Jenmenke

Road Warrior

shrimp

Meatless Monday 41

Coconut Green Curry with Snap Peas (and Shrimp)

My original intent had been to lump this recipe with Meatless Monday 40 and compress the agony into one post.*

“But that’s not how I roll.”

I just hate that saying. So I just had to say it.

I’m going to sit here and write this until I am done. It is 11:23 am. I am so badly anticipating my lunch of leftover fried rice from last night that I am hoping it will be motivation enough.  (I had to leave a blank space in front of the word “enough” (now underlined) because I cannot think of the word that I want to use! It is at the tip of my tongue, and this happens to me several times a day. My vocabulary has left the building. It is driving me crazy. Hopefully, by the time I am dying of starvation and desire for my fried rice, it will come back to me.)

[I came back to the space before “enough” and had to give it another 30 seconds. Then I remembered — motivation! So happy. Yesterday I couldn’t come up with the word “alienates.” I am fearful for my future. Is it menopause?]

As much as I love my Aroy-D brand green curry, I didn’t know about it until well after my foray into green curry recipes. Today’s recipe is a forerunners to the discovery of my favorite green-curry-in-a-can, Aroy-D. I am a bit ashamed to say that I have never actually made my own green curry paste, as urged in The Big Bowl cookbook, where this recipe is adapted from, though. They claim you will never know how good it can be until you make it yourself.

But I hate shopping. And I really hate hunting for obscure ingredients.

And so, I have never made curry paste. Because, as you might imagine, there are a lot of obscure ingredients required when making it from scratch.

Instead, when curry paste is called for, I’ve used Thai Kitchen brand. It’s pretty good. They changed their recipe years ago, though, which really ticked me off. It used to be made fairly mild and you added your own heat. Back when I had toddlers, that was a must. We couldn’t serve them green curry inferno, now could we? So I always just added more spice to Dave and my dishes. It was a real problem when they changed it while my kids were still young. My solution was to hold way back on the paste and complete the recipe, take portions out for them, then stir in the rest of the curry paste for Dave and I. It worked well, but it still made me mad.

I hate when manufacturers of green curry paste do that, don’t you? It puts them on par with bra and underwear makers. Victoria Secret recently changed the cut of their “low rider bikini.” Suffice to say, I am in Hell today.

So anyway, this was my first favorite green curry recipe. I know shrimp isn’t an option for vegetarians, but it counts as meatless for me. Vegetarians can substitute tofu, or just make sure to coat it with cornstarch and sesame, since those flavors are such a big part of this recipe and the cornstarch slightly thickens the sauce.

*Agony being the retelling of the tale, not the agony of Meatless Mondays. Just so we are clear.

Coconut Green Curry with Shrimp and Snap Peas

  • 2 cans light coconut milk
  • 40 medium raw, deveined, shell-on shrimp, peeled*
  • 2 T cornstarch
  • 1 T sesame oil
  • 2 T fish sauce
  • 1 T lime juice
  • 1 T sugar
  • 1/4 cup vegetable oil, less if you have a nicely seasoned wok
  • 1 large sweet red pepper, julienned
  • I have no idea how many sugar snap peas: If you are a counter, then figure 20-25, Cut fat ones on the diagonal
  • 2 heaping Tablespoons of green curry paste (or to taste)
  • 1  c chicken stock*
  • steamed jasmine rice
  • chopped fresh cilantro (optional)

Put the coconut milk in a saucepan and simmer over medium heat until reduced by half. This takes about 20 minutes. If you don’t have the time, then skip this step but reduce recipe to 1 can. Broth will simply be thinner.

Toss the shrimp with the cornstarch and sesame oil and set aside. Stir together fish sauce, lime juice and sugar. Set aside.

Heat wok up to smoking point and add oil. When hot but not smoking, add the shrimp and cook until barely translucent, about 3 or 4 minutes. Remove from pan leaving any remaining oil.

