Vegetables with Dried Shrimp and Coconut Milk

Name: Vegetables with Dried Shrimp and Coconut Milk
Yield: makes 4 servings
Ingredients: 2 tablespoons corn, grapeseed, or other neutral oil; 2 tablespoons dried shrimp, optional; 1 pound green beans, trimmed; 1/2 pound carrots, cut into 1/2-inch slices; 1/2 pound eggplant, cut into 1-inch chunks; 1 small fresh chile, stemmed, seeded, and minced, or 1 small dried chile, or to taste; 2 garlic cloves, roughly chopped; 5 nickel-sized slices peeled fresh ginger; 1/3 to 1/2 pound ground pork or turkey, optional; 1 large tomato, roughly chopped, or about 1 cup canned tomatoes, drained and chopped; 1 1/2 cups coconut milk, homemade (page 584) or canned; 1/2 cup unsweetened shredded coconut; Salt to taste; 1 cup roughly chopped fresh basil leaves, preferably Thai

December 14, 2011

This dish contains a lot of flavors, but one distinguishes Indonesian cooking from almost every other: dried shrimp. These tiny crustaceans can be bought at most Asian markets and need only be soaked in hot water for a few minutes before use. (There’s also a shrimp paste, which requires no soaking; you can use this instead.) But, like nam pla—Southeast Asian fish sauce—dried shrimp are an acquired taste for many people. I like them, but I’ve also made this successfully without them when I fear guests will balk. Other vegetables you can prepare this way: I’ve never seen this without green beans, but certainly you could substitute any root vegetable for the carrot and zucchini or any other summer squash for the eggplant.

Recipe notes

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