Monday, July 24, 2006
My Green Curry
Seeing as I recently hosted my first dinner party here in HK and some of my guests questioned if the Thai green curry I made was made or decanted (it was rather good) I feel duty bound to give my full recipe, it serves about 5 fairly hungry people when served with rice. I'd say it was medium-hot but it depends on your chillies (remember, when in doubt more is better... )
Grate the zest from 3 limes and juice them.
Slice up about 600g chicken and put half the zest and juice over it, put to one side for at least an hour.
Use the other half to soak one large lemon grass stalk (that you've sliced very finely) for at least 30 minutes (soak for 30 min that is, not slice, try to do that quicker!).
Buy a blender or spend hours with pestle and mortar.
Place following in blender or mortar;
Soaked lemon grass stalk inc juice and zest
10 whole green bird eye chillies (they are the small hot ones!)
½ inch chunk ginger finely chopped
two handfuls of chopped up fresh coriander (stalks and leaves)
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon ground coriander
½ teaspoon ground turmeric
3 garlic cloves (finely chopped)
7 shallots peeled (lightly chopped)
Splash oil
Splash fish sauce
Blend/ pummel with pestle until you have a green paste.
Put green paste into a dry wok or heavy frying pan and cook until the kitchen smells of curry (few minutes) then add 1.5 tins of coconut milk (that you’ve shaken before opening).
Coconut milk will separate slightly and give off bit of oil after few minutes, when this happens add:
chicken and lime zest & juice,
a finely sliced red chilli (de seeded),
3-4 desert spoons of fish sauce,
a handful of shredded fresh basil leaves
a teaspoon of sugar.
If you have vegans with you may want to add baby aubergines, baby sweet-corn and sugar peas after about 5 minutes so they have something to eat, if you’re into that sort of thing it works fairly well and make food go further!
Cook for a further 5-10 minutes until chicken is cooked, throw in a little finely sliced spring onion strips with a minute to go (I forgot that bit on Satureday, d'oh!) then serve with anything you want. I recommend boiled long grain rice with more finely sliced fresh spring onion, red chilli and coriander thrown on top and steamed leaves to the side.
Et voila!
Grate the zest from 3 limes and juice them.
Slice up about 600g chicken and put half the zest and juice over it, put to one side for at least an hour.
Use the other half to soak one large lemon grass stalk (that you've sliced very finely) for at least 30 minutes (soak for 30 min that is, not slice, try to do that quicker!).
Buy a blender or spend hours with pestle and mortar.
Place following in blender or mortar;
Soaked lemon grass stalk inc juice and zest
10 whole green bird eye chillies (they are the small hot ones!)
½ inch chunk ginger finely chopped
two handfuls of chopped up fresh coriander (stalks and leaves)
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon ground coriander
½ teaspoon ground turmeric
3 garlic cloves (finely chopped)
7 shallots peeled (lightly chopped)
Splash oil
Splash fish sauce
Blend/ pummel with pestle until you have a green paste.
Put green paste into a dry wok or heavy frying pan and cook until the kitchen smells of curry (few minutes) then add 1.5 tins of coconut milk (that you’ve shaken before opening).
Coconut milk will separate slightly and give off bit of oil after few minutes, when this happens add:
chicken and lime zest & juice,
a finely sliced red chilli (de seeded),
3-4 desert spoons of fish sauce,
a handful of shredded fresh basil leaves
a teaspoon of sugar.
If you have vegans with you may want to add baby aubergines, baby sweet-corn and sugar peas after about 5 minutes so they have something to eat, if you’re into that sort of thing it works fairly well and make food go further!
Cook for a further 5-10 minutes until chicken is cooked, throw in a little finely sliced spring onion strips with a minute to go (I forgot that bit on Satureday, d'oh!) then serve with anything you want. I recommend boiled long grain rice with more finely sliced fresh spring onion, red chilli and coriander thrown on top and steamed leaves to the side.
Et voila!
