Gotta Love Curry

I admit, I LOVE curries; all kinds of curries. But my favorite curries are those influenced by the Thai way of cooking. I love the lime and coconut combinations, with the hot and sweet accents. When I made my Panang style fried chicken Panang Style Fried Chicken I had some coconut milk leftover that I needed to use, so I turned it into a curried sauce. Dinner was curried shrimp that I marinated in lime juice, curry and cayenne pepper, served over curried vegetables and rice. To finish it off, I served a crisp, citrusy chardonnay on the side. I don’t really have a specific recipe here, but this is traditionally how I made a lot of Thai styled curries. Diner was delicious or Xrxy in Thai.

The first thing I did was to par cook the bacon in the oven for about 20 minutes. While the bacon was cooking, I marinated the shrimp. You don’t want to marinate the shrimp for too long because the citric acid will “cook the shrimp” and make it tough. I also par cook the bacon because the bacon and the shrimp cook at different temperatures and different times, and you don’t want to eat raw bacon. NO! I had about 24 shrimp, so I used about 1/4 cup of lime juice, about 1 TBSP curry and about 1 tsp of red pepper flakes. Play with it, and make it how you like it though. I LOVE curries, as I mentioned above, so I love a good, strong curry flavor.

I cut up all my vegetables, again using Asian vegetables like red bell peppers, jalapenos, carrots, onions, baby corn and green beans, along with some ginger and garlic.

I had about 1 1/2 cups of coconut milk left over that I combined with 2 TBSP lime juice, 2 tsp curry, 1 tsp red pepper flakes, and about 1-2 TBSP of honey.

Wrap the bacon around the shrimp. I used a medium/large shrimp, and a 1/2 piece of bacon was more than enough to cover each shrimp. Once the shrimp are wrapped with the bacon, skewer them and grill until both the bacon and the shrimp are completely cooked.

Cook the rice and make the vegetable curry sauce while the shrimp and bacon are cooking up.

Saute the vegetables in hot oil. Cook at a high temperature for about 7 minutes or until the vegetables are done, yet still have a slight crispiness to them.

Add the coconut milk mixture and some fresh basil and cilantro and combine well. Cook for an addition 3-5 minutes, stirring frequently.

When it is all ready, add the curried vegetables and sauce to the rice then add the bacon wrapped shrimp. I like to add a bit of additional sauce to the shrimp as well to give some extra flavor.

This dish is very versatile. If you don’t like bacon, or shrimp, use chicken instead. If you want to make it vegetarian or vegan, use tofu or tempe instead, though you probably would not be grilling those. You could cook those with the vegetables.

I guess I have been cooking a lot of Asian dishes lately to get ready for Chinese New Year, which will start nest week, on February 12. This year it is the year of the Ox. Those born under the sign of the Ox are known for intelligence, dependability, strength and determination.

Gung Hay Fat Choi, or Happy New Year in Chinese.

Stay safe and stay well Everyone. ‘Til next time.