My Thai Curry

So the blog has been going for about two weeks now and this is the one recipe people keep asking me to post. So here it is: My Thai Curry recipe.

I make this dish all the time, especially when we have guests over because it is delicious, easy, is gluten free and is as good vegetarian as not. The other great thing about making curry is you can use whatever veggies are in season, or whatever you have left in your fridge.

You will need:
Curry Paste: red, green, massaman or panang.
2 cans Coconut Milk
1-2 cups Chicken broth
2-3 Tbs. Fish Sauce
2 Tbs. Brown sugar or honey
2 Tbs. Ginger, chopped fine
1 onion, sliced
Veggies: use 3-4 types of your favorites. Cut all veggies to single bite size.
        -I usually use one type of hard vegetable (potato, sweet potato, yam, or butternut squash)
        -And 2-4 of the following: mushrooms, red/green bell pepper, carrot, green beans, broccoli,
         green cabbage, baby bok choy etc, etc
Meat or protein: chicken, shrimp or tofu or a combination. If using tofu, cook it first in hot oil to get it crispy before adding it to the curry.
Baby Spinach
Cilantro: chopped for garnish
Mango: sliced for garnish
Lime wedges

To start: heat up a wok over high heat for about 5 minutes. Once it is really hot, add about a tablespoon of olive or cooking oil and add about 2-3 golf ball size balls of curry paste. The more curry paste you use the spicier and more intense the flavor of the curry. Cook the curry paste for about 30 seconds, just to get it hot and release some of the flavors from it.

Green curry paste in a super hot wok. 

After 30 seconds, add the sliced onions. Stir onions into curry paste to coat all the onions.

After about 3-5 minutes the onions will sweat and cook down, and it will combine easier and start to look like this:

Once the onion and curry mixture is combined and onions have softened, add the coconut milk. 

Quick note about coconut milk: if you want creamy delicious curry use the real stuff. If you like watery, not-as-good curry, use the light coconut milk and feel good about your healthy life choices...

That's some good looking green curry broth.

Add the fish sauce, brown sugar or honey, ginger and about 1-2 cups of chicken broth. Note: the more chicken broth you add, the more sauce you will have, but it also makes the curry thinner. So start with about 1 cup and see if you need to add more later on down the road.

Taste the curry to see how spicy it is. If it is too spicy, add more brown sugar to level it out.

Now is the time to add your "hard" vegetables (potato or squash) and pre-cooked tofu. These will need much longer to cook than everything else so let them cook in the curry while the curry simmers and the flavors develop. After about 10-15 minutes, stick a fork into a potato or squash piece to see if they are cooked.

If they are soft and ready to eat, it's time to add everything else. 

This is where the timing really counts. You need to make sure you cook everything through, but not turn it all to mush.

So, if you are using chicken, add that first to the curry to allow to cook all the way through, about 3-5 minutes.

Then add all the veggies and shrimp if you are using it:

The wok will be very full with all the veggies, but they cook down quick, about 2-4 minutes. All you really want to do is heat the veggies through and make sure the shrimp turn color and look just cooked.

Again, make sure you don't overcook the veggies or shrimp and end up with curry mush. 

Now you should be ready to serve. Fill your bowl with rice, cover with baby spinach, add a scoop or two or three of delicious curry goodness. Garnish with cilantro and mango. Add a lime wedge and enjoy.

Yum.