Thai Style Chicken Curry
serves 4
Ingredients
-
½ c peanut oil
- 5 or 6 whole dried red chilies (or to taste)
- 1 Tbsp finely chopped ginger
- 1 Tbsp finely chopped garlic
- 2 to 3 tsp ground coriander seeds
- 2 to 3 tsp ground cumin
- ½ to 1 c chicken breast, thinly sliced lengthwise
- ¼ c soya sauce (or to taste)
- 2 or 3 handfuls of fresh green string beans, thinly sliced lengthwise
- ½ red bell pepper, thinly sliced
- ½ c cubed Japanese eggplant, about 1 inch in size
- ½ c fresh or frozen corn niblets
- ½ c fresh or frozen green peas
-
2 cans (approx 14 oz each) best quality coconut milk
- zest of 1 lime (our substitute for lime leaf which can be used if available)
- lemon verbena (our substitute for lemon grass. Zest of 1 lemon also works well)
- fresh green Thai chilies, to taste, roughly chopped
- curry leaves (if available - they do add some complexity)
-
black pepper to taste
Garnish:
-
fresh basil, mint, lemon verbena and coriander leaves (cilantro).
Preparation
- In a wok, fry the red dried chilies in oil until they are black.
- Add ginger and garlic and continue to fry until golden
- Add the ground coriander and cumin and continue to fry for 1 minute.
- Add chicken and fry until done.
- Add the soya sauce and all the vegetables and green chilies and fry for 2 or 3 minutes.
- Add coconut milk, lemon verbena (or lemon zest) and lime zest then simmer lightly until vegetables cook to desired consistency. Season with black pepper. Serve with steamed rice, adding the fresh leaves as a garnish. (It's the garnish that really makes the dish - so don't leave it out.)
Apparently a real Thai curry uses tiny eggplants that look like largish peas. We don't know where to get them yet so are using peas and regular eggplant instead.
It's better to make this curry in the morning of the day you are planning on having it so that the flavours have plenty of time to meld. Reheat it gently just before serving with plenty of rice.
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ejm (aka llizard)
2000, 2002
Toronto Ontario Canada
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License
