Thai Shrimp
After Mexican cuisine, Thai is the one that I consider the most expressive. I find its freshness, sharp chile accents, and cool citrus flavors habit-forming, so much so that I travel to Thailand at least four times a year. One of the most distinctive of Thai flavors is that of kaffir lime. It resembles a large key lime with deep green, warty skin and leaves that have a marvelous, haunting perfume unmatched by those of any other lime or lemon. In this filling, I use the leaf to perfume the coconut sauce that cooks the shrimp. The fruit only grows in tropical climates and the lime itself is very hard to find here, but its fresh or frozen leaves are sold at all Asian markets that stock a lot of Thai ingredients. For this filling, the leaves should be minced very finely (remove the rib) or, preferably, ground to a fine powder in a spice mill, as its flavor is so strong that any large bits of leaf will dominate every mouthful.
Recipe information
Yield
makes 8 tacos
Ingredients
Preparation
Step 1
In a bowl, combine the kaffir lime, coconut cream, curry paste, sugar, chile, nam pla, and basil. In a large, heavy skillet, add the sauce mixture and the shrimp and bring to a boil slowly over medium heat. Decrease the heat to low and simmer the shrimp until just pink, about 2 1/2 minutes per side. Transfer the sauce and shrimp to a container and let the shrimp cool in the sauce in the refrigerator—about 1 hour. You can prepare the shrimp and sauce up to 1 day ahead, stored airtight in the refrigerator.
Step 2
To serve, lay the tortillas side by side, open face and overlapping on a platter. Spoon some Thai slaw on each tortilla and top each with 4 shrimp with some coconut sauce. Top with salsa and basil, grab, fold, and eat right away. Or build your own taco: lay a tortilla, open face, in one hand. Spoon on some slaw, then shrimp and sauce, salsa, and basil, and eat right away.