Add the peppers and snap peas to the wok and toss over high heat. Push to the side and add the curry paste, mashing it with a fork, then add the chicken stock*. After a minute or two add the coconut milk. When hot, stir in the shrimp and fish sauce mixture.

Serve over hot rice and sprinkle with cilantro. Serves 4 with the requisite container of leftovers for my lunch the next day.

*I sometimes use stock made from the shrimp shells in place of chicken stock. You just save the shells from the shrimp and add to 2 cups of water and simmer until reduced to 1 cup. Strain the shells. I encourage you to try it. It allows you to feel superior, smug and frugal all at the same time. In the photo below, I tried to get even fancier. I added the shells to the coconut milk, thinking I could save myself one more dirty pan. I don’t recommend it. It is too hard to strain. It allowed me to feel inventive, smug and stupid, all at the same time.

Meatless Monday Twenty Something

I’m too lazy to go look what number it is.

I just replied to about a months worth of comments. I’ve been so buried here in soccer land I can’t even tell you. But here’s the great thing: it’s almost over! Yes, I do feel a little bad about saying that, but never-the-less, I am happy about it. I am also happy that my kids’ teams have each had 2 wins this year. Never-to-before in all the years of soccer have we won games. No, I’m not kidding about that. We are farm kids playing the big league, affluent suburbs. So any win is a huge win. So that part has been fun. Reffing, rain, rescheduling games, rice-paddy fields, coaching dramas… that stuff? Not so much… ENOUGH!

I think it’s Meatless Monday Twenty Four? Anyway, who cares. Just know that this one contains shrimp. Because even though there are some die-hards out there who don’t consider shrimp meatless, I, in fact, do.

Let me just ask this before going any further: Is it only me, or are enchiladas a real pain in the pooper? So many tedious little steps…

BUT FOR THE GLORY OF THE TASTE I WILL TAKE ON THE TEDIOUS!

These are fabulouso!

Shrimp & Cotija Enchiladas with Salsa Verde

(serves 5, with two enchiladas each) (why 5? Because that’s what fit in the pan) (please, please, please don’t think any of these measurements are holy. Use what you have. Substitute what you don’t.)

  • about 40 uncooked medium shrimp, peeled & deveined
  • 1 t cornstarch
  • 1 t cumin (for marinade)
  • 1 t chili powder
  • 1 pinch ground coriander
  • 1 T sesame oil (yes, this is odd for a mexican dish, but trust me on this)
  • 1 cup — more or less — of salsa verde (I had canned from garden, but also use store bought)
  • 1/2 cup plain yogurt
  • 1 cup chopped cilantro, divided
  • 1 cup chopped green onions divided
  • 1/2 red onion sliced thinly, then cut into quarter rounds
  • 1/2 cup chopped green pepper or poblano.
  • 1 small hot pepper, chopped, use amount to taste
  • 2 T chopped fresh oregano or 1 T dried
  • 1 t cumin (for cooking)
  • 10 corn tortillas (freshly bought, non refrigerated is best)
  • 6 oz crumbled Cotija cheese (about 1/2 a block of it)
  • sour cream, chopped tomatoes, lettuce & avocado for garnish

Preheat oven to 35o.

In a shallow dish combine shrimp with corn starch, cumin, chili powder, coriander & sesame oil. Set aside for 30 minutes to an hour. (mix it up. I hadn’t yet in this photo)

In a shallow dish (pie plate, which I transferred to after this photo was taken), combine the salsa verde with the yogurt, most of the green onions and 1/2 cup of the cilantro.

In a large saute pan, heat about 2 T of oil. When hot, add the onions and saute for about 2 minutes until softened. Then add the peppers (both hot and mild), oregano and cumin. Cook over medium heat until fragrant and softened, about 4 minutes. Add the shrimp and any accumulated juices to pan and cook, stirring constantly, until shrimp just turn pink. Don’t cook any further than that.

*optional: I hate to leave any flavors lying around, only to be washed down the sink. If you are using a cast iron pan like I did, you might have some crusted on deliciousness after cooking the shrimp. Add about 1/4 c water to pan and scrape up browned bits until pan is clean. Add this to the salsa verde.

