Day 6: Curry Shrimp and Snow Peas

To kick off week two of our four-week meal plan, we have deputy editor Noelle Howey. She oversees several sections of the magazine including the money section, the life lessons essays, and the stories about real women. She also leading this month's No-Obligation Book Club on Simply Stated.

 

I love Thai food. I would be happy to dine three times a day on Tom Kha Gai (coconut chicken soup) alone, even though this would be next to impossible to do where I live in northern New Jersey, where there is a real paucity of Thai restaurants. So I was thrilled to make Curry Shrimp with Snow Peas, a Thai-infused dish.

 

 

Well, I was thrilled until I noticed that the price of shrimp has skyrocketed where I live, up to $13-$16 per pound (is this oil spill-related?). And until I trekked to three different supermarkets—including Whole Foods!—in search of snow peas and bean sprouts, with no luck whatsoever. (At the mention of bean sprouts, one market employee looked as perplexed as if I'd asked for, oh, I don't know, ostrich eggs. With furrowed brow, he led me, somewhat quizzically, to a display of alfalfa sprouts.)

 

 

 

This is all just to say: My version of the recipe was a bit improvised. I used sugar snap peas to stand in for the snow peas and, well, nothing to substitute for the bean sprouts. Because I don't love raw sugar snaps, I steamed them briefly in the microwave (covered, with a tablespoon of water added, for two minutes), and then proceeded with the rest of the instructions. On the plus side, the dish was extremely healthy, and even my picky eight-year-old ate the shrimp. On the minus side, even my picky eight-year-old ate the shrimp—which means it was a little bland for my taste. And I don't say that lightly: I'm a piker when it comes to spiciness. Still, it needed a little something extra. (I'm guessing bean sprouts and snow peas might have done the trick.)

 

 

Have you tried this recipe? Let us know how you liked it in the comments, and share your photos by following @RealSimpleFood on Twitter and using the hashtag #OctDinner.