Recipe: Ruth Reichl's Sriracha Shrimp Over Coconut Rice - My Kitchen Year

SRIRACHA SHRIMP OVER COCONUT RICE

"Spicy shrimp. Fiery red heat of Siracha. Cool jumble of asparagus, garlic, ginger. Onions. Gentle tropical sweetness of coconut rice. Good!"

1 pound wild-caught shrimp*
1 lime
Sriracha sauce
1 cup basmati rice, uncooked
Butter
1 cup unsweetened coconut milk
3/4 cup water
Salt
1 onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, smashed
1 knob ginger
Vegetable oil
1 pound thin asparagus (cut into 1-inch pieces)

Peel the shrimp, squeeze the juice of the lime over them, and sprinkle them generously with a few tablespoons of Sriracha sauce; allow to marinate for about 15 minutes.

Wash the basmati rice, and keep washing until the water runs clear. Drain the rice, and saute it in a bit of butter; when it's glossy add the coconut milk mixed with 3/4 cup of water (you can vary the proportions if you have less coconut milk on hand). Add a pinch of salt, bring to a boil, cover, turn down the heat, and cook for 20 minutes. Remove from heat, but leave the lid on for 10 more minutes before fluffing and serving.

While the rice is cooking, saute the onion, the garlic, and a bit of thinly sliced ginger in vegetable oil in a large saute pan. When the mixture has become impossibly fragrant and the onions are translucent (about 5 minutes), add the asparagus and toss for a couple more minutes. Add the shrimp and their marinade. Toss and saute over high heat until the shrimp lose their translucence, 2 to 3 minutes.

Pile the shrimp on top of the rice and serve, with extra Sriracha sauce.

*Begin with the best shrimp you can buy. Look at the labels. Shrimp vary enormously in quality. If you can find wild-caught American shrimp, that's what you want. Most farm-raised shrimp are either tasteless or have an unpleasant iodine tang; on top of that, many shrimp farmers are ecologically reckless.

Makes 3 or 4 servings
Used by permission to Recipelink.com from Random House
Adapted from source: My Kitchen Year by Ruth Reichl