Heads will roll

Before: a seemingly sizable amount of shrimp.

After: definitely not enough shrimp.

So Tommy and I learned a valuable lesson about buying fresh shrimp today: you do not get what you pay for. 9 Euros worth of shrimp equated to (cooked) about two mouthfuls. Ha ha, funny joke Mercado Central.  You got us this time.

That being said, it was a good experience learning how to clean (behead, peel and de-vein) shrimp and they were probably some of the best I've had. Fresh seafood is just so much better than the frozen stuff, both in taste and texture. They were firm and sweet and a little salty, not nasty and iodine-flavored like the frozen kind that come in huge packages.

Anyway, I threw together a magic coconut curry with the help of our family friend Jasmine who is from Jamaica and is one of the best cooks I've ever had the pleasure of meeting. She used to work in a restaurant back in Jamaica and as a result, refuses to measure anything which annoys me when I beg for her recipe for shrimp curry. Luckily, it seemed that Jasmine was watching over me because I totally made up a recipe and hoped for the best. Typically this is fine but curry is tricky, and too much spice makes whatever you're cooking really bitter and disgusting. This being my very first curry dish, I was extremely pleased with the results.

I also actually liked the fact that we put in some chicken breast along with the shrimp. Even though it was a quick fix because it didn't have enough protein, the surf-and-turf thing really worked this time and I'd do the same thing all over again. Except not with such expensive shrimp. Good god.

I know there are some kind of random ingredients here, because I don't really know any other 21 year olds besides me with curry in their spice cabinets but it's a good purchase just to have if you want to throw together a quick meal and it won't go bad for awhile. Plus, you can easily double or triple this recipe to feed a crowd. The only sort of expensive part is the coconut milk and even that isn't so pricey. You can also flesh this out with potatoes and green or yellow peppers and it'll taste great. Also, don't balk at the addition of a Grannysmith apple. It adds a really nice textural and flavor component and without it, the dish feels lacking.

Just hanging with my new BFF.

Ingredients: 

1 can coconut milk

1 quarter red pepper, chopped and seeded

1 quarter Grannysmith apple, chopped

1 onion, chopped

2 cloves garlic

2 chicken breasts

1/2 kilo shrimp

2 tbs. olive oil

2 tsp. curry powder

1 small hot chile, finely chopped and seeded (or to taste)

1. In a large soup pot over medium heat, mix together the coconut milk, curry powder, chile and apple.

2. In a saucepan, saute all of the vegetables and garlic together over medium heat until just cooked (still a little crisp).  Add the veggies and cleaned shrimp to the stock pot.

3. Saute the chicken breasts until golden brown in the leftover oil and then add to the soup pot. Continue to simmer for 20 minutes or until fragrant. Serve over rice or eat it plain.

How to clean shrimp:

1. Pinch the head of the shrimp between your thumb and index finger and break it off sharply. If you're timid, it might not come all the way off. Do this over a garbage can because the head is where all the nasty stuff is.

2. Pull the tail off of the shrimp using the same motion. Don't yank sideways because you could pull off part of the meat too. It should slide off pretty easily.

3. From the underside of the shrimp, peel back the shell in between the legs. It may come away in one smooth motion or you might have to do it in parts.

4. Pull out the vein in the center of the shrimp. It should come out with relative ease but if not, use a sharp paring knife and run it down the spine. You can then pull out the vein.

This picture does not have anything to do with properly de-veining shrimp.