Green curry

The paste cracked in coconut cream until the oil runs green, and nothing boiled afterwards.

Chicken. Not vegetarian — contains chicken, curry paste, which usually contains shrimp paste, fish sauce.

Ingredients

• 700 g chicken thighs, in pieces
• 400 ml coconut cream
• 400 ml coconut milk
• 5 tablespoons green curry paste
• 150 g pea aubergines
• 2 Thai aubergines, in wedges
• 6 kaffir lime leaves, torn
• 3 tablespoons fish sauce
• 1 tablespoon palm sugar
• 2 large handfuls Thai sweet basil
• 2 long red chillies, sliced

Method

1. CRACK THE PASTE IN COCONUT CREAM, NOT IN OIL. Boil 200 ml of the cream hard, on its own, 4 to 5 minutes, until it splits and a clear oil rises. Fry the paste in THAT for 3 to 4 minutes until it darkens and the oil runs green. The whole colour and smell of the finished curry is made in this step, and a paste stirred into cold milk never gets there.
2. It should smell aggressive and slightly harsh at this point. That settles once the rest of the liquid goes in.
3. Chicken in, turned in the paste 3 minutes until coated and sealed.
4. Remaining cream and the coconut milk in, with the fish sauce and palm sugar.
5. A BARE SIMMER FROM HERE, never a boil. Boiled, the sauce splits into oil and curds and goes grey-green instead of staying vivid.
6. 15 minutes, uncovered.
7. Aubergines in, 8 minutes, until the wedges are tender and the pea aubergines still pop.
8. Lime leaves in for the last 3 minutes.
9. HEAT OFF, THEN THE BASIL, all at once, folded through to wilt in the residual heat. On the heat it blackens and goes bitter within a minute.
10. Red chilli over the top for colour. Taste: it should be sweeter and rounder than the red curry and noticeably hotter than it tastes at first.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under Thailand · All recipes