Shrimp in coconut milk recipe

As I lamented on Saturday, I completely forgot to throw a bunch of shrimp on the grill during our party on the Fourth, so wound up stuck with approximately nine million tons of the stuff. I wound up using it to my advantage, though, and making a handful of really delicious shrimp dishes.

This scrumptious and exceedingly fast/easy curry dish was one of them.

And man…was it ever good.

First, get some rice going! I used Basmati, because I love the flavor and light texture…and I think it’s perfect for curries.

But any rice will do!

Just cook it according to package directions, fluff it with a fork, and it’ll be light and perfect and marvelous.

Next, throw some butter in a large skillet over medium-high heat…

And throw in a bunch of peeled, deveined shrimp! Now, this shrimp I had gotten for the party it is colossal and enormous and gigantic. But you can use any size of shrimp you want. This is about a pound and a half…maybe a little more. So whether you go colossal or small, just use a pound and a half and you’ll be fine.

Cook them on the first side for a couple of minutes, then flip them over and cook them on the other side.

You just want to cook them until they’re opaque…

Then put them on a plate and set them aside for a bit.

Now, dice up some onion really finely…

Mince up some garlic…

And throw them into the same skillet.

Stir the onions and garlic around for a couple of minutes to start them cooking, then sprinkle some curry powder right over the top. You can use whatever curry powder you want; when I was in New York a couple of weeks ago and went to a spice market, I was blown away by how many different curry combinations there were! But rest assured, if all you have in your pantry is a mass-produced plastic spice bottle that says, simply, “Curry Powder” on the label…you’re just fine.

Trust me. I have firsthand experience with this.

Now you just need to keep stirring and cooking the onions in order to wake up the flavors of the curry powder a bit.

P.S. Your kitchen smells very curry-ish right about now!

Now it’s time to move forward with the sauce, and there’s no better way to do that than by cracking open a can of coconut milk, which is mysterious, creamy…and a little bit gloopy, as you can see.

But oh…the magic it creates. Just pour in the whole can…

And stir it until it’s all combined. Now, you could absolutely use a combination of milk and/or half and half to get this creamy consistency…but the flavor of the coconut milk is what you want here.

Now, it all needs a little tang, so squeeze in some lime juice…

And I like a little sweetness to my curry, so add in some honey. You can use brown sugar instead, or you can just leave out the sweetness altogether if you prefer!

It definitely needs some salt, too. Add a little, then taste and see if it needs more.

Then, just to make my skirt fly up, I squeezed in a little Sriracha/hot sauce. Now, some curry powders are inherently spicy already, so you might taste the sauce first before you start adding in spice.