Spicy Sumatran Shrimp: Udang Saos Padang

Padang is the capital of the Indonesian province of West Sumatra on the island of Sumatra, one of the world's largest islands. Indonesia is a country literally composed of thousands of islands.

If you don't like chili pepper heat, use just a teaspoon of sambal oelek* or 1/2 teaspoon ground cayenne pepper or 1/2 fresh red chili pepper. Often when recipes call for a small amount of tomato sauce or tomato paste, I simply substitute ketchup instead, although it is not the same. Of course, you can plan to do a couple of dishes that use tomato sauce or tomato paste to use up the remaining amount. 

Ingredients:

1 pound large, cleaned and peeled shrimp/or tails on (frozen cooked shrimp are fine, and naturally require less cooking time)
1 to 3 hot red chili peppers, or 1 1/2 tablespoons sambal oelek  
3 garlic cloves
4 green onions (white part only)
1 1/2 inch piece ginger, peeled and roughly chopped
2 Roma tomatoes, seeded and roughly chopped
1/2 teaspoon ground turmeric
2 tablespoons tomato sauce (or ketchup)
zest of 1 lime
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
chopped green onions, for garnish
serve with rice

Since the basic sauce will be made in a food processor, you need not spend much time chopping the ingredients into perfect pieces. Use a food processor and add the chilies, garlic, onion, ginger, Roma tomatoes and turmeric. Process until smooth. Heat the oil in a skillet over medium heat, add the processed sauce mixture, the ketchup/tomato sauce and the lime zest. Stir the mixture while cooking it for about 3 minutes. Add the shrimp and cook until tender, while turning the shrimp to coat them with the sauce. Serve with rice and strew some chopped green onion on top of each serving.

* Sambal Oelek is a chunky hot chili pepper sauce/relish "originally" from Indonesia. The American made version can be easily found in the Asian section, or in the hot sauce section, of supermarkets.   

WORD HISTORY:

Level-This word is distantly related to "litre" (American spelling "liter"), a word borrowed by English from French; to "lira" (an Italian monetary unit), a word borrowed by English from Italian, and to "livre" (a former French monetary unit), a word borrowed by English from French, although not commonly used in more modern times. The ultimate origin of "level" is not known, although some believe it to have been borrowed from some Mediterranean language by Italic, or perhaps developed by Italic, the parent language group of Latin and some other languages like Umbrian and Oscan. The Italic word was something like "lithra," which meant "a measurement of weight (pound)." Ancient Greek either also borrowed the word from a Mediterranean source itself, or Greek borrowed the word from Italic through its extensive interaction with Sicily, where a "litra" was a type of coin. The Italic form gave Latin the noun "libra," which was "a measurement of weight;" thus also, "a balance of 2 scales for weighing." This produced the Latin diminutive (makes the meaning of the word "smaller" or "dear") "libella," which was a part of a Roman monetary unit, but also, more importantly, "an implement used in building to help make surfaces even, horizontal." This passed into Latin-based Old French as "livel," with the same meaning. English borrowed the word circa 1350. The adjective (be even, having to do with evenness) and the verb (to make even) developed from the noun in the middle of the 1400s. Several figurative uses developed, including "to take aim with a gun," which "might" have later produced the American English expression "do your 'level' best" in the mid 1800s, from the idea of "keep your gun as level as possible when aiming to get the best shot." The idea of "balanced, even," gave rise to the meaning, "fair, honest," and also "not prone to extreme emotional reactions" ("level headed/levelheaded").