You guys I have a delicious recipe to share with you today!
I made this a while ago, but am so excited to finally share it with you because it may be one of my favorite recipes.
I love Thai curry and especially love red curry made with coconut milk. So creamy, so spicy, and so delicious. As you know, my household loves risotto of all kinds and we love to play around with different flavors to mix-up our dinner! We have made all types from Creamy Tomato Basil, Chicken Piccata, and Eggs Benedict. This time I decided to make a risotto using my favorite flavors- shrimp coconut red curry. I used flavors from spicy red curry paste, coconut milk, chicken stock, basil, and garlic and the smells while is cooked were incredible. I opted to top mine with a few grilled shrimp, but you could use grilled chicken or another protein option (extra veggies even?)- or just have it plain.
My family and I loved this recipe, and I was thrilled when Kellen inhaled his portion. He was not into trying the shrimp (I am working on seafood with him), but loved the rice and veggies. Kellen’s favorite veggies are tomatoes and green beans, and I sure you can imagine his delight to find a lots in his dish. This warmed nicely for lunch the next day and felt like eating delicious Thai leftovers. I can’t wait to make this one again!
This week I have been trying to be mindful of time in and out of the house. Sometimes I feel like I am taking on too much (especially with it being our busy season at work) and appreciate time to step back to get life in order. I am trying to spend the week focusing on putting my emphasis and priority on the things that make me happy and feel at ease. For example, I have made a big effort to do a load of laundry each night in efforts to stop the mountains from forming in out rooms. Normally, I would ignore it, but I am trying to make it part of the evening and have found the overwhelming feeling of laundry to be much less even though it is happening more often. Don’t get me wrong- doing laundry does not make me happy, but the feeling of it being done does. I am also attending my Pure Barre classes, but this is pretty normal for me but I am enjoying taking the 55 minutes for myself to exercise and work my body. I am also taking the time to rock my boys an extra few minutes at bedtime because snuggles from those kiddos are worth their weight in gold. I have found the feeling that I need to rush out of the room to do dishes has created a routine that I do not like. Finally, I am focusing on getting 2 new blog posts published for the week. I love blogging, but in the evening I felt so drained I could not imagine typing, but each time I finish a post I remember how happy it makes me because I love sharing what is going on in my kitchen and our lives.
What makes you happy? What types of things do you do to re-center your life?
Tonight my happiness if coming from a Pure Barre class, sub sandwich night with my family (yay- no dishes), and Chicago PD with my husband.
Ingredients
2 Tbl olive oil
½ medium onion, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 1/4 cup Arborio rice
4 cup chicken stock
1 (13.66 oz) can coconut milk
3 Tbl Thai red curry paste
3/4 cup halved cherry tomatoes
1/2 cup green beans (cut into 1 ½ - 2 inch pieces)
1/2 cup asparagus (cut into 1 ½ - 2 inch pieces)
1 1/2 cup fresh spinach
1 Tbl fresh chopped basil
Salt
16 cleaned jumbo shrimp
Wooden skewers soaked in water for 30 minutes prior to grilling
Instructions
Heat grill to medium high heat. Skewer about 6 shrimp (through top and tail), onto each skewer, without leaving space between shrimp. Brush lightly with olive oil and season lightly with salt and pepper. Set aside.
Place stock in a medium saucepan. Bring to a simmer (do not boil). Keep warm over low-medium heat.
Heat a large skillet over medium heat. Add olive oil to pan; swirl to coat. Add onions; cook 1-2 minutes and add garlic. Stir in rice, and cook for 1-2 minutes, stirring constantly. Increase heat to medium and add stock, 1/2 cup at a time, stirring constantly until each portion of stock is absorbed before adding the next. With the last portion of stock stir in the coconut milk and curry paste. Stir well and add tomatoes, green beans, asparagus, spinach, and basil. Gently stir, season with salt (if desired) and remove from heat. Cover to allow veggies to seam as you grill the shrimp.
Grilled shrimp on prepared grill 1-2 minutes per side. Remove from heat and remove shrimp from skewer (if desired). Serve risotto and top with grilled shrimp.