Put Some Lime In The Coconut

Last April I headed off to El Dorado County for our annual food and wine tasting event. In the course of the trip, we tasted some great spicy ginger and lemon shrimp on rice. The chard it came with was pretty good too but the shrimp was yummy. Scott and I were determined to make our own version.

When we returned from our weekend, we poached some shrimp in vegetable broth to which we had added ginger and lemon. Once the shrimp was cooked, we removed it and then added some cream and red chili sauce to. We simmered the sauce for a long time but it never reduced enough to be a nice thick sauce. The taste was good but not perfect.

Last weekend I returned to Reno/Tahoe for another event and we decided to try the shrimp dish again. This time we used chicken broth instead of vegetable broth and we used coconut milk instead of cream. We also made a roux of butter and flour to thicken the sauce with. Good but not good enough. And very white! I definitely didn't like the chicken broth flavor.

Today I found this recipe and tonight I experimented some more. I halved the recipe. I added about a tablespoon of grated ginger to the marinade. I used vegetable broth (next time I may add fish stock). I didn't add jalapeño. I also didn't use the cilantro but not because, like my SIL and verbatim, I don't like it; I just forgot to buy it. I also sprinkled my dish with some chopped cashews. I cooked the rice in broth, adding just a pinch of saffron. And I used basmati rice. Adding the coconut milk to the just cooked rice was a tasty touch. Here's a picture of the final result.



I think we've almost got it perfected.