Burmese Chile Prawns with Cucumber and Avocado Salad

Are you fast in the kitchen? I'm super slow. No matter how much I wish I could be an ingredient ninja, I just can't seem to get things located and prepped very quickly. I took a knife skills class a few months ago, which helped a little, but I think the issue stems more from disorganization than a lack of dexterity.

I'm working on making more 30-minute paleo dinners to share here on A Calculated Whisk. To make sure I'm representing things accurately, I time myself as I cook, which really highlights my lack of culinary efficiency. For this recipe, I started timing, assembled most of the ingredients for the marinade, and then realized I couldn't find a sharp knife to cut the lime in half. I paused the timer while I located a chef's knife and washed it, because I thought you, my wonderful readers, were likely to already have a clean knife on hand. Several other misplaced items and dirty dishes slowed me down and I didn't stop the timer every time, but I still managed to make this meal in JUST over 30 minutes (if you're making rice, you may need an extra 3-5 minutes to get that measured and set up).

So, even if you're less than speedy in the kitchen, like me, you can have this dinner on your plate in just about half an hour.

Today's recipe comes from Sue at Couscous and Consciousness. I was assigned her blog for this month's Secret Recipe Club reveal, and had so much fun browsing through her delicious recipes. (I was also excited to read that Sue is a yoga teacher. I love yoga and have been trying to do at least a few sun salutations every morning. I wish I could take a class with Sue, but she lives in New Zealand, so it would be quite a commute.)

Sue's food is colorful, creative, and usually on the lighter side, so there were a lot of tempting options to choose from. She also has many internationally inspired dishes, which makes browsing her site really fun. For this month's reveal, top contenders included bengali aloo with lemon turmeric aioli, roasted apricot gelato, and plum and cardamon cake. Even though I'm not much of a salad person at all, I also found myself wanting to try this salmon with green tea soba noodle, broad bean, and radish salad and this watermelon and feta salad with preserved lemon dressing.

In the end, these Burmese chile prawns sounded too good to pass up. I followed Sue's recipe for the shrimp almost exactly, but used a dried chili and ground ginger instead of fresh since that's what I had on hand. For the salad, I made a few bigger changes. Sue served these shrimp with an Asian slaw that looked great, but I did not have any cabbage and wanted to use up an avocado that was getting quite ripe. So, instead of a slaw, I made a chopped salad with cucumber, avocado, radishes, and minced shallot. The cooling salad went really well with the spicy shrimp. I kept the tangy, umami-rich dressing almost the same, and it was SO good--I can't wait to try it on all sorts of other things (including, perhaps, salads that actually contain lettuce).

I hope you get a chance to stop by Couscous and Consciousness and check out some of Sue's other recipes! I'm sure you'll find something you love. Also, take a look at the other recipes from this month's SRC reveal in the linkup below this post.

Burmese Chile Prawns with Cucumber and Avocado Salad
Yield: 2-3 servings
Prep time: 20 minutes
Cook time: 10 minutes

Ingredients:

For the prawns (adapted from Couscous & Consciousness):

2 cloves garlic, crushed
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1 dried red Thai chile*
1 teaspoon ground turmeric
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
2 teaspoons toasted sesame oil
1 tablespoon lime juice
1 pound raw shrimp, peeled and deveined

For the dressing (adapted from Couscous & Consciousness):

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 teaspoon toasted sesame oil
1 tablespoon unseasoned rice vinegar
1 tablespoon honey
1 tablespoon coconut aminos or tamari
2 teaspoons fish sauce
1 teaspoon lime juice

For the cucumber and avocado salad:

1 small shallot
1 medium cucumber
8 small radishes
1 large ripe avocado

Sprigs of cilantro, for serving

*If you like things really spicy, I recommend adding a second chile.

Preheat the oven to 350°F and line a baking sheet with foil or parchment.

Put all of the ingredients for the prawns except the shrimp themselves in a blender and pulse until a coarse paste forms, adding a tablespoon or two of water if necessary for blending. Toss the shrimp with the chili paste and set aside to marinate while you prepare the other ingredients.

To make the dressing, whisk all the ingredients together. Mince the shallot and add it to the bowl with the dressing. Letting the shallots macerate for a few minutes will take a bit of their edge off.

Chop the cucumber and radishes into small chunks. Peel and pit the avocado and cut it into chunks of a similar size. Put all the vegetables together in a medium bowl. Add the dressing to the bowl and toss to coat.

Spread the shrimp on the baking sheet in an even layer and bake for 5-10 minutes, flipping once about halfway through, until opaque and cooked through.

Serve the shrimp hot with the salad and white rice or cauliflower rice if desired. Garnish with sprigs of cilantro.

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