Satsumaimo to ebi no tai reddo karee / Thai red curry noodles with sweet potatoes and shrimp

Once ingredients are prepped or chopped, it takes less than 30 minutes to cook this tasty, warm and filling dish served with noodles of your choice. Shoyukoji soy sauce rice malt and kurozu brown rice vinegar work their magic yet again here to minimize the amount of nampla as well as sodium-loaded red curry paste.

1/2 recipe (curry only, noodles are excluded):
311 calories; 16.2 g protein; 14.7 g fat; 30.0 g carbohydrate; 24.3 g net carbs; 622 mg sodium (with shoyukoji made of 50% reduced-sodium soy sauce); 99 mg cholesterol; 5.7 g fiber

<Ingredients>

2 servings of noodles of your choice

1/2 onion (92 g red onion in photo)
1 roma tomato (87 g in photo)
2-4 cm satsumaimo sweet potato (102 g in photo)
8 shrimp (cleaned with potato starch, 124 g in photo)
Small handful fresh basil (Asian or Western; 21 g [13 g leaves only] in photo)

200-250 cc coconut cream (40 g coconut powder and 200 cc water used for this recipe)

14 g Thai red curry paste
1/2 tsp nampla fish sauce
1/2 tsp shoyukoji soy sauce rice malt
1/2 tsp kurozu brown rice vinegar

1/2 tsp oil

<Directions>
1.

For coconut cream, boil 100-150 cc water (in microwave) and mix with coconut powder.

Let it sit until fatty part separates.

2.

Chop onion, and dice tomato and satsumaimo into 2-3 cm.

3.

Heat oil, and saute shrimp on medium low heat.

When surface turns pinkish, flip, and cook the other side. 

When both sides are pink, transfer to a plate (shrimp does not have to be completely cooked at this point).

4.

Add red curry paste and opaque top layer of coconut (cream) mixture, and stir until reddish oil starts to become visible.

5.

Add onion, and cook for a few minutes.

6.

Add satsumaimo, remaining coconut (cream) mixture and remaining water (here, I first poured water in coconut cream measuring cup to rinse off coconut into the pot).

Cover, reduce heat somewhat, and cook until satsumaimo softens, 8-10 minutes.

7.

When satsumaimo is done, add nampla, shoyukoji, kurozu and tomatoes, and continue simmering for a few more minutes. 

8.

In the meantime, cook noodles to desired softness.

Drain, and plate. 

9.

Add shrimp, and cook through.

Add some basil while tearing as necessary, and mix. 

10.

Serve in individual bowls, garnishing with remaining basil.
Ready to serve.

<Notes>

• Ideally, cook noodles so that they are done and hot when curry is ready. When you need more time to cook noodles, turn off heat of curry when tomato is added to adjust the pace.
• While any noodles taste good, Chinese or European egg noodles are my favorites. A number of dried egg noodles containing less than 30-50 mg sodium per serving (not "per serving" amount on package label) are available, and have virtually zero sodium when boiled with plenty of water. 
• The above nutrition figures are based on Thai red curry containing 570 mg sodium per 10 g, and nampla containing 690 mg sodium per tablespoon. Japanese kurozu is virtually sodium free.
• To further reduce the overall sodium figure above, reduce the amount of red curry paste and/or shrimp.
• When doubling satsumaimo, the curry becomes mellow and sweet, which is also nice for a change of pace.
• Sweet pumpkin (ex. buttercup squash) works great, too.
• If using frozen headless shrimp, thaw in salted water for effective desalination. Unless shrimp come with heads and shells and are packed in water, shrimp are likely frozen with additional sodium for preservation.

(Last updated: January 28, 2018)