If you ask any member of my family, “What’s your favorite food?” the answer will probably be a toss up between The World’s Best Lasagna and this Shrimp Curry recipe. There are a lot of picky eaters in this bunch of people. No, I mean it. Meri doesn’t like tomatoes, green peppers, and onions, Aaron doesn’t like mushrooms, peppers, and fresh tomatoes (but he’ll eat tomato sauce), Kate won’t eat onions, mushrooms and peppers, Robert liked tomatoes but not onions or beans… picky people! This recipe is perfect for them. They all like the curry sauce and the shrimp; and the toppings are left to the individual picky eater. Don’t like tomatoes? Then don’t put them on… perfect!
Ingredients
- 6 tablespoons of bacon drippings
- ½ large onion, chopped small (but not too small!)
- 6 tablespoons flour
- 1 tablespoon curry powder
- 1 tablespoon sugar
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon ground ginger
- 1 teaspoon turmeric
- 1 teaspoon ground white pepper
- 1 cup chicken broth (1 tsp of chicken bouillon in hot water)
- 6 – 8 cups of milk
- 4 cups cooked, shelled, deveined shrimp
Rice
- ½ cup butter (1 stick)
- 3 cups uncooked rice
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 6 cups boiling water
Toppings
- 1 package of bacon, fried crisp and crumbled
- 1 hard boiled egg per person plus 1 extra, chopped
- 1 green pepper, chopped
- the other ½ of the onion (see above) chopped
- 2 large tomatoes, chopped
- raisins
- Spanish peanuts
- Major Grey’s Hot Mango Chutney
- flaked coconut
After making this recipe for years, I believe that this is the logical order of events:
In a saucepan with a lid, melt butter, add uncooked rice, salt, and boiling water. Return to boil. Put on the lid and reduce the heat to low. This will cook for 20 minutes while you do the following:
With a pin, poke a small hole in the rounded end of the eggs and put them in a pot of water to boil. When the water boils, turn your timer on for 5 minutes. Turn off the heat and let the eggs stand in the hot water for 15 minutes. Run them under cool water to make them easier to peel. Chop the hard-boiled eggs, tomatoes, green peppers, and onions, placing each in a separate container along with the raisins, peanuts, chutney, and coconut.
Dissolve chicken bouillon in hot water.
Fry the bacon and drain the pieces on a paper towel. Reserve the bacon drippings but transfer them from the skillet to a large pot. Over a medium heat, cook the ½ chopped onion in the drippings until the onions are translucent. Add flour, curry powder, sugar, salt, ginger, turmeric, and white pepper, then cook for a minute or so to make a well mixed rue. Slowly pour in the chicken broth, stirring as it thickens in the rue. Add the milk and continue to stir. When it begins to thicken, add the shrimp stirring every few minutes so it doesn’t scorch on the bottom. That would be criminal!
Serve over rice with the toppings of your choice. Deeeeeelish! And it’s even better the next day for breakfast.
You should try the chutney. It’s not hard to find in most condiment aisles of the grocery store. But if you can’t find it:
- Click here for a recipe for Mango Chutney