Shrimp, Mango and Bell Pepper Skewers with Coconut Risotto

These recipes for shrimp skewers and glaze, I found on Epicurious the other day and thought they looked really good. It was one of those, “Oh, I think we’re having that for dinner tomorrow” moments. It just looked all fresh and healthy and kind of light. Okay, this was in the pre-risotto phase but bear with me here.

The original recipe was for outdoor grill cooking but I used my grill pan. If you make these outside, it’s pretty much the same thing — 3 minutes per side. Oh and if you make these outside on the grill, you’ll want to soak your skewers in water for 30 minutes before assembling or use metal skewers.

Shrimp, Mango & Red Pepper Skewers
3 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp minced peeled fresh ginger
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 tsp dried crushed red pepper
36 jumbo shrimp (about 2 pounds), peeled, tails left intact, deveined
2 red bell peppers, each cut into 12 pieces
2 firm but ripe mangoes, peeled, pitted, cut into cubes
twelve 12-inch bamboo skewers
Garnishes: Lime wedges and fresh, chopped cilantro

Mix olive oil, ginger, pepper flakes and garlic in large bowl. Add shrimp, bell peppers and mangoes; toss to coat. Alternate bell pepper, mango and 3 jumbo shrimp on each of the skewers. I ran out of bell pepper before shrimp and mango, so one of my skewers was just mango and shrimp. That was okay.

Heat a grill pan and cook shrimp until done, brushing with glaze during last 2 minutes. This will be about three minutes per side. I brushed with glaze before turning over on second side.

I found that my shrimp were not laying completely flat due to the mangoes and peppers. Therefore, they weren’t really cooking completely. An easy way to fix this was to cover the pan. That way, if they didn’t cook with direct heat from the pan surface, they cooked from the heat present inside the covered pan. They still got a few nice lines on them from the grill pan and turned pink so it worked out fine.

Cook the skewers in batches and keep finished skewers warm on a plate, covered with foil until ready to eat.

Guava-Lime Glaze
1 can guava nectar
1 cup orange juice
1/2 cup red wine vinegar (I only had port wine vinegar so I used that — that’s why my glaze is a little dark)
1/3 cup fresh lime juice

Combine nectar, orange juice and vinegar in heavy medium saucepan. Boil until reduced to 2/3 cup, about 30-40 minutes. Keep a close eye on this as I almost had a boil over of epic proportions. Imagine cleaning some of that off your stove top. Yikes! Cool completely. Mix in lime juice. (Can be made 1 day ahead. Cover and chill.)

You can also, completely guilt-free, just buy a jarred marinade or glaze instead and use that on the shrimp.

Coconut Risotto
1 can light coconut milk
3 cups chicken stock
1/4 – 1/2 tsp Thai chili paste or red pepper flakes (to your taste really, if you like things spicy, go crazy, if not, be timid)
1 1-inch piece of ginger, peeled
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 leek, trimmed, washed, and sliced
1 tsp lemon grass paste (if you don’t have this, don’t worry about it. You could also just simmer a piece of lemon grass in the coconut stock too)
1 cup arborio rice
1 tbsp olive oil
2 cloves garlic
salt & pepper to taste

This I decided to make at the last minute instead of plain coconut rice. Well, it wasn’t really at the last minute, as risotto isn’t really a last minute type of undertaking, but it was when I was getting everything together to start dinner. I realized I had everything to make risotto and just sort of winged it as I do love the creamy. As I mentioned before, this is one of the things I love most about risotto (besides the creamy) — once you get used to making it, you can pretty much just make recipes up.

So, for this version, begin by combining the coconut milk, chicken stock, lemon grass paste, chili paste (or pepper flakes) and the piece of ginger in a pot. Bring it up to a simmer. Next, in a heavy bottomed soup pot, add the olive oil and sauté the leeks and garlic until soft, about 3 minutes (medium heat). Add the rice and stir to coat with the oil. Begin to add the simmering liquid in 1/2 cup portions, stirring until all the liquid is absorbed before adding more. When you get close to the end of the liquid, fish the ginger out and discard.

Edited to add — Oh, if you have some white wine open, go ahead and start with a 1/2 cup of that into the rice (before adding and coconut-stock). I just didn’t have any white wine open and red wine didn’t seem like a good idea for this risotto.

You can cheat a little here and not stir constantly but try to stir every couple of minutes at least. This will allow you to get the shrimp going while still making the risotto.

You will probably go through most of the liquid. When you’re getting close to using it all, give the risotto a taste and see if it’s done. It should be creamy and soft. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Serve on a plate and place 2-3 skewers alongside. Garnish with lime pieces and cilantro. Serve more chili paste on the side, if someone you know is like jwa, who is slightly insane and likes things crazy-spicy-hot. Laugh a little when he burns his mouth and begs for more wine.