What’s the easiest, tastiest, most comforting gourmet food you can make while sharing a cottage with 15 other people? Thai Curry. All you need to do is buy a can or jar of green or red or yellow curry paste, a can of coconut milk and some chicken (optional) and vegetables: anything from eggplant to zucchini to sweet potato to carrots, green beans and okra. It’s cheap (the jars cost less than a dollar sometimes) and tasty and healthy because of the spices and tons of vegetables – something you might not associate with a backpacking-style rock climbing weekend at a cabin, which is what I was doing. But put me in charge of food for a group, and I’ll try to make it a little gourmet. Well, fake gourmet, because that’s what green curry chicken is if you use canned curry paste.
It’s really easy to make your own green or red curry paste, but when the cans and jars cost a buck or two or three (depending on the brand), why bother, right?
The day I got home, I was craving more curry paste, and I wanted to see how a homemade paste would compare. Normally, I assume fresh will be better, but what if it wasn’t?
Making your own curry paste is easy and fast. All you have to do is chunk a bunch of things in a blender. You don’t even need to mince any garlic or chop anything finely – just chuck.
The advantages are that you can control the level of sodium and you can make sure there are no colours, preservatives or MSG in there. Most of the jars and bottles don’t have these things added, but I always double check for soy sauce (most curry pastes use fish sauce, which can contain soy sauce – it did in Thailand, which I didn’t know until it was too late – fake colour or sodium metabi…I can’t pronounce it, so I never spell it correctly, and if I can’t pronounce it, I don’t want to eat it).
I’m going to give my recipe below, but if you are going to buy your curry paste, there are two brands I’d recommend: Mae Ploy and Maesri.
If you make your own at home, you can sub in ginger for galangal or onions for shallots and no one’s going to be mad at you. I even use green onions and garlic chives instead of shallots and fresh garlic because of the FODMAP diet (another reason to make your own!). And if you’re vegan, that’s a great reason to make your own curry paste, because you can sub in soy sauce for the fish sauce. I keep lemongrass stalks, kaffir lime leaves, turmeric root and peeled galangal in the freezer for super quick curry blending.
Note: There are two ways to make this. You can throw the paste in with the coconut milk, the chicken and all the vegetables at once, or you can (more traditionally) cook the paste to toast the ingredients before adding the vegetables and meat. The former is quicker, uses less oil, and you can just add the coconut milk to the blender instead of chicken broth, vegetable broth or water, but you should toast the coriander and cumin before blending them in this case. The paste flavours won’t be as concentrated, either. But it’s still delicious.
I also usually make a double or triple recipe of the paste and then freeze it in an ice cube tray, then transfer the cubes to a freezer bag, so the paste is pre-made and portioned the next time I want homemade curry.
Oh, and I only peel the eggplant, zucchini and sweet potato if they’re not organic. You can also salt the large Italian eggplant to make it less bitter by combining the cubes with a tbsp of salt in a colander for 20 minutes and letting it drain, then rinsing it to remove the excess salt. And, as per the photo, I used some hot red peppers instead of the jalapeños.
Green Curry Chicken with Curry Paste from Scratch
Serves 4
Green Curry Paste:
1 tsp coriander seeds (or use 1/2 tsp ground)
1 tsp cumin seeds (or use 1/2 tsp ground)
2 jalapeños or serrano peppers, seeded and roughly chopped
2 stalks lemongrass, tough top part and outer layer removed
1/2 cup roughly chopped shallots (FODMAP variation: use some chives and the top parts of green onions instead)
1 bunch cilantro, chopped roughly in half to make one bunch of stems and one bunch of stems and leaves
1 inch piece fresh ginger, peeled and roughly chopped
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ground turmeric (or 1 tsp fresh, peeled and roughly chopped)
5 Kaffir lime leaves (or the zest of 2 limes)
1 tbsp fish sauce
chicken or vegetable stock or water
Curry:
1 tbsp oil
3-4 chicken breasts, cut into bite-size pieces, optional
1 Italian eggplant or 4 skinny purple Asian eggplants, peeled and cubed
2 zucchini, cubed
1 sweet potato, peeled and cubed
3 carrots, sliced a little smaller or the same size as the other ingredients
2 cups chopped green beans (pieces should be about as long as the other ingredients)
1 can coconut milk (not coconut cream)
2 limes, cut in wedges
Directions:
1. Grind the coriander and cumin seeds in the blender, then add the jalapeños, lemongrass, shallots, cilantro stems and 1/4 cup of the leaves (save the rest for garnish), ginger, salt, turmeric, 1 of the Kaffir lime leaves and fish sauce in a blender. Add chicken stock vegetable stock or water one tablespoon at a time, to blend.
2. Heat the oil in a large pot or wok over medium-high heat. When hot, add the curry paste and fry for 2 minutes.
3. Add the chicken and fry for 1 minute more. Then add all the vegetables, the remaining 4 Kaffir lime leaves and the coconut milk. Stir, then cover the pot or wok and reduce the heat to cook the vegetables, about 7 minutes or so. Check the sweet potato, eggplant and carrots by sticking a fork in them. If it goes in easily, they’re ready. Taste the sauce and add more fish sauce for saltiness if necessary.
4. Serve with Jasmine rice on the side and garnish with the cilantro leaves and lime wedges, to squeeze over the individual bowls as desired.
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