Looking for a simple Shrimp Dish? Fantastic. You’ve found the right blogpost. Let me help you out here. GRILLED Shrimp with a Sweet Thai Chili Sauce is a great way to start. A few ingredients and some good Shrimp and we are on our way to a spicy and refreshing meal. One of the first things I looked for when I went to Thailand was “Sweet Chili or Chilli Sauce” since so much of our USA Thai inspired food includes that. Sweet Chili Sauce was everywhere. Some very thin. Some quite thick. Every thing we had seemed to come with a few dipping sauces which revolved around hot chiles, something sweet or sour or both, fish sauce, some soy, garlic or shallots. Clean tasting and simple. In the Patong Beach Night Market on Phuket Island we enjoyed their Thai Fried chicken which came with the Sweet Chili sauce. Later that night we had grilled local seafoods which came with a vingary pungent chili sauce and another version of a sweet chili sauce. A name for the Sweet Chili Sauce is NAM CHIM KAI. Let’s start with the sauce because it will be much tastier if it sits overnight.
4 Thai, Fresno, or Red Chiles plus 1 tsp dried hot chile flakes (optional)
5 whole cloves of garlic
1 TBS. Rice Wine Vinegar
1/8 cup Honey
Salt to taste
1 tbs. Ketchup
1/2 tsp. Fish Sauce
Add the Chiles and garlic and pulse in a food processor until they have coarsely broken down. Now add all the other ingredients and pulse until they are blended. Pour into a container and cover. Let this sit in the refrigerator overnight.
Bring to Room Temperature before using on Day 2.
for 4 people.
24 16-20 size Wild Shrimp, Peeled and deveined
juice of 1/2 lime
1 tsp. FISH SAUCE
1 minced Thai Basil (or regular Sweet) leaf
2 Tbs. Sesame Oil
Kosher Salt
White Pepper
Vegetable Oil
Chopped Romaine Lettuce, about 2 heads.
2 chopped green onions
Marinade the Shrimp for 30 minutes in a mixture of the fish Sauce, Basil, 1 tbs. Sesame Oil, salt, pepper to taste. Drain. Toss them with the remaining sesame oil and grill over a medium flame only for about 2 minutes on each side. Or, you can pan “grill” them in a hot cast iron pan or grilling pan just be sure to oil the surface before you heat it up. Add the Lime juice to the sauce. Pour the sauce into a stainless steel mixing bowl large enough to add the hot fried shrimp. Make sure each one of the shrimp is nicely coated with the sauce. Serve on top of beds of Chopped Romaine. Top with green onions. Done. Serve with sticky rice. HAPPY COOKING!!
A FOOD OBSESSION 