Thai Green Curry

Continuing further with the thai cuisine, here is the quite famous Thai Green Curry. A yummy, healthy and colourful main course for the thai taste buds!

Let us first start with the Thai Green Curry Paste - the base of this curry.

Serves: 5 - 6 Preparation Time: 15-20 mins Cooking Time: 10 mins

Ingredients

For Green Curry Paste:

2 green chillies
1/2 cup coriander, chopped
2-4 kaffir lime leaves or lime leaves
5-6 green basil leaves
4 stalks of lemon grass
4  garlic cloves
1" ginger
1/2 tbsp brown sugar or regular white sugar
2 spring onion, roughly quartered, only whites
1/2 tsp cumin seeds, whole
1/4 tsp nutmeg, ground (optional)
3 tbsp oil (optional)

For Green Curry:

1 1/2 cup coconut milk (200ml appx.)
1 1/2 cup water
1/2 cup baby corn, sliced diagonally
1/2 cup carrots, sliced diagonally
1/2 cup broccoli, florets
3 tbsp tofu or cottage cheese/paneer
1/4 cup mushrooms, sliced
1/2 cup zucchini, sliced
1/4 cup brinjal, diced
Oil
Salt as per taste

Method:

1. In a mixer/food processor/blender, take all the ingredients under 'For Green Curry Paste' and blend it into a coarse paste. You may use a little water if required. Mix it well and keep aside.

2. Now to proceed further, chop all the vegetables as under 'For Green Curry' and keep aside.

I did not use all the veggies due to taste preferences, hence feel free to use as per your taste.

I used colourful bellpeppers instead.

3. Now, take a deep vessel and heat some oil. Now fry the paneer or tofu pieces until slightly brown and keep it aside. This will ensure that they don't break while stirring.

4. In the remaining oil now sauté the green curry paste until the water dries out and it starts oozing out oil. 

5. Once done, now add the vegetables and let it cook for about 5 mins. 

6. Add the coconut milk diluted with equal amount of water. Add salt and let it all cook until the vegetables are soft.  If you feel the curry is too thin, you may add 2-3 tbsp cornflour slurry to thicken.

7. Garnish with some fresh basil leaves and serve hot. It goes well with steamed rice or Thai Fried Rice.

Notes & Tips:

1. To make cornflour slurry, mix 1 tbsp cornflour with 2 tbsp cold water stirring to avoid all lumps. Use the smooth mixture as required.

2. Lime Leaves, lemon grass and basil are core ingredients hence make sure you use them. Availability of lime leaves could be an issue, then increase the quantity of lemon grass. 

3. I have used Dabur's coconut milk. You can use the fresh coconut milk as well. 

4. I did not add any oil while grinding the curry paste to make it less oily and it did not make any difference to the taste.

5. I directly added all the vegetables after frying the curry paste. Alternatively, all the veggies mentioned can be deep fried, drained and added after step 6. I find this too oily & unhealthy so prefer adding them raw. 

6. My Jain friends can omit garlic & onions in the curry paste and increase the amount of coriander to 3/4 cup. Adjust the lemon grass & basil flavours accordingly and proceed. As for the veggies, use as per your preference. 

Thai Red Curry Paste

The very traditional thai red curry paste is used in many preparations apart from curry.

You can always make a cup of this and freeze it and use as and when required. Though making it fresh is always better. But those crunched for time, the former option works well!

So lets go ahead with the recipe. 

I recently made it using galangal and kaffir lime leaves,have updated the same. 
Galangal is a species of ginger family which is native to thailand. Similarly, kaffir lime is of the lime family native to thailand. In case you do not find kaffir lime, indian lime/lemon leaves would do as well. If doing so, just increase the quantity as kaffir lime is potent in flavour than regular lemon/lime leaves.

Makes: 1/2 cup.  Preparation Time: 5 - 10 mins. Cooking Time: Nil

Ingredients:

4 Dry Red chillies, soaked in hot water or 3-4 tbsp of red chilli powder (Kashmiri preferably)
2 thai red bird chillies (optional),
2-3 medium sized kaffir lime leaves,
2" galangal block (optional)
½" ginger block, (if not using galangal use 2" ginger block)
4-6 garlic cloves, 
1 tbsp cumin seeds,
1 tbsp coriander seeds,
3-4 shallots, small sized, quartered (madrasi/sambar onions)
¼ tsp white pepper powder or black pepper powder, whichever is handy
2-3 stalks lemon grass (2 if thick, 3 if thin), roughly halved
5-6 red or green basil leaves (red is difficult to get here, so you may substitute with green)
few stalks of coriander 
1 tsp salt

Method:

1. De-stem  & de-seed the chillies soaked in water. Be careful not to let the seeds touch your skin as it may sting you later! or simply use gloves! I skipped this step and it tasted the same, so you may do that too. 

2. Put all the ingredients in a mixer/food processor and blend it into a coarse yet smooth paste. You can use the leftover water of the chillies, about 2-3 tbsp while blending.

Thats it! Ready to use! 
I do not have a good picture of it, but it should look something like this:

Notes & Tips:

1. The quantity of lemon grass really depends on the variety used. Hence make sure its a potent one as lemon grass is one of the core flavours of the paste. The stalk we use is the thick stem and not the leaves we use for making tea!

2. Jains can omit the garlic & shallots and proceed with the rest.  

3. You can adjust the spiciness by adding or reducing the amount of chillies. 

4. Thai bird chillies are tiny red coloured chillies which are really potent. So use carefully. You can entirely omit the dry red chillies and use only the bird chillies. But note that the colour of the paste will not be as red. 

5. If you are preserving it, outside, add enough oil (3 tbsp for a cup of paste) and store. 
If frozen is your way, add 1 tbsp oil and store.

Do try the paste and let me know how did you use it. Please leave comments about your experiences with it.

Thai Corn Fritters

We made this for entrée along with the salad. This may look similar to my Zucchini & Corn Fritters, but it definitely tastes a lot different. 

I simply love anything with corn. But I think, even the non-corn lovers will like it! 

We use two types of corn here, the American style yellow corn and the Indian aka desi white corn. Its an interesting combination!

So here's the recipe:

Makes 18 - 20 fritters. Preparation Time: 15- 20 mins. Cooking Time: 10 mins

Ingredients:

1/2 cup yellow corn kernels, boiled
3/4 cup white corn, raw coarse paste
1 green chilli thinly sliced,
2 tbsp curd (yoghurt)
2 tbsp Thai Red curry paste
2 tbsp coriander, chopped
2 tbsp cornflour
3 tbsp maida
2 tbsp lemon zest
Salt as per taste
Oil for shallow frying

Method:

1. Crush the white corn into a rough paste. Now squeeze out the water from the mixture.

2. Mix in rest of the ingredients into a loose dough. Add salt in the end. Incase if it is too loose, you may add some torn bread to soak up the excess moisture. Alternatively, you may also coat them with bread crumbs.

3. Divide them equally into small flat balls and shallow fry them.

Thats it! Its ready!! Serve with hot & sweet dip or our versatile ketchup! 

I served it with garlic mayonnaise. That went well with it too!

Notes & Tips:

1. If white corn is not available, you can substitute it with yellow corn. Though half crush about half of them. 

2. Please find the recipe for red curry paste here. Alternatively, you can use the ready made paste, easily available in stores stocking international foods.

3. To make it more crispy you can also coat it with some rice flour and proceed with shallow frying.