Caribbean Seafood Stew
A fast seafood stew with the flavors of the Caribbean!
Servings: 4
Ingredients
- 2 Tablespoons Olive or Vegetable Oil
- 1 cup Onion chopped
- 1 Red Bell Pepper cut into bite sized pieces
- 1 Tablespoon Minced Garlic (or 4 cloves minced)
- 1 Jalapeño Pepper seeded and finely chopped (optional)
- 1 14.5 oz. can diced tomatoes (*** or RO*TEL, see note below)
- 1 15 0z. can Unsweetened Coconut Milk
- 2 lbs. Uncooked Medium Shrimp peeled and deveined
- 1 Tablespoon Lime Juice
- 1/4 teaspoon Kosher Salt optional
- 1/2 cup Snipped Cilantro Leaves
- 2 cups Hot Cooked Rice (for serving)
- Bottled Hot Pepper Sauce (for serving) optional
Instructions
- In a large saute pan, heat oil over medium-high heat.
- Add the onion, bell pepper, garlic, and jalapeno. Cook and stir for about 4 minutes until the onion is translucent but not brown.
- Stir in undrained tomatoes and coconut milk. Bring to a boil, reduce heat. Simmer, uncovered, 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.
- Stir in shrimp, lime juice, salt and cilantro. Return to boiling; reduce heat. Simmer, uncovered, for 5 minutes or until shrimp turn opaque, stirring occasionally.
- Serve over hot cooked rice. Pass hot pepper sauce, if desired.
Modifications
I've already changed this recipe quite a bit from the original. The ingredients are put in the dish in a different order and in only a few steps.
I chop the onion in the food processor and cut the bell pepper into bite sized pieces. Cilantro can be done either with kitchen shears or very lightly chopped in a food processor. I've done the garlic in my food processor or just put 4 cloves into a garlic press. Either way, I just use 4 good sized cloves and don't bother measuring them. A bit more or less isn't going to make a difference.
The hardest part is deshelling and deveining the shrimp with my hands. I don't have a solution for that except to do it in batches and rest my hands in between each batch. If anyone has a better way to do this please let me know.
*** I have used a can of Rotel before when I felt unable to handle deseeding a jalapeno. If you use Rotel, you can skip the jalapeno or just use both if you like things a little spicy. Original Rotel is medium spicy. There is a mild and a hot version as well.