Here, as promised, is my latest “Blue Apron” recipe review – our second such meal this week. Friday evening I prepared the Spicy Shrimp Coconut Curry.
This time I’m awarding the meal a grade of “B-minus,” having lost a few points for less-than-stellar directions.
Once again, the flavor profile was excellent. I have already learned a lot from the way both recipes (click here for the Moroccan Chicken) used the juxtaposition of sweetness (in this case coconut milk) and spice (curry paste). Adding the lime juice after cooking also did a lot to bring out the shrimp flavor as well as cut the edgier tones of the spice.
My criticism comes at what is – for me – a critically important phase of the preparation. After adding a lot of liquid to the curry paste/garlic/lemongrass mixture, the instructions say cook 3 to 4 minutes, or until slightly reduced. I’ve made a lot of great reduction sauces in the past few months, and this certainly had the potential to be another; but it’s going to take a lot more than three to four minutes, and this broth would have benefited from a close to fifty percent reduction.
The result was a watery broth that did not present well, and that lacked the intense flavors possible from such an otherwise well thought out recipe.
We added homemade biscuits to the meal, and – overall – Rebekah and I enjoyed the result very much.
Here are a few photos. I’ll likely post some more devotionally-focused writing this afternoon.
Peace – DEREK
