Lobster Curry - Virgin Gorda (BVIs)

I have been away from the cookbook for a while, traveling in Western Kenya and getting ready for a long trip back to the Colorado at the end of June. I have tried a couple of other recipes from "The Book". I have never had lobster other than boiled or steamer with garlic and butter, so the recipe for Lobster Curry from Chez Bamboo Restaurant in Vigin Gorda sounded like it was worth a try. The curry sauce was typical of the other curry sauces I have already used, even here in Kenya for Swahili seafood dishes. The sauce uses white wine, curry powder, heavy cream (I substituted milk and thickened with corn starch to get down on the calories), coconut cream, salt and pepper. I also used half garam masala and half curry powder for the spices. Actually, we found that the sauce was a little too strong for our taste and subdued the succulent flavor of the fresh lobster. I would probably stick with broiled grilled lobster with butter and lemon next go round. However, it was a nice to try lobster done in a different way. I would try the same recipe next time with a red snapper or sole.

Outside the book with my own recipe based on traditional Swahili style.

This recipe inspired me to try a Swahili Chicken Masala dish, which was prepared for us by "our chef" during a 5 day stay on the coast of Kenya earlier this month. We had rented a wonderful house on Kilifi Creek, and a cook came with the house. He prepared the most wonderful seafood and other dishes during our stay, mostly in the traditional swahili style of cooking, which complements fresh seafood and meats with a light sauce using onions, garlic, garam masali spice, salt, pepper, a few hot peppers, green and red sweet peppers, tomatoes, a little tomato paste, and a little coconut milk (a dash of wine is optional). We had this for three dinners using chicken, prawns, and fish on different nights. They were all yummy!! I tried to recreate the chicken masala dish at home the other night and it turned out great! Very simple and quick to prepare!!! Try it and I am sure you'll like it!