Shrimp with Tamarind and Avocado

Another grey day. How many of these do we get? How many hours?

I went to IKEA today and there was a moment, in between browsing rugs and eating the requisite IKEA hotdog, when I saw the bank of lights. I was drawn like a moth.

When I moved to Seattle a friend told me about being drawn to lamps in the winter. I didn't believe her. Lightbulbs just aren't that bright. But 50 of them, all clustered together, it's like the sun.

I miss the sun.

So tonight, I made some hot food. I can't do any more european grey mush, the world is grey enough. Spicy shrimp with tamarind and avocado.

Bought some shrimp at the fish market near the junction (it's not mutual fish, but it will do in a pinch). They looked charming, really. Nice and moist, a good size. Can't imagine they came all the way from Indonesia but I'm pretending I don't know because I need hot food.

Then off to PCC for tamarind. They didn't have the block of tamarind that the recipe calls for, but they had something called tamarind concentrate which worked splendidly. I used about 3 T, you could probably cut it back to 2 or 2.5 T.

Made it home just minutes before Cobe pulled in the driveway. I started mincing and had him make some rice. The whole thing was done in an hour.

Oh and in case shrimp freak you out, I took a picture to show you how to devein them. It sounds hard, but it's easy really. They have a vein (or really two veins, but the ones I got had one vein already removed). You cut the shell and pull it off. Then use a little knife to pull out the vein on each side.

I kind of like doing it. It's like a medical procedure.

The dish came out wonderfully. A bit indonesian even, though I'm not sure they have avocados in Indonesia. I used 2 serranos. It needed more.

Of course it's possible my taste buds have been dulled by Cobe's habanero obsession.

Recipe here