There is nothing more comforting on rainy day like today than a warm bowl of thai green curry with rice.
I will be honest, only when I have not lived in Malaysia have I bothered to make my own Thai green curry paste. Mostly because I had easy access to restaurants that were delicious and really cheap, so much so it hardly seemed worth it making a batch for myself. And while there are decent ready made pastes available, I like the fact that I can play around with the recipe myself and mix it up when I feel like it.
A touch more lemongrass or an extra birds eye chilli. I sometimes even add in extra bits like dried prawns or anchovies but the main gist of the recipe is always the same.
Fun fact : Try using the paste to marinate some diced chicken breast fillets for your next bbq! You’ll thank me later.
Ingredients for paste
6 shallots
1 Tbsp cumin powder
1 Tbsp coriander powder
6 Green Chillies deseeded
2 Thai Green Chillies (Bird’s eye chilles) deseeded
6 – 8 Kaffir Lime Leaves (if they are small you can use 10)
2 Stalks lemongrass
15gm Thai Basil
8 cloves garlic
1.5 inch galangal or 2 Tbsp galangal paste
40gm Coriander
2 tbsp lime/lemon juice (read tips)
Thai Green Curry (For 4 people)
1 tin coconut milk
3 tbsp thai green curry paste
600gm chicken – fillets or thighs cut into smaller pieces
2 Bird’s eye chillies
1 Kafiir Lime Leaf
4 sprigs of thai basil
1/2 stalk lemongrass
130gm baby corn
50gm mangetout
5 brown mushrooms
80gm green beans
1 tablespoon lime/lemon juice
Salt to taste
1/4 tsp white pepper
(You can add other vegetables if you like or omit what you do not like)
Method
1. Blend all the ingredients for the paste in a blender.
2. Fry chicken and set aside.
3. Fry green curry paste, lemongrass and lime leaf till fragrant.
4. Add vegetables and fry till vegetables half cooked.
5. Add meat, birds eye chilli and coconut milk, let simmer for about 10 – 15 minutes.
6. Serve with white rice.
Hope you try it and let me know what you think!
Tips.
1. The green curry paste should make enough for two big portions of curry.
2. You can freeze the paste for 3 months or keep in a jar for 3 weeks
3. You can omit the vegetables for the green curry if you want or substitute with others
4. If you can get thai eggplants, they really add an extra special flavour to it.
5. You do not need to add lemongrass. basil or kaffir lime leaves to the curry itself, I just do if I have extra cause it adds flavour.
6. Re the lemon/lime juice, I prefer to add this into the dish straight because I can customise it as to what everyone else likes. If its for my mum and me definitely a lot more lime juice but for Dan I add it in while cooking and use lemon juice instead. When I am lazy and do not care, it goes straight into the paste depending on what I have on hand.
7. I know not everyone is keen on white pepper (it kinda hits you right at the back) So you can use black peppercorns blended directly into the paste, 1 tsp is enough.
8. I also used moderate heat green chillies.