One of our favorite summer Saturday lunches is grilled shrimp with fresh salad from the garden. It’s quick, easy and, importantly, light, given the slightly indulgent dinners that sometimes (ok, often) follow. Here’s a delicious and interesting version of this simple dish, incorporating dried lime, a versatile ingredient that I’ve been experimenting with lately. Originating in the Middle East, dried lime has a complex flavor that’s hard to describe –it’s dusky and a little musty, but it still retains some of the bright fruitiness of fresh lime. (For more about dried limes, and a nice cocktail recipe using this ingredient, see my post here.) Here, it provides a bright and sophisticated accent to a common spice blend of coriander, cumin and cinnamon. I like this new version of our basic lunch so much I may try serving it as the first course of a (more indulgent) dinner for guests.
You can find dried limes at Middle Eastern groceries or online at www.kalustyans.com.
Recipe
(adapted from Broiled Shrimp with Dried Lime, New York Times, May 31. 2010)
Ingredients
About 1 pound of large or jumbo shrimp, peeled and deviened
2 dried limes
2 teaspoons ground cumin
1 teaspoon ground coriander
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
About 2 tablespoons olive oil
Simple Yoghurt Sauce (recipe follows)
Instructions
1. Crush the dried limes into pieces with a mortar and pestle, or put them in a plastic bag and whack them with a rolling pin, saucepan or a hammer.
2. Grind the limes to a fine powder in a spice grinder or a repurposed hand-held coffee grinder. Measure out two teaspoons and add them to a medium-sized bowl. If you’re using whole spices (which I’d recommend for freshness unless you go through ground spices very quickly), grind and measure them as well.
3. Add the spices, salt and pepper and olive oil to a bowl and mix to a paste resembling wet sand.
4. Add the shrimp and toss to coat well.
5. Skewer the shrimp and grill them until cooked through on a medium-hot grill, a few minutes each side. You can also cook them under a broiler, which will only take about two minutes on each side. (In either case, watch the cooking shrimp carefully.)
Serve over simply dressed salad greens, with or without Simple Yoghurt Sauce (recipe follows). A slice of grilled or toasted bread drizzled with olive oil rounds out the dish.
Simple Yoghurt Sauce
1/2 cup plain yoghurt
juice of 1 lime
salt and pepper
optional: 2 finely chopped scallions (white and light green parts only) or 1 tablespoon chopped dill)
Mix the ingredients together and season to taste.
