I‘ve been cooking more lately, trying all manner of recipes, and with the experimenting has come more confidence. Confidence to try my hand at foods I thought were out of my reach. Curries in particular. That complicated mishmash of flavour and spice (and everything nice). Lately, however, I have found myself dabbling in the odd curry; the Thai, the Indian, and then today, the Goan. A nod to my roots.

Here is my first foray into the food of my people. My momma is a genius at all things food, and growing up, our home was always full of savoury aromas that delighted the nostrils and tastebuds. Even now whenever I visit my parents’, there is nearly always the freshly made pot of Caldine with shrimp or eggs dropped in just for me.

Today I put my brave pants on and tried my hand at a Goan Shrimp Curry. I added bits of myself to the various recipes I saw online and came up with the following. I would like to say before I delve into the machinations of this recipe, that this one is for my mother: Thank you for taking epic risks in the kitchen. Our home has never known what it means to be without good food.

To begin with, there are two parts to this recipe. The first is what I am going to call the heartbeat of the curry. This is where your punch of flavour and colour will come from. The second is your meat and potatoes, the grit of the curry: the shrimp and cauliflower. This recipe, as I have built into this post, offers a whole lot of leeway. I want you to throw away your fear of fecking up a curry, and trust your instincts. Rely on your palette, your nose and your intuition. Experiment, then taste, then fix as you go. Ready? Let’s get to it!

For the Heartbeat of the Curry:

INGREDIENTS: 

• 1-2 tbsp. coconut oil
• 2-3 small onions chopped (red, yellow, white – whatever you’ve got on hand will do)
• 5-6 cloves of garlic minced (Garlic, in general, is wonderful in food, so if you want to add a bit more, go for it!)
• A 2-inch long piece of ginger chopped (don’t sweat the width, trust your instincts)
• 2 large tomatoes chopped (don’t get too technical with your chopping technique, this is going in a blender, so it won’t matter)
• Frozen shredded coconut (available at most international food stores – if you live in Toronto, Sunny Food Market is the place to find this. If you can get this fresh, amazing, if you can’t, you can always use canned or powdered coconut milk, but add it later, after the mixture has been blended).
• Peanuts (I tossed in a few, maybe 2 tbsp.?, whole, no need to get fancy and even bother peeling them)
• 2-3 pieces whole Tamarind after leaving to sweat in a half cup of hot water (Can be found at aforementioned Sunny Food Mart, but if you don’t have the actual tamarind, the paste or even some semi-pure version of a tamarind sauce will do – 2 – 3 tbsp. will suffice in this case. The Tamarind adds a complete dimension of sourness to this curry; if you’re not big into sour, ease up on how much you add)
• 1 tsp. of chilli powder
• 1 tsp. of coriander powder
• 1 – 2 tsp. of turmeric powder (stick with your preference here, if you don’t like turmeric, stay closer to 1 tsp.)

PROCEDURE:

1. Sauté the onions, garlic, ginger in a pot with coconut oil (at medium heat)
2. Once the onions have wilted a little, add the tomatoes, shredded coconut, tamarind, peanuts, and  all manner of aforementioned powders
3. Cook for about 10 minutes, until the tomatoes start to go limp as well. Take off heat, leave to cool while you begin prepping the shrimp and cauliflower [SEE BELOW].
4. Once your shrimp and cauliflower are on the heat, pop this heartbeat mixture into a blender and pulse until everything has blended really well. Add a three-quarter cup of water to help it through the pulsing process.
5. Pour the mixture back into your pot (add as much water as you like; I like this curry more on the thick side, so I didn’t add too much water. Tip: Any water you add, add it to the blender first, so it makes use of all the remnants of your blended mixture, and then add to the pot).

For the Grit of the Curry (Shrimp and Cauliflower):

INGREDIENTS: 

• 20 – 30 medium to large pieces of fresh or frozen shrimp (clean, devein and remove the tails of these. You can choose to go with cooked and cleaned frozen shrimp to save yourself the hassle, but I find the uncooked frozen variety soaks in the flavours of your spices better and renders a juicier finish)
• About one-third of a large cauliflower de-floreted and chopped to more or less match the size of the shrimp (You don’t want big chunks of cauliflower and bite-sized shrimp – allow the cauliflower to compliment the shrimp in size and texture)
• 2-3 cloves of garlic, minced
• Salt and pepper to taste
• 1/2 tsp. turmeric
• Half a lemon
• 1 tsp. mustard seeds
• 2 small green chillies (or more if you want to kick up the heat; feel free to use red chillies if you like your curries blazing hot)
• A handful of curry leaves (if you have them; I didn’t)
• 1 tbsp. coconut oil (you can use vegetable or olive oil or any kind of oil you prefer here and for the part above, but I had coconut oil on hand and it adds to the flavour)

PROCEDURE:

• Place the cleaned shrimp in a bowl, add the salt, pepper and turmeric and mix well. Squeeze the half lemon and mix again.
• Sauté the onions, garlic and cauliflower florets in a shallow pan along with the mustard seeds. Once the cauliflower begins turning translucent, add in the shrimp mixture. Watch carefully, you don’t want the shrimp to overcook and become rubbery. Take off the heat when the shrimp is half-cooked and add it to the heartbeat blend in the pot.
• Slice the chillies lengthwise in half and drop into the pot.
• Add as much salt as you like.
• Let boil for about 10 – 15 mins. on low heat.
• Serve over a bed of fresh rice (any kind you like!). Enjoy!

There you have it, a Goan Shrimp and Cauliflower Curry. It takes a bit of time (like an hour and a half, mostly because I am a perfectionist and wanted to get this right), but I had some jazz music on, and a glass of wine to make things more fun. If you try this recipe, leave me a comment and let me know how it went. Bon appétit!