Finished Dish: Shrimp with Coconut Dipping Sauce over Quinoa
The recipe comes from Modern Spice by Monica Bhide. Her inspiration for the recipe per her cookbook is from Chef Jose Andres from Washington DC who owns a few restaurants in DC. It is very easy to make and tastes and smells wonderful. I added the quinoa, removed the shrimp tails and served over quinoa versus the recipe presented in Bhide’s book. It is incredibly tasty and not a typical India heavy dish.
This recipe makes enough for 4 small appetizer servings or 2 dinner dishes. To bulk up the counts increase your shrimp count. If you multi-task the quinoa, shrimp, and sauce well, this dish can be completed in well under an hour easily and cleanup is painless. You can use the same large pot to cook the tomatoes, the shrimp, and the sauce. You only need one cutting board.
Ingredients Coconut Sauce and Shrimp
1 small red onion minced
2 small tomatoes pureed * instructions below
1 13.5 ounce can unsweetened coconut milk
1/2 teaspoon of ground cumin (her recipe called for 1 teaspoon of the actual seeds which I don’t stock in my pantry)
1 teaspoon red chili powder (or less if you prefer less spicy)
1 inch piece fresh ginger peeled and minced (go fresh if you can versus ground ginger spice)
1 tablespoon of Worcestershire sauce
Pinch of sea salt
Cooked 1 pound of nice sized shrimp **
* Puree tomatoes – WikiHow has great instructions on how to do the puree. I left the seeds and juices in. I stopped after Wiki step 8 because I was just needed simple tomato puree. You can reuse the pot from the tomato puree step for the recipe later.
After a few pulses (above)
http://www.wikihow.com/Make-Tomato-Puree
** For cooking the shrimp, I keep it pretty simple because I want the sauce to be the flavor of the shrimp.
Remove shells, tails, and devein the shrimp (dark brown or black vein) with a sharp knife.
Rinse what you just prepped in cold water and drain.
Fill pot with enough water to cook shrimp; then boil the water on high heat.
Add shrimp and push under water initially, allow the shrimp to cook 1-2 minutes until you see small bubbles to break the surface of the water. Stop at that point and remove pot from heat. Shrimp cook quick and should start to have a nice pink tinge (you will need to peak at a shrimp because the water will be murky). Cover the pot and let the shrimp cook in the hot water off the heat for about 5-10 minutes depending on the size of shrimp. They will now fully have that nice pink color you are looking for. Don’t overcook. Drain the shrimp and set aside.
Above 3 shrimp photos – prepped, in the pot on heat with bubbles surfacing, fully cooked
Directions for Coconut Sauce
1) Combine the onion, tomatoes, coconut milk, cumin, chili powder, ginger, pinch of salt, and Worcestershire sauce in a large bowl and mix well. Add more salt after tasting if desired.
2) Pour mixture into a large pot and bring to a boil over medium heat. Begin to prepare your Quinoa ***
3) Reduce the heat and simmer for 20 minutes stirring occasionally.
4) Remove from heat and allow to cool at room temperature
5) Process in a blender until smooth – can serve sauce cold or warmed
After blending thoroughly (immediately above)
*** Preparing Quinoa – I admit I am spoiled here and use my Zojirushi rice cooker which makes it perfectly with little fuss in less than a half hour. Rinse one cup of quinoa over a fine mesh strainer and once drained place in rice cooker pot. Add 2 cups of either water, vege stock, or chicken stock (my preference), add a pinch of sea salt, set on the quick start and wait for it to be done. As for stove top methods there are tons of options online or follow the instructions on your Quinoa container. Again for this recipe I keep the quinoa flavor simple because I am counting on the coconut sauce to flavor the shrimp and quinoa.
Serve
Layer a plate with quinoa bottom, add shrimp portion, and pour over some sauce.
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