Thai Sweet & Sour Shellfish

This recipe comes from the Phuket region of Thailand. A resort area, Phuket is considered to be the seafood capital of Thailand. I’ve made some adaptations from the recipe used by Linda Stephen in her Complete Book of Thai Cooking.

For starters, Stephen’s recipe calls for scallops. Right now they are incredibly expensive, and I didn’t care for what they looked like at the market. So I used shrimp, which is an acceptable alternative.  Happy surprise: The local market had  Argentinian red shrimp on special: a two-pound IQF  bag for 9 dollars and change. These weren’t those little cocktail shrimp, either; running 21/25 size.  I grabbed two of them, and will likely go back for more.

For the dish I used a pound of these shrimp, whereas the recipe calls for 12 ounces.

The recipe calls for English (i.e., hothouse) cucumbers.  I’ve always considered them to be the next best thing to tasteless, so subbed a regular cucumber instead.  When doing this it’s usually a good idea to remove the seed mass, which I did.

Instead of one regular tomato I used two Romas.  I find their texture better when cooking a dish like this.

Finally, although the recipe doesn’t call for it, I served this on a bed of noodles.  In this case I used sweet potato noodles, which is a specialty of Thailand. But rice or bean noodles would work just as well. Or even plain rice.

Here’s the recipe as it appears in the book:

Phuket Sweet & Sour Scallops

2 tbls vegetable oil

12 oz scallops

2 cloves garlic, chopped

1 onion, chopped

1 red bell pepper, seeded and cut in 1-inch pieces

½ English cucumber, peeled and cut in ½-inch pieces

1 tomato, cut in wedges

¼ cup chicken stock

2 tbls tomato paste

2 tbls lime juice

2 tbls soy sauce

1 tbls fish sauce

1 tbls palm or brown sugar

½ cup diced pineapple

2 tsp cornstarch

2 tbls water

1 tbls chopped fresh cilantro leaves

Heat a wok or large skillet over medium-high heat and add oil. Add scallops and stir-fry for 2 minutes, or until light golden. Remove with a slotted spoon and reserve.

Add garlic and onions to skillet and stir-fry for 1 minute.

Add red pepper, cucumber, tomato, chicken stock, tomato paste, lime juice, soy sauce, fish sauce and sugar. Bring to a boil and cook for 3 minutes.

Add reserved scallops and pineapple and combine with other ingredients.

In a small bowl or measuring cup, stir together cornstarch and water. Add to scallops. Cook, stirring, for 1 minute, or until slightly thickened.

Serve garnished with cilantro.