My husband’s current favorite dinner category is “spicy tomato seafood.” This, as you may well know, is a generous category with delicious offerings: puttanesca, bouillabaisse (with added chile flakes) and all manner of seafood stews. It doesn’t hurt, either, that spicy tomato seafood makes good use of pantry and freezer staples: canned tomatoes, garlic, chile flakes or pastes, canned fishes or frozen goodies from the sea.
A couple of weeks ago I threw together a spicy shrimp pasta situation using defrosted shell-on shrimp, Calabrian chile paste and squid-ink spaghetti I had forgotten I had, and we were instantly transported to some gorgeous part of the Italian coast we’ve never been to.
So I’m happy for Sue Li’s new ginger-scallion stir-fried shrimp recipe, another entry in the spicy tomato seafood roster. The tomato part is tomato paste, that dependable umami booster; the seafood is peeled and deveined shrimp. The spicy element is a good dose of ginger, plus the chile flakes I might add in step 3 or the chile crisp I’ll inevitably spoon over the finished dish. And, like all spicy tomato seafood, this dish wants some sort of carb to soak up all the briny, spicy goodness. I’m going to do rice, but noodles would also be great.
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Ginger-Scallion Stir-Fried Shrimp
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Today’s specials:
One-pot Roman chicken cacciatore with potatoes: We don’t talk enough about how chicken and anchovies are so, so good together. Case in point: this new recipe from Cybelle Tondu, tangy and punchy with white wine and capers.
Chickpea picadillo: I will take any excuse to bring home tomatillos, those plump, pale green orbs in their papery jackets. Along with a poblano and a couple of jalapeños, they add a balanced, fresh flavor to this Mexican picadillo from Rick Martínez.
Salmon roasted in butter: It’s salmon roasted in butter. It’s also a classic Mark Bittman recipe, with five stars and over 10,000 reviews, but I really think the salmon and the butter are the main selling points here.
Chicken curry laksa: I’ve been thinking of this Lara Lee recipe ever since I watched this video of Lara making her gorgeous dish on our Instagram page. I’m convinced the only way to get these noodles out of my head is to get them into my belly.
Ina Garten’s bourbon chocolate pecan pie: The Kentucky Derby is this Saturday, which means it’s time to 1. put on your fanciest hat, 2. call your pet by its full name (Sir Reginald Q. Puppington) and 3. make this glorious pie.
