Jeanne's Fabulous Shrimp

Ok, this isn't just good, this is the best shrimp dish I've ever had. I live in Texas now, and shrimp here is inexpensive compared to any other kind of seafood. My friend Jeanne found this recipe and monkied around with it a bit, and voila! Perfection! 

Ingredients:

2 lbs. peeled and de-veined, wild-caught, cooked shrimp (high-quality frozen shrimp is fine)   

1 T "Pretty Thai" brand seasoning salt--no substitutes (available at various markets and at Amazon.com) 

1 scallion, chopped fine

4-6 T plant-based butter (which doesn't burn as fast) or regular butter

10 oz. coconut milk (shake it up to incorporate the creamy top)

Fish sauce to taste (she uses "Thai Kitchen" brand)

Directions:

If you use frozen shrimp like I did, defrost it according to the directions on the bag. Then, spread out two layers of paper towels on a cookie tray and spread the shrimp evenly on top of the towels. Then, put two more layers of paper towels on top. Start at one end of the pan and roll the paper towels and shrimp like a jelly roll. Repeat this with fresh paper towels until the shrimp is dry. No water is the key!

Next, sauté shrimp in butter until one side is cooked--one or two minutes. No need to turn it, shrimp is easy to over-cook! Then, remove shrimp and set aside. Important note: if there is a lot of water in the pan after the shrimp is cooked, dump it out before proceeding! It wrecks everything! In the same pan, sauté chopped scallion in butter until soft.

Add coconut milk to scallions plus 1 T "Pretty Thai" seasoning salt and heat. Add fish sauce to taste (it's salty). At this point the mixture is supposed to reduce and thicken, however if you don't want to wait, mix 1 t cornstarch with about 4 T water and stir into the heated liquid. Finally, add shrimp and heat until warm and serve on a bed of basmati or jasmine rice or any other kind of rice. Wonderful!