Hawai'i Cuisine: Shrimp Curry with Coconut Milk and Sugar Snap Peas

Shrimp Curry with Coconut Milk and Sugar Snap Peas (pg 77) was rich. Too rich. As in, it made me feel sick once the food had a few minutes to settle in my belly. With lots of heavy cream, a bit of coconut milk, and a good amount of butter and oil, it wasn't really a surprise, but it was an unpleasant side effect.

I always think of curries as packing a lot of flavor. This one didn't, even though I doubled the curry powder. Maybe all that cream washed it out. The only spices are curry powder, fresh ginger, salt, pepper, and sugar. Chef Choy sure does like to use sugar in savory dishes. I've never cooked so many dinners that involved sugar before.

One problem in the instructions is that he has you make a roux. He says to stir the flour in the melted butter for five minutes. Unless I was supposed to turn the heat way down, which he did not say to do, I don't see how this is possible. After a minute and a half, mine was dark brown and started to smell burned. I suspect that the "stir for five minutes" instruction should have followed the next step, which was to add the fluids and stir constantly until smooth and thick. It was a lot of fluid, and it took about five minutes to cook down. 

Conclusion: Just okay. For me, this one was pretty unmemorable, apart from the discomfort. I can't decide whether to call it Charlie Approved or not. My strange little man enjoyed the sauce straight from the wooden spoon I'd used for stirring, but wanted nothing to do with it once I dared mix it into his rice, nor would he touch the shrimp or peas.

Proof!

So picky! I guess I won't label it as Charlie Approved since he didn't really eat anything of substance. Grrr. What a noodge. At least he's a cute noodge.