Egg Nog Curry

Yes. Egg nog curry. Where should I begin?

...

I like Iron Chef America. I prefer the original Japanese version, but I DVR and watch Iron Chef America regularly when I'm bored (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ahzTkGnmQuc). However, watching the Food Network only makes me hungry...and bored, which apparently is better than being bored alone.

If you watch the Food Network, then you understand that during the holidays, they see the need to remind viewers that it's the Christmas season....with every second of their programming. We get it. Their obsession with cramming red, white and green into every cranny inevitably led to an Egg Nog Battle on Iron Chef America.

I wasn't afraid. I didn't change the channel, and I was rewarded with inspiration for...egg nog curry.

Let us relive this culinary experience together:

Egg nog rice was also made by the Iron Chefs, so I'm not crazy people. There was no visible steam throughout the cooking proccess, which was obviously unusual for the rice. It turned out to have very little egg nog flavor on its own. A higher ratio of egg nog in the cooking pot would have improved that. I suggest a ratio of 1 cup rice/1 cup egg nog/.5 cup water.

I overestimated the number of shrimp (10-15 probably), and didn't end up using coconut milk at all. I began by heating a touch of oil in a saucepan and sauteeing the garlic and the red curry paste for 30 seconds or so. Then, I added the equivalent of a can's worth of egg nog to the pan, in place of the traditional coconut milk. The rest of the ingredients follow the Panang curry recipe from earlier. Again, this is not really that creative or crazy, I'm just trading egg nog for coconut milk, which are rather similar.

I'm not that crazy...

I'm hopefully not that crazy...

In the end, I wasn't that crazy. The curry definitely had an egg nog flavor to it, and the egg nog was an effective seasonal substitute for coconut milk. However, it was a sweeter curry than I had intended.

Although I anticipated the egg nog's sweetness and added less brown sugar than normally, I should have added more fish sauce, curry paste and/or lime to provide balance. I also chose shrimp, green peppers and sweet onions to meld with the egg nog's flavor, but this curry's yin needed a yang. The curry was tasty the night I made it, perhaps due to my hunger or it's novelty, but the leftovers were merely palatable. Overnight, the sweet sauce's flavors had concentrated more and penetrated deep inside the shrimp. That said, I still at it all.

Do not give up on the egg nog curry! I will not. I think that when I prepare this dish again next year, it will be better (definitely going to be an annual tradition). And, yes. I'm thinking what you're thinking: once a year is as often as egg nog curry should be made, if ever.