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Thai Green Curry


Mark Wiens, on the blog eatingthaifood.com, provided a recipe for a Thai green curry that he received from his Thai mother-in-law. The recipe is quite extensive, including every detail, from how to make an authentic curry paste to breaking down a whole chicken. While shortcuts could be made, such as using a store-bought curry paste and a prepared chicken, this recipe details the entire process and really allows one to appreciate the complexity and art of creating a curry.

Ingredients

Green curry

  • 1 whole chicken (ไก่บ้าน) - I used a free range chicken that was 1.4 kg.

  • 2 cups of water

  • green curry paste - all of the paste below

  • 2 - 3 cups coconut cream (หัวกะทิ)

  • 6 - 10 Thai eggplant (มะเขือเปราะ)

  • 6 - 10 stems of Thai sweet basil (โหระพา)

  • 2 red spur chilies (พริกชี้ฟ้าแดง)

  • 20 kaffir lime leaves (ใบมะกรูด)

  • ½ tsp. salt, or to taste

Green curry paste

  • 150 grams Thai chilies, green color (พริกขี้หนูเขียว)

  • 1 head garlic (กระเทียม)

  • 3 shallots (หอมแดง) - small Thai shallots

  • 1 piece of galangal (ข่า) - about a thumb sized piece

  • 5 cilantro roots (รากผักชี)

  • 1 kaffir lime peel (ผิวมะกรูด)

  • 2 stalks lemongrass (ตะไคร้)

  • 1 tbsp. white peppercorns (พริกไทยขาว)

  • 1 tsp. coriander seed (ลูกผักชี)

  • 1 tsp. cumin seed (ยี่หร่า)

  • 1 tsp. salt (เกลือ)

  • 1 tbsp. shrimp paste (กะปิ)

Instructions

  1. The first step is to prepare your ingredients to pound your green curry paste. Remove the stems of the Thai green chilies, peel the garlic and shallots, thinly slice the galangal, cilantro roots, and lemongrass. For the kaffir lime, delicately slice off all the green bumpy peel. For the cumin and coriander seed, dry roast them in a hot skillet for 30 seconds to bring out the aroma.

  2. Pound all the green curry paste ingredients in a stone mortar and pestle, apart from the shrimp paste, which you'll add at the very end. Pounding can take 1 - 2 hours, and you're looking for a smooth pureed paste. One good measure of a Thai curry paste is that you shouldn't see any chili seeds remaining in your paste, they should all be pounded out.

  3. Once your paste is finished, add the shrimp paste, and mix and mash until it's evenly mixed in. Set your green curry paste aside.

  4. Prepare your whole chicken by gutting and cleaning it. Chop the entire chicken into bite sized pieces. Alternatively, you could use typical pieces like drumsticks and thighs, or boneless chicken breast.

  5. In a pot, add 2 cups of water, the green curry paste, your pieces of chicken, and toss in about 10 kaffir lime leaves broken in half (this is for a citrusy fragrance).

  6. Boil the chicken for about 10 minutes, or until the chicken is tender and most of the water has evaporated, leaving mostly the thick curry paste and chicken at the bottom of the pot.

  7. While the chicken is boiling, prepare the Thai eggplant by cutting them into quarters. Pluck the Thai sweet basil off the stems so you just have the leaves and set them aside. And finally julienne the red spur chilies.

  8. After about 10 minutes of boiling the chicken, add in the coconut cream, and bring to a boil, stirring delicately. At this stage you can taste test your curry to see if it needs more salt. Add salt accordingly, I added in about ½ tsp. of salt.

  9. Next add the Thai eggplant and red spur chilies and boil for just 2 - 3 minutes.

  10. The final step is to toss in the Thai sweet basil, turn off the heat, and just let the sweet basil wilt into the curry.

From https://www.eatingthaifood.com/thai-green-curry-recipe/

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