Coconut Shrimp Pasta

By: Chef Juno Quiambao

Ingredients:

1 pc brown onion 1 tsp ground garlic 10 pcs peeled shrimp 1 hand-full spinach 2 cans(560ml) of Mae Ploy coconut milk 1 tsp salt 1 pc sliced jalapeno 500g bucatini pasta no.6 extra virgin olive oil


Procedure:

Bucatini Pasta (Barilla brand prefered)- boil water enough to cover 500g of pasta. Add at least 1 tsp of salt to give salty taste to the bucatini.

*its not necessary to put oil in the boiling water. its a misconception to household recipes to make it easy for pasta not to stick together.

Check the instructions in the pasta box how to make it "al dente". If it says 12 minutes to al dente, or sometimes 9 minutes, then cook the pasta half of the time required to achieve a nice "al dente"

*remember the success of cooking the whole process does not only depend on how good the sauce is, but also how you combine the tasty sauce and perfectly done "al dente" pastas.

As soon as the water boils, put 500g of bucatini pasta into the boiling water and continue to stir. Stirring it continuously prevents the pasta from sticking together. Allow 4-6 minutes to boil until you see a nice shinny yellow color of the pasta. You may have to take one string and bite it to test if it already reach "al dente". Then strain the pasta. When the pasta is completely drained, rinse it with cold water to stop it from continuous cooking from the heat. When the pasta is not hot anymore, drizzle it with extra virgin olive oil to prevent it from sticking together.

Sauce- In a hot saute' pan with oil, put the chopped onions and and garlic and start to saute'. Add the peeled shrimp and chopped jalapenos and continue to mix it. It is better to sweat all these ingredients out in a low-medium fire to completely infuse all the flavors. (you may want to remove the shrimps when it turns reddish to prevent it from being over-cooked). Then pour 2 cans of the coconut milk and mix it nicely. Allow the coconut milk to simmer and completely infuse all the flavors. Simmer it for few minutes in a low fire and wait until the sauce gets thicker. The sauce will reduce a little bit when it starts to thicken up. This is the best time also to add 1 tsp of white sugar and salt depending on the taste. Add the spinach to the sauce and mix it again. The sauce is ready when it is thick enough to coat the back of the spoon.

Serving- combine the bucatini pasta and the sauce in a big bowl or simply mix it in the saute' pan.