For the tortillas: this is a constant torment for me. Enchilada recipes ask you to do various things with corn tortillas as a first step to assembling enchiladas. Some say to fry briefly in oil, then to coat with your sauce. Some say to heat briefly in a damp towel in either the microwave or the oven. I don’t know if it is the tortillas we have around here or what, but those processes are both a pain in the butt, and disastrous for me. The tortillas get too soft and fall apart. I have found that if I use the corn tortillas available in on the shelf and not the refrigerator section of the grocery store, and I haven’t refrigerated them for weeks, I don’t have to do anything to them. If, however, I only have refrigerated tortillas in the house, I will grudgingly perform the fry-in-oil step first because otherwise they are too hard and will crack as you roll them.

With that said, do what you need to do in order to be able to roll your tortillas without them cracking.

In a 9×13 pan, spread a thin layer of your salsa verde sauce over the bottom. Take a tortilla and dip both sides into the salsa verde mixture. Then, place 4 shrimp and some of the onion/pepper mix onto the center of a tortilla, top with about 1T of cotija and roll up. Place in pan seam side down. Repeat with the rest of the tortillas.

Top with remaining sauce and any extra shrimp, onions and cheese you have. Bake at 350 for about 20 minutes.

Remove from oven and sprinkle with remaining 1/2 cup of cilantro and green onions, then serve with bowls of sour cream, chopped lettuce, chopped tomatoes, avocados and any other delicious condiment you can think of.

Swoon over your own brilliance.

Check off one more Meatless Monday.

Meatless Monday Nineteen!

Steamy Kitchen’s Shrimp Fried Rice

It’s another recipe from The Steamy Kitchen’s cookbook. But in the text, she credits Elise from SimplyRecipes.com for the recipe. It’s all so confusing! Either way, it was easy and delicious.

I got a new rice cooker for Mother’s Day. An expensive Neuro Fuzzy to replace my very old $25 one. The old one worked fine, but the teflon interior was all peeling, which — if you ever read my post about switching to cast iron pans, you’ll know — freaks me out.

So I got the cadillac of rice cookers.

Well, that’s not entirely true. I didn’t get the induction model. Still not real sure what that does for you. This one is complicated enough to keep me busy for a while. (Seriously. It’s insane.). I’m hoping I can eventually do all sorts of stuff in it, like barley and Israeli cous cous, etc. We’ll see.

Anyway, I was keen to try it out, so on Sunday night, I made a big batch of rice to cool in the refrigerator overnight to use for fried rice on Meatless Monday night. I’ve been making fried rice forever. My mom made it way back in the 70’s. And her’s is the recipe I still use for the most part. But I’m always up for something new. And shrimp fried it was, since I actually had shrimp. [but if you must know, it was the shrimp I stole from my Dad a couple Meatless Mondays ago]

I also served the Salmon with Kabayaki sauce that I made a few weeks ago at Dave’s request, but I already shared that recipe. You can click on it if you are interested. (It is quite good!)

Shrimp Fried Rice
  • 4 cups white rice, cooked and cooled at least overnight
  • 1/2 – 1 lb raw, shelled & deveined shrimp
  • 1/2 t salt
  • freshly ground black pepper
  • 1 t cornstarch
  • 1 t sesame oil
  • 2 T vegetable oil, divided
  • 3 eggs, beaten
  • 2 green onions, cut into 1/2″ pieces on diagonal
  • 1 t fish sauce
  • 2 t soy sauce
  • 1/2 – 3/4 cup peas
  • drizzling of sesame oil

Separate the rice grains before starting recipe. Toss the shrimp, cornstarch, salt and pepper and 1 teaspoon sesame oil together and let marinate at least 10 minutes at room temp.

Heat a wok on high. When it is smoking, add 1 tablespoon oil, swirl to coat and add the shrimp, spreading out into a single layer and not moving for 30 seconds. Flip over and let other side cook for 30 seconds, then remove to a plate.

