Curry Shrimp Salad

 

All of our camera equipment has finally arrived and I've been practicing using a tripod and learning more about photography from my very patient husband. I've already discovered how important lighting is and with our apartment facing another building good lighting can be hard to come by, but it's been fun experimenting. On top of learning how to operate our new camera I've also been practicing sprucing them up on photoshop. That's a lot to learn for a girl like me who can never remember where I put my purse let alone keep up with aperture and ISO talk. 

I know my last post also featured shrimp as the main ingredient but it was on sale at the grocery store where I work and I couldn't resist buying it and thinking of a dish to incorporate it in. I got my inspiration from the cookbook "The Best Recipe" which is an excellent resource for any home cook. They test and re-test every recipe to find the best results (and here I go changing it). The originial recipe calls for chicken in place of shrimp and chili powder in place of curry so if you don't have curry powder hanging around feel free to experiment. I used shrimp because my husband very rarely eats meat, only on special occasions, or if it would seem rude not to. While we were traveling around Vietnam we encountered a few occasions where language was a major barrier and while we communicated well that we wanted to eat, what exactly we wanted to eat was much harder to convey. But my lovely husband ate his pho that was loaded with 3 kinds of red meat without complaint after I was told over and over that refusing food was a huge insult in Vietnamese culture. Plus we were on an adventure and some rules are meant to be broken. But on an everyday basis we happily eat only beans, grains, and vegetables and occasionally seafood that is sustainable and with no added preservatives or color enhancers, of course! You are what you eat after all and it's important for us to know where our food comes from and to make sure it's sourced from environmentally responsible suppliers.  


Placing the salad in a cup of butter lettuce makes for an excellent eye popping presentation and gives it a soft bite as you dig in. Butter lettuce has a sweet flavor and tender texture which pairs nicely with the curry shrimp salad. It's quite tasty and got two thumbs up from my better half. I hope you enjoy it as much as we did. 

 

Adapted from the cookbook "The Best Recipe"
Curry Shrimp Salad
Serves 4

2 teaspoons curry powder
1 teaspoon cumin
salt
1 pound raw shrimp, peeled and deveined
2 teaspoons vegetable oil
4 plum tomatoes, cored and diced
1 avocado, diced
3 tablespoons lemon juice
3/4 cup plain yogurt
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 large garlic clove, minced

Heat broiler. Mix curry powder, cumin, and salt to taste in a small bowl. Cover shrimp with vegetable oil and add spice mixture, coating evenly with a large spoon. Broil shrimp, stirring once, until shrimp is cooked, about 4 minutes. Set aside.

Place diced tomato and avocado in a medium bowl and squeeze 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice over mixture to prevent browning of the avocado.

Whisk yogurt, olive oil, garlic, 2 tablespoons lemon juice, and salt together in a small bowl.

Once shrimp has cooled chop each shrimp into 3 pieces and add to tomato and avocado mixture. Toss lightly. Gently fold yogurt dressing into shrimp mixture until combined.

Serve on a leaf of butter lettuce.