Spicy Curry Shrimp Spaghetti
This recipe came together as somewhat of an experiment with the ingredients we had at home. It has since been one of our favourite simple meals. You can easily adjust the level of spiciness by playing around with the amounts of Sambal and sour cream.
Ingredients:
(makes 2 servings)
Around 10 shrimps (we almost always use frozen shrimp)
1 small onion, finely diced
1 clove of garlic, minced
2 tbsp sour cream
100ml chicken or vegetable stock
1 tbsp Sambal Badjak
(You can certainly use a different chili paste, but we prefer the fruity notes of Sambal Badjak. The more readily available Sambal Oelek would work. Alternatively, you could even use Ajvar or a red pesto.)5-10 sprigs of fresh thyme
5 cherry tomatoes, halved
1 tbsp of yellow curry powder
200g spaghetti
Instructions:
Defrost your shrimp in cold water. Refresh the cold water every 10 minutes or so, until the shrimp are fully defrosted.
Bring a large pot of water to the boil and cook your spaghetti. Slightly undercook them (1-2 minutes less than what the packaging advises) as they will finish cooking in the sauce. Save some of the pasta water before draining.
Pick the leaves off of your thyme sprigs and finely chop them.
Fry the diced onion over medium high heat for about 1-2 min until softened.
Add the minced garlic and fry for another minute.
Add the shrimp and fry until they turn pink. They don’t have to be fully cooked through at this stage.
Add thyme and cook for another minute.
Remove the shrimp using tongues and cover, leaving most of the onion, garlic, and thyme in the pan.
Add the Sambal Badjak and fry for about 1 minute.
Deglaze your pan with chicken or vegetable stock and add the curry powder. Stir to combine.
Let this simmer to reduce slightly before reducing the heat to low, adding the cherry tomatoes and sour cream.
Season to taste with salt and pepper. At this stage, this should be quite salty and have a good amount of heat, but don’t worry, it will come together with the pasta.
Transfer the shrimp back into the sauce to heat through and finish cooking.
Add the previously cooked spaghetti and toss to combine. Add some of the reserved pasta water to form a cohesive sauce. Adjust for seasoning if necessary.
Enjoy!
