Spicy Coconut Shrimp Soup with Udon Noodles
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Spicy Coconut Shrimp Soup with Udon Noodles
*snaps fingers*
Just like that, we all find ourselves in a new year filled with hope and ambition that any resolutions made on New Years Eve will actually come to fruition. I’m a proud-pessimist when it comes to resolutions because they hardly ever seem to hold throughout the year.
Toward the end of 2018, we picked up some new readers and newsletter subscribers (thank you to everyone!), so I thought today’s post would be the perfect reintroduction. Feel free to skip to the bottom of this post to get the recipe for this delicious and comforting spicy coconut shrimp soup with udon noodles, I promise my feelings won’t get hurt.
I come from a long line of strong-willed German women who believed that quality family time happened around the dinner table. From a young age, it was instilled in me that in order to get everyone gathered around the dinner table you needed one very important thing: quality, home-cooked meals that everyone looked forward to. The only thing that ever came from a box was a dumpling mix that both my grandmother and great-grandmother swore was the best. (To this day, it’s the only dumpling mix I have ever had, so I am just going to have to trust them.) It’s because of the two of them that I have this deep love of cooking and developing recipe ideas. Sorry mom, you’ve never been that great of a cook even if you are full of try!
Growing up, my father worked 6 days a week in the agricultural business (today he only works 4 in his late 60s). That meant I hated vegetables as a child more than most kids because he brought home so much of it. Today, I am taking advantage of the perks of his job more frequently. It’s because of his 35+ years in the industry why I am completely unimpressed by today’s organic, non-GMO movement (both of which are huge marketing gimmicks to put more money into farmers pockets — so for those of you who do buy organic, non-GMO kale, we thank you for supporting our wine habits.) I am a huge believer of growing your own fruits and vegetables to ensure what you’re feeding your family is truly clean of chemicals. Just keep them away from chickens.
2019 is coming with some huge changes within my family. By day, I am a contract specialist, but to be honest it doesn’t inspire me much these days. So, with my husbands help behind the scenes, I am throwing more energy (and content) into the new year with one basic goal in mind: to create quality recipes those at home can easily recreate, no matter the skill level. I believe with well-written instructions, even the most complicated recipes are achievable. While I might be creating recipes for my own selfish cravings, the content you find here is really for you. Most of the recipes are inspired by places I have visited, long-lost recipes I grew up loving and had to recreate from memory, or adapted (and tweaked) from magazines, cookbooks or even family members, with full credit of course. Since we don’t have any kids (yet), this blog is becoming our child that we hope to see bloom into something pretty awesome.
Wine plays an enormous role in what I do here. I am fortunate enough to live in California’s (best) wine country on the Central Coast. Very rarely do I ever share or recommend a wine that isn’t local and despite many lucrative offers of partnership from wine distributors, that isn’t going to change in 2019. I love central coast wines and how unpretentious (most) of the wineries are. For many wine makers, they aren’t creating mass produced bulk wines you’ll likely find at your local grocery store for $12 a bottle — and that’s what I love about this area. I love taking a bottle of wine to a dinner party and have someone say that they’ve never tasted a wine so delicious, only to have them admit to only buying uninspired bulk wine and foolishly thinking all wine is created equal. News flash, it is not.
Over the years, our family has lost key-important members which were vital to our traditional Sunday Supper (which some days happened on Tuesdays because of insane schedules), and now that we are such a small group, we have lost sight of the importance of quality family time. Home cooked meals have been replaced by loud, non-intimate restaurants with average but overpriced food. This year, I am bringing the tradition back and you’ll see some of those recipes on the occasional Saturday post.
Today’s spicy coconut shrimp soup with udon noodles is the first of (at least) 102 recipes planned for the year (last year I did 60-ish). New recipes will be posted every Monday and Wednesday, with the occasional Saturday post. I’ll be sharing a mix of one pot (or one pan), slow cooker, air fryer, Traeger, Instant Pot (after much resistance on my part, my father thought I needed one for Christmas) and Sous Vide recipes throughout the year along with delicious baked goods. I am going for a farm to table theme this year, using as much as the fresh produce my father brings to me as possible, along with using lots and lots of eggs (we have backyard chickens and ducks, with the latter being my preference. We had three baby ducklings hatch right around Christmas, and boy are they messy but adorable…
Okay, I have done more than enough rambling, so let’s get into today’s recipe, which is ready and on the table in less than 30 minutes. For more spice, add another sliced fresh chile pepper and a bit more red curry paste, but be careful as spice can be difficult to take away. Due to this being a spicier soup, I absolutely love serving this soup with a dry white, acidic wine such as riesling. This particular riesling from acclaimed Fess Parker has a hint of ginger, which I particularly enjoyed with this soup. If you enjoy this recipe, you’ll also love my recipe for one pot winter root vegetable coconut curry soup.