Shrimp Panang Curry

I wonder who first decided to eat some types of foods.  Shrimp is an example of one of these foods.  Did someone find a shrimp in the ocean and just pop it into their mouth?

Whoever he was, he was probably hungry and would have put anything into his mouth to fill his stomach.  

I did not like shrimp as a kid.  I liked the taste, but the idea of putting an entire shrimp body into my mouth kind of freaked me out.  

Now I eat shrimp with relish.  The shrimp in this panang curry were particularly delightful.  I made chicken panang curry in the past, but a container of panang curry paste has enough paste for several curries.

I used the same base recipe as before, but I replaced the chicken with shrimp.  I also added more meat because that was my major complaint about the chicken panang curry.

The ingredients are 5 tablespoon panang curry paste, peanut oil, 4 cups coconut milk, 2 pounds shrimp, 2 tablespoons brown sugar, 3 tablespoons fish sauce, zest and juice of a lime, and Thai basil.  My picture do not show Thai basil, but I forgot to garnish the dish with basil before taking my photos.

I cooked the curry paste in a skillet with peanut oil until the paste was fragrant.

I added the coconut milk and brought the curry to a boil.

I added frozen shrimp and cooked it for 10 minutes.  If you don't use frozen, I don't think you'll need to cook it for as long.

After the shrimp simmered for 10 minutes, I added the lime juice and zest, brown sugar, and fish sauce.

I served this over basmati rice.  I also garnish it with Thai basil, even though it isn't pictured.

 It was delicious! Panang curry is probably my favorite curry.  The sauce is creamy and tropical with the lime and coconut flavor.

Panang curry has some heat, which I really enjoy too.  

 This recipe was flavorful and easy.  This isn't going to be the past panang curry I make!