Since last night was Friday and we normally do not eat meat on Friday (a hold-over from my husband's Catholic upbringing), besides finding an international dish compatible with the South Beach diet, it had to be meatless! I decided that Thai might be good and had looked up a recipe for a shrimp Thai curry on Epicurious as well as a Thai cucumber salad (I thought it would be fun to see the difference between the Swedish cucumber salad and a Thai version!)I headed to Trader Joe's since I had a couple of things to pick up there that only they sell,and got caught in a severe thunder storm with 40 mile an hour winds and rain so heavy you could only crawl toward your destination. It took nearly 20 minutes to drive the less than 3 miles from my office to Trader Joe's, then I had to wait for about ten minutes in the parking lot before I could even attempt to get out of the car. Walking down the aisles with the other drenched rats, I picked up English cucumbers for the salad, some diet food, and since it was still pouring outside I wandered up and down the aisles as time ticked by.
Now you know I am not much for convenience foods,usually they are filled with sugars and salt and fats to cover up the fact that they actually have not flavor. But given Trader Joe's reputation, when I saw their Green Indian curry, I thought, "Why not?"-if it was good it would save me time and since their ingredients listed lemongrass which I had almost no possibility of purveying anywhere within a 30-minute drive, I decided to give it a try.
After getting home, I made Thai green curry shrimp and Thai cucumber salad as part of our Olympic tour around the world, and I was very impressed with the trader Joe's curry sauce- it had a great melding of spices with a depth of flavor and seasoning with just the right amount of heat. And after the lengthy (and hazardous) drive, dinner was on the table in 35minutes, and most of that involved peeling the shrimp. Unfortunately for you, we are all too hungry to take a picture, so you will just have to imagine how wonderful it looked.... and tasted!
Trader Joe's Thai Shrimp Curry
1 pound shrimp, peeled
1 large clove garlic, minced
1 sweet onion cut into chunks
2/3 cup
1 tbsp peanut oil
Heat oil and toss in garlic. Cook onions until they just begin to caramelize. Stir in shrimp and toss until almost pink, then add the curry sauce and stir till shrimp is finished cooking. If you are not on a diet, this would be great over rice, but for us it was delicious as is with the cucumber salad recipe that I found on Epicurious (what else?)
Do you have a favorite Trader Joe's product that you use in your cooking when time is tight? Let me know (I might want to give it a try!)
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