“If you see us in the club we'll be acting real nice”

Friday, April 6, 2007

If you see us on the floor you'll be watching all night
We ain't here to hurt nobody
I'm the type of girl that'll look you dead in the eye
I'm real as they come if you don't know why I'm fly
Seen ya try to switch it up but girl you ain't got to
I'm the wonder woman let me go get my ropes

I love Indian food. I used to think it was really hard to make, but now that I have been dabbling quite a bit in Indian cooking, I must say it is super easy as long as you have good instructions or a good teacher to follow. I get most of my recipes from my mom and some from my mauma (maternal granny) but a lot of recipes I get from my fellow foodie bloggers. The great thing about the foodie bloggers group is that everyone hails from such different backgrounds that you get recipes from different cultures; even amongst the Indian foodie bloggers we have the southies and the northies. You get so many different recipes from every sub culture that with something as simple as a can of black beans you can make 15 different dishes!
Bhatji and I also love Thai food…any of the Asian foods actually, we try doing sushi Sundays, and have Thai food at least once in 2 weeks. I decided that since I have been making so much Indian food at home, I would try my hand a simple Thai dish. A couple of weeks ago we had dinner at Mai Thai with some friends and one of the dishes called Garlic Shrimp and Asparagus was super yummy! So I decided to recreate this dish at home. I was able to emulate it with a little help from a Thai recipe book I have at home but I added my own ingredients and I must say it turned out extremely good. Definitely a keeper according to my Bhatji :o) I served it alongside some Jasmine rice.

Thai Garlic Shrimp and Asparagus:
Ingredients:
½ lb of large shelled and deveined shrimp
1 lb of Asparagus
2 tbl sp of oyster sauce
½ tbl sp of fish sauce
½ tsp of pepper
1 tbl sp of lime juice
2 tbl spns of olive oil
8 garlic cloves chopped
2 tbsp of red chilli garlic ginger paste
½ cup of chicken stock
1/2 tsp of red chilli flakes
Salt to taste
For the rice:
2 cups of Jasmine rice (found in any grocery store in the Asian food isle) to 4 cups of water or you can use Basmati.

To Make:
In a bowl take the shrimp and mix it with the 2 tbsp of red chilli garlic ginger paste, lime juice, and salt and marinate for about 5-10 mins. While the shrimp is marinating, cut the wash and cut the asparagus in about 2-3 inch pieces diagonally. Heat a big pot of water and when it comes to a boil add about 2 tsp of salt and drop the asparagus in it. Let it continue to boil for about 3-5 mins. When the asparagus turns bright green or starts to soften, take it out of the hot water by using a colander and then run some cold tap water over it and then let it sit. Take the 8 cloves of garlic and chop into very small pieces. Heat a sauce pan and heat the olive oil and add the chopped garlic pieces and cook till it starts giving off aroma. Add the marinated shrimp and let it cook for about a minute and then add the asparagus, the fish sauce, the oyster sauce, the chicken stock, the red chilli flakes and the pepper and cook for about 3-5 mins total or until the asparagus is tender and the shrimp starts to shrivel up and turn opaque. Check to see if there is enough salt because all the added sauces and the shrimp already should have enough salt but if it is lacking add some salt to taste. Serve with Jasmine rice.


This was the perfect simple Thai recipe to make at home. And the key thing was that it was also very healthy. Until the next delicious blog entry, Happy Friday!