Shrimp with Tamarind Sauce Lettuce Wraps

*Modified from Thai & South-East Asian & Far Eastern Classics

If you ever thought making foreign foods with regional and local ingredients was impossible, think again. It is true you may not be able to get all ingredients locally, but for this recipe 5 out of 9 ingredients were local or regional. The non-regional ingredients were olive oil, red chili flakes, chicken broth and tamarind juice, although if I had grown my own chillies and prepared my own broth, I would have be working with 7 of 9 local/regional ingredients. The Bib lettuce (which was not part of the original recipe) was actually from right here in Durham!

Ingredients:
2 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp chopped shallots
2 tbsp brown sugar
2 tbsp chicken stock
6 tbsp tamarind juice (tamarind paste in warm water)
1/4-1 tsp red chili flakes (depending on how spicy you want the dish to be)
3/4-1 lb raw peeled shrimp
1 head of Bib lettuce
1/2 cucumber

Directions:
Wash the lettuce
(Peel) and slice the cucumber into strips
Peel and rinse the shrimp
Heat olive oil in a wok
Add shallots and cook over medium heat until lightly browned (2-3 min)
Add sugar, chicken stock, tamarind juice and chili flakes stirring constantly until the sugar is dissolved
Add the shrimps and toss for ~4 min until cooked
Serve lettuce on a plate, cucumber in a bowl and shrimp in a bowl
Each person can make his own lettuce wraps!

Tips:
You can use onions instead of shallots
You can add other veggies to your wrap, i.e. carrots or raw onions
To make it easier to serve you can cut the shrimp into thirds before serving
For more sauce, add more broth and tamarind sauce (for every 1 tbsp of broth, add at least 2 of tamarind juice)