We’re big curry fans in our house: Thai red, green, yellow, panang, and massaman; Jamaican, Indian, and Asian—we love it all! When I’m out and about with my daughter or son, we always search out curry for lunch. We decide on lunch first, before we take care of errands. It’s a priority thing. Amanda’s favorite curry is Jamaican curry, but she’s never turned down Thai curry. Or Chinese curry, now that I think about it. James loves Thai curry, but he eats just about anything. Especially Asian food.
Lately, I’ve been on a Thai red curry kick. I made curry with chicken on Wednesday. When I was putting up the food, I hid a small bowl of the sacred curry behind the blueberry jam and Greek yogurt. Later, when everyone was in bed, I retrieved the hidden treasure and shamelessly devoured it while watching an episode of The Bridge. I spent all day Thursday and Friday thinking about how much I liked the spiciness of the coconut sauce. It was still on my mind Saturday morning. Sooo, around noon on Saturday I convinced myself that I needed to make it again. A late lunch or early supper kind of thing. Truth is, I couldn’t wait for supper. Once it was ready, I was going to eat. Even if the rice wasn’t ready.
Ordering red curry at the local Thai restaurants inspired me to make my own. The first few times I made it, I didn’t use fish sauce. Not that I don’t like fish sauce, I do; I was afraid it might not work well with the coconut milk. I was after the spiciness of the red curry blended with the sweet coconut milk. Fish sauce is a staple ingredient in many of my favorite Asian recipes, so I decided to give it a try. Truth be told, the fish sauce enhanced the flavor of the curry. I sampled several spoonfuls just to make sure.
Saturday afternoon I steamed up a pot of Jasmine rice and gathered the ingredients to make curry. Not just any curry, but the world’s best shrimp red coconut curry. The saltiness and flavor of the shrimp definitely makes it more flavorful than chicken (we still love chicken curry). I tweaked my recipe, too. I increased the fish sauce to one tablespoon. Added one more tablespoon of brown sugar. Threw in red and green bell peppers for color and taste. Used two kind of sort of heaping tablespoons of red curry. Why measure it? It’s curry after all.
World's Best Shrimp Red Coconut Curry Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
- 2 tablespoons Thai red curry paste
- 1 tablespoon fish sauce
- 1 can coconut milk
- 3 tablespoons brown sugar
- 1/2 cup water
- 1 pound raw shrimp
- 1/2 green bell pepper
- 1/2 red bell pepper
- 1 large onion
- 1 large carrot
- handful of snow peas
Instructions
- Clean, shell, and devein shrimp.
- Slice onion and peppers. Cut carrot diagonally.Remove long stems from snow peas.
- Saute curry paste in olive oil. Add 1 cup milk, fish sauce, and brown sugar. Simmer for about 5 minutes, stirring often.
- Add vegetables, remainder of coconut milk, and 1/2 cup water. Stir; simmer until tender, about 10 minutes.
- Add shrimp; simmer until shrimp are pink, about 5 minutes. Adjust seasonings, if necessary.
Notes
I love making curry at home. I need a lot of time because I’m not so good at the poundy poundy in the mortar. 🙂 Your red curry with shrimp looks fantastic to me!
I love curry too. I would try using coconut oil instead of olive oil as it brings out more coconut goodness. Also, adding fresh slices of ginger root, chili peppers, garlic, and lemongrass will add a lot to the flavor.