Lime and coconut marinated shrimp skewer grilled with pineapple atop Thai yellow curry sauce. A sweet and slightly spicy combination that is well offset by a light and crisp Chardonnay.
Citrus Whizbang
Shrimp is a lovely appetizer protein that I use often as it is can take on so many flavors. As I had two dishes for this pairing, this dish was to focus on a bright and spicy flavors (while the other was more rich and creamy). Lime juice and pineapple punch up this dish and bring out similar notes in the Chardonnay
Wine Pairing
Original Pairing: Raeburn Chardonnay General Pairing: Chardonnay, Chenin Blanc, Sauvignon Blanc Menu Overview
Specialty Ingredients
Shrimp (Prawns)
Size of shrimp or prawns will impact what you can fit on a skewer and cooking time. I used large prawns to fit two on a 4″ skewer with pineapple chunk.
Yellow Curry Sauce
An optional sauce accompaniment but I recommend having. My go-to quick curry is the a sweeter Thai Yellow Curry from Traders Joes.
Equipment
Skewers – that you can grill with. I like bamboo over the general wood ones. Whichever you use, soak prior to grilling.
Also prepare: container for marinading, grill or grill pan, tongs.
Planning the Dish
Shrimp can easily over marinade. So plan to set up and make this dish mostly the day of serving. If warm, you will cook it right before serving. But there is the option to cook then chill to serve cold.
Timing Elements
Day before: thaw, clean, and prep shrimp. Keep refrigerated. Make marinade.
Early Day of: Soak skewers in water for about 15 min. Prep all garnishes.
2 hour to serve: Marinade shrimp for 30 min to 1 hour. (No longer)
1 hour to serve: Skewer shrimp and get ready to grill. Keep refridgerated. Prep plates, lay down sauce and have garnish ready.
30 min to serve: Grill shrimp in batches (for volume may take 25 min). Plate as batches finish.
Serve: Finish plating garnishes
Plating Tips
A shrimp skewer (or two) can plate very nicely on individual plates, using the bright yellow curry sauce as a base. (For my event, two dishes shared a plate – each having it’s own presence).
Garnish with julienne carrots, unsweetened coconut flake, bean sprouts, cilantro -all will marry to the flavors. You could also serve the curry on the side or as a dipping sauce. These would look smart lined up on a tray as well.
See resources for plating supplies ideas.
Pairing Alterations
Here are some ideas to help find tune your pairing:
To Sauce or Not
The yellow curry sauce is not a deal breaker for this shrimp skewer dish. It brings a bit of sweet heat with this wine, but you could skip it. Another option would be a sweet chili sauce.
Skewering Options
Pineapple was specific to this wine, but it could be interchanged with another item. More classic skewer pairings could be a bell pepper or tomato. I would lean toward keeping it acidic vs savory (such as onion or mushroom).
RECIPE
