Shrimp Korma over White Rice

It seems that anytime I see a recipe these days for an Indian or Mediterranean dish, it immediately catches my eye. I don't know what it is that makes me gravitate towards the food of these two regions, but I am constantly craving it. I have yet to tire of nice, spicy curries, served on a bed of steaming hot rice; similarly, a plate of warm pita bread and hummus always sounds like heaven, day or night.

This dish is one that I read through briefly and then pretty much went straight to the kitchen to see if I had all the ingredients on hand to make. Turns out, I didn't have everything, but I gave you my variation on the dish below. My differences were slight; I put in ground ginger instead of fresh, and I omitted fresh tomato in favor of a bag of frozen veggies. In my opinion, this dish turned out wonderfully. It was comfort food at its spicy best. The shrimp and veggies absorb the brightly flavorful curry broth so nicely, and the rice is the perfect base layer to ground the dish. Best of all, the whole meal takes less than a half hour to put together. You could allow the pot to simmer longer to meld the flavors even more, but even with the quick prep I found it all very tasty. I love it when something so exotic is ridiculously easy, too!

Shrimp Korma over White Rice
adapted from Cooking Light
makes 6 servings

Ingredients
1/2 Tbsp. butter
1 cup chopped red bell pepper
1/2 cup chopped onion
1 1/2 Tbsp. all-purpose flour
3 garlic cloves, finely chopped
2 tsp. hot curry powder
1 tsp. ground ginger
2 tsp. garam masala
1/2 tsp. salt, divided
2 cups vegetable broth
1/3 cup water
1/3 cup light coconut milk
1/2 cup frozen green peas
1 (16-oz.) frozen vegetables (I used broccoli, carrots, and cauliflower)
1 lb. peeled and deveined large shrimp
4 cups hot, cooked white rice
fat-free plain yogurt, optional

Directions
1. Melt butter in a Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add bell pepper and onion to pan; saute 2 minutes. Add flour and garlic; cook 1 minute, stirring constantly. Add curry powder, ginger, garam masala, and 1/4 tsp. salt; cook 30 seconds, stirring.

2. Stir in broth and 1/3 cup water; bring to a boil. Stir in coconut milk and reduce the heat, and simmer for 5 minutes. Add peas, frozen veggies, shrimp, and the remaining salt; cook 5 minutes or until shrimp are done.

3. Spoon about 2/3 cup rice into each of 6 bowls. Top each serving with about 1 cup shrimp mixture and, if desired, 2 tsp. yogurt.

Baked Sunday Mornings: Carrot Coconut Scones

This weekend's Baked Sunday Mornings goodie was Carrot Coconut Scones with Citrus Glaze. What a perfect Sunday morning treat! I'm going to keep this post short today, as my husband is running the St. Louis half-marathon this morning and I need to go get the kids ready so we can all be downtown in time for him to finish. He's been working so hard; I'm really proud of him and I can't wait to see him cross the finish line!



But back to the scones. These are delicious. They're slightly crusty on the outside, but pillowy soft on the inside. The carrot flavor is there, but you don't get small bits or shreds of carrot when you bite down. That's because this recipe has you puree some orange juice with the carrots after cooking and softening them. Almost like baby food, the carrot puree is mixed into the dry ingredients and blends into the finished product beautifully.

I was running low on coconut when I made these, but since I was going to be feeding the scones to various people and didn't know who loved or hated coconut, I thought maybe a reduced amount was a good solution. So, in the end, my scones only contained 1/4 cup of coconut, rather than the full 1 cup called for. As it turns out, many thought this was the perfect amount. There were unanimous rave reviews for these; everybody loved them.

The glaze really enhanced the scones with its citrusy sweetness, but I tried a scone warm from the oven the day they were made, and didn't have any glaze at the time. In my opinion, they were still amazing even without it! But either way you choose to enjoy them, give them a try. Nothing like carrot cake, but still wonderful in their own right.



Be sure to check out how the other members of the group liked their scones by clicking over to the blogroll, which is here. Enjoy your Sunday!