Chile Lime Shrimp

1 Pound shrimp uncooked
1/4 cup Vietnamese Fresh Chile Paste
1 Medium Lime
2 tablespoons butter or oil
Salt and pepper to taste

Marinate the shrimp in the fresh chile paste for at least half an hour to two hours.  Season the shrimp with salt and pepper while marinating.

Heat a saute pan and add your fat.  Make sure it is nice and hot.

Add your shrimp and start cooking.  Toss shrimp to make sure they cook on both sides.

As the shrimp is cooking add the juice of the lime.


This recipe was born out of opportunity.  I was given a bag of shrimp that had been accidentally thawed.  I was unsure of what to do with this shrimp so I looked at what I had in the refrigerator.  That is where I had the chile paste and the lime juice.  Thus this recipe was born.

This recipe is quite nice.  The shrimp are spicy and tangy.  The could be used as an appetizer or an hors d'oeuvre.  It would also make a nice addition to a plain quesadilla. 

Deliciously Decadent

Today at work we created something deliciously decadent.  What is better than a perfectly grilled steak?  How about a perfectly grilled steak topped with a chile lime butter?  Yeah, that would be good, but what if you added lump crab meat tossed in more chile lime butter?  That would be a version of surf and turf so good it would be outlawed in the deep south.  The moist and juicy beef played the perfect canvas to the topping of crab, butter, chile and lime juice.  The sweetness of the crabmeat masterfully combines with the acidity of the lime juice and spiciness of the chiles.  One would think that the two together would be too rich, but the combo was quite good.  I can't say it was light, but it was not overwhelming.    The way to make this is quite easy.  Make your chile lime butter ahead of time (recipe to follow).  Grill your sirlion to your preference seasoned only with salt and pepper.  As you turn your steak to grill the other side, put a couple of dollops of the butter over the steak.  If you don't have a grill, you can do this under the broiler.  When your steak is done cooking and resting, add a little bit of the butter to a saute pan and let it heat up.  Toss about 1/4 to a 1/2 pound of lump crab meat with the melted butter so that the meat heats up, then top your steak with it and enjoy.


Chile Lime Butter

1 Tbls Cooking Oil
1 Shallot Minced
1-2 Serano Chiles finely minced
1-2 Jalpeno Chiles Finely minced
1 Medium Lime juiced and zested
Salt to taste
1/2 stick of butter softened

In a small saute pan heat oil then add shallot, chiles and zest.  Cook until you can smell them and shallots are translucent.  Add the juice of the lime and then adjust salt.  Remove the mixture from the heat and mix with the softened butter.  For best use, take the mixture and make a roll from parchment or wax paper then set in the refrigerator overnight or in the freezer for two hours. 

In a pinch, the butter can still be used soft, but it will keep much better and have more use once hardened.  This compound butter is very versatile and can be used on fish, shellfish, beef, chicken, pasta... In other words, just about anything you can come up with.