I Caught Dinner Off the Rocks—and Turned It Into Curried Shrimp & Wilks Noodles

Recipe: Ingredients (Prep Time: 40 Minutes)

• Wilks (Whelks): About 1–1½ cups cleaned, cooked and sliced wilk meat. If freshly caught, clean them thoroughly, cook them first and remove the edible meat from the shells before adding it to the curry.
• Shrimp: 1 lb (450 g) raw shrimp, cleaned and deveined. I like leaving the tails on some for presentation.
• Noodles: About 8 oz (225 g) spaghetti or your favourite noodles.
• Bell Pepper: ½ cup sliced or diced bell pepper for sweetness, colour and a little texture.
• Pepper: ¼–½ Scotch bonnet pepper, finely chopped. Adjust this depending on how much heat you can handle.
• Onion: ½ medium onion, thinly sliced.
• Tomato: 1 medium tomato, diced. This adds freshness, slight acidity and helps give the curry sauce more body.
• Scallion & Thyme: 2 scallions, chopped, and 2–3 sprigs of fresh thyme.
• Garlic: 3 cloves, thinly diced to help build the flavour of the curry base.
• Curry Powder: About 2 tablespoons curry powder (I use Jamaican-style curry powder).
• Fish Seasoning: 2–3 teaspoons, divided between the seafood and sauce according to taste.
• Coconut Milk Powder: 1 full small packet of coconut milk powder, mixed with about 1–1¼ cups warm water.
• Ketchup: About ¼ cup (4 tablespoons) to add sweetness, colour and body to the sauce.
• Cooking Oil: About 1½ tablespoons.
• Black Pepper: ¼ teaspoon, or to taste.
• Salt: Only if needed after tasting the finished sauce.

Recipe: Finally! Let’s Cook (Cook Time: 35 Minutes)

• Prepare the wilks: Thoroughly clean and cook the wilks, then allow them to cool before removing the meat from the shells. Remove the hard covering and unwanted soft portions, rinse the edible meat and slice it into bite-sized pieces. If you catch your own, make sure they come from waters considered safe for harvesting shellfish.
• Cook the noodles: Boil the noodles until just tender, then drain them. Avoid overcooking because they will spend a little more time in the curry sauce later.
• Season the seafood: Lightly season the shrimp and cooked wilks with fish seasoning and black pepper.
• Cook the shrimp: Heat a little of the oil in a large pan and cook the shrimp briefly until they are almost done. Remove them and set them aside so they do not become tough while the sauce cooks.
• Start the curry: Add the remaining oil and curry powder to the pan over medium heat. Stir for about 30–60 seconds until fragrant, taking care not to burn it.
• Build the flavour: Add the onion, garlic, scallion, thyme, bell pepper and Scotch bonnet. Cook for 2–3 minutes until the vegetables begin to soften and everything smells dangerously good.
• Make it saucy: Pour in the prepared coconut mixture and add the ketchup. Stir everything together and allow the sauce to simmer gently for about 5 minutes so the curry, coconut and seasonings can blend. The sauce should become rich and slightly thick rather than watery.
• Add the seafood: Stir in the sliced wilks and return the shrimp to the pan. Let them simmer gently in the sauce for another 2–3 minutes—just long enough to absorb the flavour without overcooking.
• Bring in the noodles: Add the drained noodles and toss thoroughly until every strand is coated in that golden curry sauce. If it becomes too thick, add a small splash of water. Cook everything together for another 2 minutes.
• Final taste: Taste before adding any additional salt or fish seasoning. Once the curry, coconut and seafood flavours are where you want them, remove from the heat and serve hot.

The result should be creamy, savoury, slightly sweet, warmly spiced and loaded with seafood, with enough sauce to properly coat the noodles without turning them into soup.