Turn the heat to medium and add the eggs to wok, spread out and scramble. Remove eggs to same plate as shrimp when eggs are just barely, barely cooked.

Wipe wok out and return to high heat. Add remaining tablespoon of oil, swirl to coat and add green onions. Stir fry about 15 seconds, then add the rice, spreading out in an even layer. Cook about a minute. Use a spatula or wooden spoon to toss the rice, spreading out again and cooking for another minute.

Drizzle the fish sauce and soy sauce all around and toss the rice again. Add the peas, the eggs, the shrimp and drizzle with about 1/2 teaspoon of sesame oil. Salt and pepper to taste and serve immediately. Serve with additional soy sauce if desired.

[I used a bit more sesame oil than the recipe calls for. I didn’t use carrots, because I didn’t have any. If you want the recipe exactly as Jaden writes it, you’ll have to buy it for yourself — which I highly recommend!)

Meatless Monday Fourteen!

Linguine with Tomatoes & Shrimp (for lack of a better name)

Disclaimer: Recipe adapted from Pioneer Woman’s Penne Pasta a la Betsy.

Why didn’t I just make it easy on myself and duplicate Pioneer Woman’s no-doubt delicious recipe? Well, for one — and you should know this by now — I didn’t have at least one main ingredient (penne). But there are a host of other reasons, as well:

  • I have yet to find a PW recipe that doesn’t call for a cup of cream, and I’m still recovering from the last PW recipe which involved a cup of cream and a stick of butter combined with a gaggle of blue cheese, served over a grilled steak. Honestly? Fatty thought she was going to die.
  • I wanted to use a fresh tomato
  • I hadn’t committed to any particular recipe when I started cooking the pasta. (No, I have not learned my lesson yet from Meatless Mondays One and Thirteen.)

Another reason was that I didn’t have any shrimp. Or at least I didn’t think I had any shrimp. I had thoughts of making a pasta with just tomatoes, at first. Then, in the middle of cooking, it just seemed so blah. “I wish I had some shrimp,” thought I. So I threw some boots on and ran up to the loft (the studio apartment above our barn where my parents live when they are in town).

Lo and behold, a brand new bag of frozen ready-to-cook shrimp. Thanks Dad! (I’m pretty sure he did not know about this until now.)

So it became Pasta with Tomatoes and Shrimp.

It was good.

We dined on it almost a week ago. So why so late with the post? I lost my USB SD card reader, I’ve been in meetings all week, wrote this days ago, didn’t have a photo, heated some leftovers up on the way to a 50th birthday lunch (no, not for me!) today and am racing to get it up before the end of the day.

Recipe?

Basically, it went like this…

  • Saute 3 cloves Garlic in olive oil and butter (less than half of what PW uses)
  • add about 20 medium shrimp to garlic and flash fry over high heat about a minute. Remove and chop shrimp
  • cook a box of linguine in salty water
  • Add a bit more olive oil to same pan you cooked the shrimp in, add another clove of garlic, saute.
  • Sauté about 1 cup chopped onion until translucent
  • Add 1/2 c white wine and bubble a few minutes over medium heat.
  • Add 1 chopped tomato, saute a few minutes
  • Add 1 8 oz can Tomato Sauce
  • Add 1 T dried oregano
  • Add 1 T dried basil
  • Add 1 t red pepper flakes
  • Salt and Pepper to taste, simmer
  • Then finish with 1/2 c half and half
  • Heat to simmer and stir in shrimp
  • Then stir in drained noodles
  • Top with toasted pine nuts and good grated pecorino cheese.

What? Why Pecorino cheese?

Because I’m so cheap that that’s what I bought last time at Costco instead of the Parmesan, which was more than double the price. It is simply delicious. It is multi-tasking cheese. And I appreciate that.

Pioneer Woman’s looks way better than mine. It probably tastes way better than mine, too–how can it not with all that cream and butter? Take a look and judge for yourself:

pasta betsy 150

I call a do-over.