A Meal of the Times

We figured we'd take a break from the pork ribs and try a few shrimp instead.

I returned to a great Singapore-style chili shrimp recipe that Mark Bittman wrote for the New York Times about a year ago. It has all the good stuff -- garlic, ginger, shallots, chilies, fish sauce, lime juice -- and uses tomato paste to achieve that fiery red color. I wish I could post the recipe, but it's not mine, and that wouldn't be right.

And for the second week in a row I tried a dish I'd just read about in the Times Magazine. Tonight it was lemongrass green beans, which were cooked in a mixture of dried shrimp paste, shallots, ginger, chilies, macadamia nuts (!), and, yes, lemongrass.

Starting with the funky scent of shrimp paste, a scent that I'm growing more and more fond of, believe it or not, our kitchen was filled with aromas that went way beyond the norm around here, which is great. And things got even more fun when it was time to dig in.