Indian-Inspired Shrimp Orzo Curry
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Orzo curry is an exciting fusion of Indian with Italian and Thai elements. While I quite like curry - like why wouldn’t anyone! - I was getting bored of rice or bread with curry. My girlfriend, who is truly obsessed with pasta, read about a curry made with orzo pasta. While I call this a curry, you may not see any gravy in this dish. That’s mainly because I use the delicious gravy to cook the pasta, so the flavours are cooked into each grain of the orzo. This dish can also easily be veggie-fied by adding more vegetables such as carrots and peppers during the sautéing step.
The Journey to This Recipe
Once I heard about this recipe, I decided to start developing my own style by referring to popular options. The problem that I found with most recipes is that they use ready-made curry powder and Thai red curry paste. While I truly enjoy Thai food, I prefer creating the base of the curry from scratch.
This took me on a series of failed experiments with a variety of store-bought curry powders and red curry paste. Until, one day, I said to myself - enough! That’s when I decided to think of my favourite parts of Indian, Italian and Thai flavours and merge them together.
The orzo acts as the “rice” in this dish and its creamy texture tickles your tongue. The coconut milk brings an essence of Thai cuisine, while it also has elements of South Indian cuisine. These various elements are combined with the Indian masala and is married together by the combination of spices
The best way to describe this dish would be to actually prepare it and experience it. And don’t get intimidated by the long ingredient list, most of it is just spices you may already have in your cabinet!
The Key to this Curry
I think the key is the special spice blend. In this dish, I use a combination of whole spices and ground spices. The whole spices includes cardamom, both the green and the black cardamom. Both the spices are listed as optional if you are having a hard time finding these spices at the store. While both green and black cardamom come from the same plant family, they taste completely different.
Green cardamom is usually used to add a subtle sweetness to dishes and has an intoxicating flavour.
On the other hand, black cardamom has a more pungent, smoky flavour.
Additionally, I use classic Indian spices such as cumin seeds, ground cumin, ground coriander, chilli powder and turmeric. These spices help make onion and tomato-based masala for this curry.
Green peas and cilantro help add bright fresh flavours while the coconut milk adds a wonderful creaminess and subdues the flavours from the masala. Finally, the shrimp is simply steamed in the residual heat from the pan to ensure the shrimp stay juicy and tender.
I don’t think I have disclosed one of the most important ingredients that really completes this dish. It’s the potatoes! First, they’re boiled then they are sautéed with cumin and turmeric. We’ll then toss them in the final curry. Potatoes actually go hand in hand with both Indian and Thai curries. I use Yukon gold or yellow potatoes for this step. I find the earthiness from the turmeric with the cumin goes really well with the natural waxiness of the potatoes and the starchiness from the orzo.
Watch How to Make Indian-Inspired Shrimp Orzo Curry Here:
Let me know what you think of this recipe in the comments! If you’ve tried this recipe, be sure to post it on social media and tag it with #cookingwithanadi and mention me @cookingwithanadi. Thank you!