Shrimp in a Spicy Thai Coconut Sauce

There is a fantastic little family owned authentic Thai restaurant in St. Thomas that I adore called Café Siam.  I love, love, love Thai food.   The only thing that I don't like about Thai food is cilantro - yuck! I've tried time and time again to like it but I just can't.  Dammit.  Anyways tonight I wanted to hit up that cute little restaurant for some good grub however the football game line up cramped my style. I decided instead that I would try to make some yummy Thai food on my own.  SUCCESS! I was so pleased with this dish - to me, it totally tasted like restaurant food. I had a tough time follow the original recipe found here, because of the lack of ethnic food selection at our local grocery store. Below is the recipe that I used with all of my substitutions. It honestly was the easiest meal to make and took about 5 minutes of prep time and 10 minutes of cook time. Minus the 45 minutes I wandered the grocery store looking for ingredients from the original recipe.

Hope you like it as much as we did.

Yield: 3 Servings

Ingredients
2 tablespoons canola oil
1 tablespoon fresh ginger, minced
lemon zest from 1/2 a lemon
1/2 of a jalapeno, minced (seeds removed!)
1 tablespoon hot pepper paste (found this at Bulk Barn for $2.00!)
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 lb raw, peeled shrimp (I bought the frozen guys)
1/2 can unsweetened coconut milk
juice from 1/2 a lime (I used the light stuff)
1 1/2 teaspoons fish sauce
Fresh cilantro to garnish (Yuck! I didn't use this)

Method
Warm oil over medium heat in a wok or fry pan.  Add ginger, lemon zest, jalapeno, and garlic.  Cook for two minutes before adding the shrimp.  Cook for about 2 minutes until they are about half cooked (sort of pinkish).  Pour in remaining ingredients. Simmer for 3 minutes or until shrimp are cooked through.  Serve over basmati rice, or rice noodles.