Chilled Pea Soup with Mint, Curried Shrimp and Peanuts

Heat the tablespoon of the oil in a medium saucepan over high heat until hot. Reduce the heat to medium; add the onion and cook, stirring occasionally, until softened, about 5 minutes. Add the peas and broth; bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce the heat to medium, and cook, uncovered, until the peas are tender, 2 to 5 minutes. Transfer half of the soup mixture to a blender and puree with half of the mint; strain through a medium sieve into a medium bowl. Repeat with the remaining soup and mint. Stir in the buttermilk and salt and pepper to taste. Cover and refrigerate until ready to serve.

Just before serving, heat the peanuts in a large skillet over high heat, stirring frequently, until they begin to toast, about 3 minutes. Remove them to a bowl and set aside. Toss the shrimp with the garam masala until evenly coated. Heat the remaining 2 tablespoons of oil in the same skillet until hot. Reduce the heat to medium, add the shrimp, and sauté until golden and just cooked through, about 3 minutes. Set aside in the skillet.

Toss the carrots with the lime juice, sesame oil, and salt and pepper to taste. Ladle the soup into chilled bowls and top each portion with some of the carrot salad, some of the shrimp and oil from the skillet, and the peanuts.

HOW TO QUICK CHILL:
Whenever you have a bottle of wine or a liquid that you want to chill quickly, the easiest and absolutely fastest way to do so is to put it into another container if ice and water. You can chill a bottle of champagne in about 15 minutes flat by almost completely submerging it in a bucket of ice and water. For a soup, just put it in a bowl, preferably metal, and set that bowl in another bowl of ice and water. If you stir it every so often, you will speed up the process even more.