There are certain foods that I can eat every day, and a good Thai lettuce wrap is one of them! The ingredient that always wins me over is the full fat coconut milk. Add a smooth peanut butter and some acid and spices like soy sauce, cider vinegar and red curry paste, and you’ve pretty much checked all the boxes for great flavor! Another ingredient used often in Thai cuisine is ginger. They can be a bit tricky to peel, and the very best way to do that is to take a teaspoon and simply scrape the skin off. You won’t lose a single bit of ginger! Enjoy this light and easy dish for lunch or dinner this week!
fish sauce
Shrimp Spring Roll Bowls with Sweet Garlic Lime Sauce
Now this is my kind of meal! All of the great flavors of an Asian Shrimp Spring Roll made much easier by combining these wonderful ingredients in a bowl rather than a wonton rapper or rice paper. We featured this delicious dish in my Cool Down Dinners cooking class recently and there were many empty bowls and lots of happy tummies!
The Sweet Garlic Lime Sauce is the perfect flavor enhancer and my technique for pre-cooking the shrimp was the added special touch for this memorable meal. If you haven’t cooked shrimp this way, you really should give it a try for flavor that bursts in your mouth. Just add some Old Bay seasoning and the juice of a lemon in a small pot of water. Bring it to a boil and then turn off the heat. Add your shrimp, cover the pot and let the shrimp steep for 5 minutes. That’s it! Drain the shrimp and then add them to all the rest of the great flavors in this bowl and you have a light and savory meal in minutes!
A Tale of Two Salsas
It’s officially pool party season and chips and salsa are our go-to favorites for backyard barbeques. If you’re looking for some fun new salsas to try, I’ve got some delicious options. The first is one of my favorite recipes for stand-out Salsa Fresca. It uses ingredients found in many diced tomato-based salsas, but you can heat it up or tone it down anyway you like. The second option is a Roasted Eggplant Salsa which was rescued out of my own recipe box—the one I’ve had for years stuffed with recipe clippings, potluck favorites and scribbles on scratch paper. It’s perfect if you’re looking to add something a little different to your salsa spread. Now, all you have to do is grab a chip and dive right in!
