimp, ready for sautéing
3 T freshly squeezed lime juice
¼ C chopped, fresh cilantro
¼ C chopped peanuts

Make the sambal paste: in the bowl of a food processor (I use a mini food processor, which works really well) fitted with a metal blade, combine chili sauce, garlic, ginger, cumin, turmeric, and curry powder. Process until smooth.
In a large skillet, heat ½ T oil over medium high heat. Add shrimp and cook just until pink on both sides. Don’t over cook. Remove the shrimp to plate. Reduce heat to medium and heat remaining 2 T oil. Add sambal paste and red pepper flakes, and cook, stirring occasionally, until fragrant, about 2 minutes. Add onion and red pepper, and cook until softened, about 3 to 5 minutes more. Stir in coconut milk, sugar, salt and shrimp and cook until heated through, about 2 minutes. Remove from heat, transfer to serving dish, sprinkle with lime juice, cilantro and chopped peanuts. Serve immediately.

I like to serve this with brown rice or a big crispy noodle cake I make by sautéing cooked angel hair pasta in a nonstick skillet with oil until really brown and crispy. Flip the cake out onto a plate and slide it back into the skillet to cook on the other side. Cut into wedges and serve with the sambal all drippy and luscious on top.

(Food Porn)