Dried shrimp

Crevettes séchées

What it is

Boiled in brine and dried in the sun, shrimp keep for a year and travel where fresh ones cannot, which is why the same ingredient anchors Cantonese steamed dishes, Thai chilli pastes and the Lenten shrimp broths of Oaxaca. Drying here is less preservation than concentration: weight for weight they carry far more savour than the fresh shrimp they came from.

In the kitchen

Soak twenty minutes in warm water or Shaoxing and use the soaking liquid in the dish. Fry them in oil before anything else goes into the pan — that first sizzle is what releases the aroma.

Goes with

Garlic Chili pepper Ginger Cabbage Rice Spring onion Chives Pork

Same species

Shrimp

Also used with

Ashanti pepper Green papaya Shacha sauce Winter melon Egusi

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