Chutney and Shrimp

As I mentioned I was in Toronto the other weekend and bought some fabulously mysterious spices and ingredients that I have never really tried or used before:

Sumac- A middle eastern spice that is described as tart, I found there tomatoes notes immediately. Like exotic homemade ketchup chips.

Orange Blossom Water- Originally from Lebanon this distilled water contains the essential oils of the orange blossom. It is extremely fragrant and fresh smelling. I would suggest using this lightly as the strong flavor has the ability to over power.

Coconut Chutney- This was the hidden gem of the day- such complexity of sweet, spicy and savoury. The coconut, chilies and coriander make for an amazing combination.

Saffron- Is the centre threads of a small purple flower call a crocus. The saffro

n has a pungent, spicy flavour yet sweet to the noise.

This week I played around with Coconut Chutney and Orange blossom water (see the meal of the week for my little orange blossom experiment)

As soon as I tasted this chutney I thought of shrimp right away! Having just found brown vermicelli noodles I wanted to make an Asian pasta dish. I believe that pasta dishes are great fun to cook, whether you’re a beginner or a veteran almost everyone can make a mean pasta!

For myself pasta is like a beautiful blank slate you can create a multitude of combinations, flavors and textures. I find I sometimes abuse this flexibility and end up adding just a ton of vegetables, and spices making for a robust and complex dish. In my opinion once you start doing this flavor start to get cancelled out. It’s way better to pick a few spices and sauces that compliment each other. I think the prefect fusion is when you can taste the unique combination yet pull out every ingredient you have used. I feel as though this was achieved in my pasta dish

I picked only a couple vegetables- yellow pepper (they are my favorite I’m sure you have noticed this by now) Spanish onions and spinach.

I wanted to highlight the coconut chutney while keeping an Asian flare to this dish so I combined the chutney with margin, curry powered, and coriander.

This dish had wonderful flavor everything combined beautifully! You could easily pull each flavor. Once the chutney was cooked the sweet coconut flavor subsided and the zesty spice was highlighted. I highly recommend brown vermicelli noodles great texture I find they don’t get as mushy as the white noodles. Overall a very successful dish :)