Dancing Shrimp: Favorite Thai Recipes for Seafood

01:28 NightPrayer

Customer Rating :

List Price : $30.00 Price : $69.95

Product Description

Thai cuisine, regarded by many as one of the best in the world, is known for its original combinations of spicy, savory, sweet, and tangy flavors, and its seafood recipes display this culinary artistry to its purest extent. In Dancing Shrimp, Kasma Loha-unchit shares with us her ingenious techniques for preparing all types of fish, mollusks, and shellfish according to the traditions of her native cuisine. The more than 100 recipes in Dancing Shrimp show the full range of the Thai palate, with curries like Salmon Poached in Green Curry Sauce with Baby Eggplants and Thai Basil; stir-fries like Spicy Southern-Style Stir-Fried Squid; salads like Hot-and-Sour Shrimp Salad with Roasted Chilli Sauce, Lemon Grass, and Mint; steamed dishes like Steamed Fillet of Sea Bass with Ginger, Green Onions, and Sesame-Soy Sauce; soups like Spicy "Broken Fish Trap" Soup; and many more. Thai people, as Kasma reminds us, are warm, welcoming, and playful, and this is evident in the food they prepare. While a dish like Shrimp Cooked in Turmeric-Coconut Sauce might taste sweet on the tip of the tongue, you also will be warmed and surprised by the heat that slowly emerges from the chillies. There is also a real reverence for the bounty of the sea and earth; many of the fish recipes call for a whole fish, and the cooking techniques, such as steaming a fish wrapped in a banana leaf or poaching it in a spicy sauce, preserve the full flavor. Along with the recipes, Loha-unchit provides cooking tips, inspirational ideas for adapting the recipes to different techniques or ingredients, and warm, revealing stories of her homeland. With her charming personal tone and detailed cooking instructions, she guides cooks simply and easily through techniques that may involve unfamiliar fishes or herbs but never fail to result in a mouthwatering delight. As every recipe reflects her years of experience in teaching Americans to re-create the exquisite flavors of Thailand on their own, Dancing Shrimp is suitable for beginning and experienced cooks alike.

Amazon.com Review

More than a cookbook, Dancing Shrimp is both a rumination on how Thai food--the original fusion food, says author Kasma Loha-unchit--developed as a cuisine and a very thorough manual on how to properly prepare fresh fish, crustaceans, and mollusks in the Thai tradition. Filled with 125 tantalizing and sometimes challenging recipes, Loha-unchit covers not only basic cooking tenets but explores how to create dishes that balance the Thai people's love of the five primary flavors: salty, sweet, sour, bitter, and spicy.

Many of the recipes feature flavors not common in Western cooking, but Loha-unchit teaches you how to create a savory meal in which the disparate tastes work in harmony. In addition to the recipes, there are chapters on Thailand's seafood culture, how to select and prepare seafood, preserved foods and flavoring ingredients (like fish sauce, a staple item), and techniques and equipment. For those unfamiliar with fish sauce or shrimp paste, she explains how they are made, her favorite brands, and where you can purchase them (there's a store index in the back).

The recipes themselves are mouth-watering: Hot-and-Sour Shrimp Salad with Roasted Chilli Sauce, Lemon Grass, and Mint, Curried Mussels on the Half Shell with Flaked Crab, and Ginger-Tamarind Fish Soup, to name only a few. Though some of the recipes may seem daunting at first, Loha-unchit reminds us that "the wide range of variables makes Thai cooking exciting and Thai food both a simple and complex blend of invigorating flavors." After all, it's hard to resist Garlic-Black Bean Pan-Fried Red Snapper. Be sure to serve with a big pot of sticky white rice. --Dana Van Nest

Dancing Shrimp: Favorite Thai Recipes for Seafood Reviews

40 of 40 people found the following review helpful:

Let the True Taste of Thailand enter Your Kitchen, October 26, 2000

Curt R. Chamberlain (Salem, OR USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Dancing Shrimp: Favorite Thai Recipes for Seafood (Hardcover)

I love Thai food, in fact, Thai cooking has become a passion of mine now for over ten years. I had the distinct pleasure of being introduced to this incredible cuisine by Kasma Loha-unchit. Over the years I have taken numerous cooking classes from Kasma and have participated in two, month long tours of Thailand with her where I was able to taste and savor the delights of the country's cuisine and be introduced to the rich and varied culture. I particularly enjoy the complexity and variation in Thai cuisine. Having now sampled innumerable dishes, I can still be surprised by a new dish and a new combination of flavors and ingredients. I often anticipate with delight the burst of taste sensations that accompany a well balanced dish. Thai cooking has become a staple of my cooking and I routinely cook Thai dishes at home to the delight of my family and friends.

Unfortunately, it is rare for Americans to taste authentic Thai flavors. Many Thai restaurants erroneously prepare their... Read more

20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

Please reprint this book., December 3, 2006

Dwight (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Dancing Shrimp: Favorite Thai Recipes for Seafood (Hardcover)

I'm not going to buy ANY Thai cookbooks by other authors until her books come back into print. There is no point in assessing Thai cookbooks if this book and It Rains Fishes are not included in the mix. I can't encourage anyone to pay nearly a hundred dollars each for second hand copies. And who ever heard of cooking from a Palm Pilot ebook? I really mind that old fashioned cooks who as recently as less than five years ago were recognized authorities are now fallen by the wayside because they are not on Food Network. If not for Sara's Secrets, one wouldn't see masters like Jacques Pepin and Madhur Jaffrey outside of PBS reruns. That means our food intellect is shaped by name brands instead of quality earning a brand.

The secondhand prices are outrageous. Since Thai cuisine is now more popular than ever, there are more interested readers who would love to have authentic instruction.

p.s. I contacted the author through her website and received the... Read more

21 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

Authentic delicious Thai food!, October 17, 2001

Bay T. (Santa Clara, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Dancing Shrimp: Favorite Thai Recipes for Seafood (Hardcover)

I bought this book based on the reviews here and really have to thank the reviewers who gave 5 stars for this book. I am a native Thai and I have to say that Kasma's recipes really give you authentic Thai food. I have tried at least 10 recipes from her book and have enjoyed my home-made cooking with no MSG (that I would mostly get at restaurants). What I like best about her book is the ingredients and tips section where she describes properties of Thai spices and Thai ways of cooking such as steaming, 'yam' salad making, etc.. Reading through her recipes is quite enjoyable since she usually gives a bit of history about the food along the way. The trick to get delicious dishes is to make sure you can acquire all ingredients you need (some are hard to find, but she has a web site that directs you to some online Thai groceries if you can't find the spices from your local stores).