Green Curry
Courtesy of Jam Sanitchat, owner/chef of Thai Fresh
First rule for making good curry: do not shake your coconut milk. If you buy it the day you are making it, make sure it doesn't get tossed around in the shopping cart or tipped over by the cashier. The best bet is to have some stored in your pantry. When you use it, only pour the top part of the can or the "head" of coconut milk. The process is called "frying the paste." In coconut cream, there is a high content of fat and the fat will help fry the paste. If you pour the whole can in, it will boil the paste instead of frying it. Imagine boiling garlic and frying garlic, the fragrance is more intense in frying.
* The rule of thumb is that you need 4 cups of liquid for 1 small can of the paste, about 4 oz of paste. You can adjust the creaminess by adding or subtracting the amount of water and the amount of coconut milk that you put in.
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PrintIngredients
For 1 Person(s)
Cream
- 1 can of Mae Ploy coconut milk*
- 1 can (Mae Sri brand, 4 oz) green curry paste**
- 1 1/2 cups water
- 2 cups butternut squash, Asian eggplant, green beans, zucchini or yellow squash
- 1 pounds chicken, beef, pork, tofu, shrimp or fish fillets, chopped into bite sizes
- fish sauce to taste (or soy sauce)
- 1 pinches sugar
- 1 cups Thai basil
- 5 kaffir lime leaves, torn
- 1 Green curry paste:
- 10 (or more) green Thai chilies
- 1 pinches salt
- 1 tablespoons chopped galangal
- 3 tablespoons chopped lemongrass
- 1 tablespoons finely chopped kaffir lime zest
- 1 tablespoons coriander root or stem
- 3 tablespoons chopped red shallots
- 2 tablespoons chopped garlic
- 1 teaspoons shrimp paste
- 10 white peppercorns
- 1/2 teaspoons coriander seeds, roasted and ground
- 1/4 teaspoons cumin seeds, roasted and ground
Green Curry Directions
- To make your own green curry paste, pound the ingredients into a paste with mortar and pestle, or puree in a food processor set to chop.
- Heat 1 cup coconut cream (the creamy part floats to the top in a can of coconut milk, so do not shake the can) over a medium heat. Stir in curry paste and turn down the heat. Simmer until fragrant and coconut cream starts to crack some oil (you will see lines of oil around the paste).
- Add the rest of coconut milk and water and bring it back to boil. Add butternut squash (or your choice) and after 5 minutes add chicken (or other choice). Simmer until chicken is cooked under medium-low heat.
- Add fish sauce about one tablespoon at a time and bring it to your own preferred taste. Add a pinch of sugar and taste. Add Thai basil and kaffir lime leaves and turn the heat off. Serve over rice.
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