Coconut milk is a very common ingredient in Asian cooking as well as African cooking. It gives a very rich creamy flavor and when combined with aromatic spices, it makes very flavorful sauces for many dishes. And in addition to coconut milk, scraped or grated coconut also used for some dishes. Following are a few coconut based dishes that are loved around the world.
Spicy Coconut Shrimp
Spicy Coconut Shrimp is a dish loved by those who love crunchy and exotic starters or snacks. The prawns are dipped in a mixture of spices (mostly cayenne pepper, curry powder and salt) and then rolled in shredded coconut to nicely coat all around the prawns. Then they are fried in oil or sometimes baked. Fried spicy prawns coated with crunchy coconut makes this a unique snack or a starter. And often it’s served with a creamy dip or chutney.
East African Chicken & Coconut Curry (Kuku Paka)
This is a dish where grilled marinated chicken cooked in lightly spiced creamy coconut milk. Most of the flavor of the chicken comes from the marinade which is a mix of cumin, coriander and turmeric. Traditionally chicken with the skin is used and grilled over charcoal until crisp. When grilled on charcoal it brings that unique smokey flavor of this dish. When the chicken is grilled it is cooked in coconut milk with turmeric and green chili. Another healthy variation of this dish is to bake the skinless chicken in an oven and cooked in coconut sauce as above. This delicious dish is served with rice or flatbread.
Coconut Kebab Curry
This is a spicy chicken kebab in a mildly spicy creamy coconut sauce. If you are not familiar with what is a kebab, it is a form of a meatball with lots of flavorful Asian spices. Kebabs are made with minced meat, chopped onion, ginger and garlic paste with ground cumin and coriander. They are rolled between hands to form balls. The curry is made with green chili, cumin, coriander, turmeric and tomato cooked in coconut milk. When the curry is cooked, the kebabs are added to the curry to coat spicy curry into the kebabs. This dish is often served with rice but some prefer flatbread with this curry.
Prawn Malai Curry
If you are a fan of prawns and creamy spicy coconut milk this is the dish for you. Prawns are fried with garlic, onion paste, cardamom, cinnamon and garam masala. And the coconut milk sauce is made with turmeric, chili powder and green chili. The coconut milk is cooked on low flame till spices are infused to the coconut milk and gravy thickens and becomes creamy. This is served with white rice.
Coconut milk is a great base for spicy curries. It beautifully mixes with the spices and creates a nice creamy sauce. If you are a lover of coconut milk based curries and spices, there is a wide range of dishes that uses coconut milk as the base. And above dishes are highly recommended to be in your must-try list.
