Thai Green Curry

Apr 15, 2010 by glutenshmooten

Week 21 of the Cookbook Challenge and the theme is Thai. I did this challenge on a night where I had limited ingredients in the fridge and a car at the mechanic’s so I turned to Jamie for a basic recipe that I adapted a little. This recipe uses prawns but I substituted for chicken, and I also replaced the asparagus with broccoli (asparagus is the only vegetable that I hate!)

Ingredients

Large bunch of asparagus

1/2 a fresh red chilli

1 tablespoon groundnut oil

1 tablespoon sesame oil

400g king prawns, raw, peeled

1x400ml tin coconut milk

a handful of snow peas

1 lime

Ingredients for green curry paste

2 stalks lemongrass

4 spring onions

3 fresh green chillies

4 cloves of garlic

a thumb size piece of ginger

large bunch of fresh coriander

1 teaspoon coriander seeds

optional: 8 fresh or dried lime leaves

3 tablespoons soy sauce

1 tablespoon fish sauce

To make your green curry paste:

Trim the lemongrass stalks, peel back and discard the outer leaves, an crush the stalks by bashing them a few times with the heel of your hand or a rolling pin. Trim the spring onions. Halve and deseed the green chillies. Peel and roughly chop the garlic and ginger. Set aside a few sprigs of fresh coriander, and wizz the rest in a food processor with the lemongrass stalks, spring onions, chillies, garlic, ginger, coriander seeds and lime leaves (if using), until everything is finely chopped – the smell will be amazing! While wizzing, pour in the soy sauce and fish sauce and blitz again until you have a smooth paste. If you don’t have a food processor, chop everything by hand as finely as you can – it may take a while but it will be so worth it.

To make your curry:

Snap the woody ends off the asapargus and discard them. Run the stalks through a runner bean slicer, or finely slice them lengthways with a knife. Finely chop the red chilli and put to one side. Place a large pan or wok over a high heat. When it’s really hot, add the groundnut and sesame oils, swirl them around, then carefully drop in the prawns. Add the asparagus and your green curry paste and stir fry for about 30 seconds. Pour in the coconut milk and add the snow peas. Give it all a good stir, bring to the boil and cook for a few minutes. Have a taste and add a bit more soy sauce if you think it needs it. Push down on the lime and roll it around to get the juices going, then cut it in half. Squeeze the juice into the pan – this will give your curry a lovely twang.

To serve your curry:

Pick the leaves off the remaining coriander sprigs. Serve the curry sprinkled with the coriander leaves and the chopped red chilli, and some rice.