Some people shy away from Thai food thinking it may be too difficult to cook. But it's not, it's super easy, fast and very healthy for you!
The paste is the soul of this dish so you have to get that part right. When I first made green curry, I eagerly went out to a Thai supermarket (luckily I have one close by!) to buy all the ingredients David Thompson recommended in his version of green curry from his Thai Food book. When I returned home, I had a bag of ingredients, some of which I had never used before as well as a bunch of familiar ones. I carefully pounded the paste in my pestle and mortar and made the curry following the recipe exactly. I had quite a lot of paste left over so I put it in a jar in the fridge and it lasted me a while. I found the paste again and posted it below if you want to have a go yourself. :)
My problem with Thompson's recipe was the taste. Being half Filipino, I found it hard to get used to the flavour of Thai Shrimp Paste, preferring the Filipino version. Byron doesn't really like the flavour of Shrimp Paste or Fish sauce, so I would always add extra fish sauce to my own bowl of green curry as I like the salty flavour. But it's these differences that can make or break your guest's and your own opinion of your green curry. So if you're making your own, experiment, find out the flavours that work best for your palate and for the protein you're using with the dish.
About a week after making my own curry paste, I spoke to a colleague at work who is half Thai and a great Thai chef (honestly, she makes the best spicy mango salad!) and asked her about her paste. She remarked that she doesn't make her own paste when she cooks green curry, but uses a pre-made chef by a particular brand she has become accustomed to. I thought if she was doing it, then it's nothing to be ashamed of, besides it saves money and time.
So I went in search of the best paste to suit my palate. I had tried Waitrose's Cook's Ingredient green curry paste and found it to be quite mild in the chilli area, and a bit too sweet. I tried the Blue Elephant paste, which was a lot more expensive than the Waitrose brand, and that too was missing something. So I went back to the Thai supermarket to stock up on my bird's eye chilli's and found Namjai's green curry paste which was perfect.
At first I wasn't sure how much to use so I put in 2 tbsp's worth - slightly less than the amount I was using with the Blue Elephant paste and found it to be eye-wateringly hot. Trust me, I'm used to chilli's so when I was tearing up, my boyfriend's face had already turned bright red and he was rushing to the bathroom. He later called it a 'chilli high'. Now I use 1 tbsp per jar of coconut milk, if I want it a bit hotter I would add another 1/4 tbsp in.
The 400g jar sits in the fridge and now making a green curry is like my go-to recipe when I am lacking ingredients or motivation to make anything else. I mix and match the vegetables, protein and carbs according to what I have. You can use pretty much any quick cooking veg, though I find things like capsicum works best. If you can find some bamboo shoots add them at the last minute, they normally come in liquid in a vac pack plastic container found in the ethnic aisles of supermarkets. I have used leftover broccoli and cauliflower in a green curry, I'm sure there are Thai people that are squirming at the thought, but they work well to sock up the flavour of the sauce.
For the protein, I tend to use chicken breasts or frozen prawns as I always have those in the freezer. I much prefer using white/lighter flavoured meat in green curry as I think beef, duck and the red meat goes much better with Massaman curry or Jungle curry. I have used tofu in the past, if you get the firm kind, you can shallow fry it in some oil and a bit of the paste to get a crispy exterior before adding the coconut milk. I have also made vegetarian curries using slow cooking root veg, Butternut squash is brilliant for this.
I'm a rice person, so I tend to always make it with rice, but you can use noodles, Thai rice noodles works best for me. The fine rice noodles I get from Waitrose are portioned funny, there's not quite enough for two, too much for one. But I found one portion makes excellent soup for four. Just add a bit of chicken stock to bulk out the coconut milk and add another dimension to the dish and top up on the vegetables.
The possibilities are endless!
This time I had green capsicum peppers, prawns, rice and lots of fish sauce, with a small portion of a simple tomato salad on the side dressed with salt and a little bit of extra virgin olive oil. I like to have a salad on the side to cool my mouth from the chilli heat and/or the boiling heat of the soup. I love my rice to be 'swimming' in the gravies and soups of my dishes.
Adding chicken stock to your curry is completely optional. I find it makes the sauce rich in flavour that enhances the chicken that is add to the dish. As such, I don't tend to add it when I make prawns as I find it's a bit out of place.
Recipe
1 tbsp of pre-made curry paste (or to taste)
2 handfuls of peeled King Prawns
400ml jar of Coconut milk
1 green Capsicum Pepper (sliced into strips)
handful of Bamboo Shoots (optional)
1/2 cup of Basmati Rice
1 cup of Water
Oil
to make your own curry paste- grind these ingredients in a pestle & mortar
1-3 Thai bird's-eye Chillies
1 tbsp chopped Galangal
3 tbsp chopped Lemongrass
1 tsp kaffir Lime Zest
1 tsp chopped Coriander Root
1 tsp chopped red Turmeric
2 tbsp chopped Shallots
2 tbsp chopped Garlic
1 tsp Shrimp Paste
ground white Peppercorns
Salt
Recipe
Set your rice going by putting the water and rice in a saucepan that has a lid. Set on medium-high heat at first to get the water boiling, reduce to lowest heat, put lid on and it normally takes around 15-20 minutes before the rice has absorbed all the water.
Heat your wok with a bit of cooking oil and add the paste. The paste might spit in the oil so watch out! Fry quickly for about one minute then add the prawns. Coat them with the paste and keep cooking until they start to turn pink. Add peppers and cook for 2 minutes. Add coconut milk and stir. Turn heat down to medium-low heat and cook until sauce starts to bubble around the sides.
Spoon rice into bowls and ladle lots of sauce, prawns and peppers over it. Drizzle with extra fish sauce (optional). Eat.
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