Thai Red Curry with Chicken and Vegetables - by Jess

A couple years ago James and I travelled around Thailand for a month. We literally ate ourselves silly! Every morning we’d announce that we were only eating fruit for the day. By noon we’d already be stuffing our faces with spicy shrimp salad or curried noodles. So much for fruit! But at night we just couldn’t stay away from the curries. This is my take on a basic red curry. This dish is completely versatile. Make the sauce and then you can add whatever you want to it: Chicken, Beef, Shrimp, Duck, Vegetables, you name it. And make it as spicy as you like – there is no law about the degree of heat, only yourself to please.

Treat the recipe as just a guideline and then tweak it to make it your own.

1 Tablespoon Vegetable Oil

2 Heaping Tablespoons Thai Red Curry Paste

1 ½ Cans Coconut Milk

½ Cup Water

6 Lime Leaves (available at Asian Markets – you can buy them fresh and freeze them so stock up– if you can’t find them don’t worry too much but if you can find them they add a really nice, authentic lime flavor to the curry)

1 Tablespoon Palm Sugar (Again – available at Asian markets – if you can’t find replace with regular or brown sugar)

1-2 Tablespoons Thai Fish Sauce - Asian Markets again. This really is essential. Fish Sauce is to Thai cooking as Soy Sauce is to Chinese. It’s used in the same way as well – as a salting agent – but you cannot use soy sauce in this recipe! They are completely different. If you have never used fish sauce – BEWARE – it smells horrible!!! But don’t let the smell put you off! You use it in such small quantities that it never tastes like it smells. My husband HATES the smell of fish sauce and yet it is an essential ingredient in many of his favorite dishes.)

This part of the recipe is where you can really make it your own: Add the meat you want and the vegetables you like. But here are just a few things that work.  I always do finish off the recipe with the baby spinach and the basil, no matter what else I put in. The spinach adds beautiful color and the basil is an essential last flavoring for the curry.

Boneless, Skinless Chicken Breasts – 4, sliced or cubed into bite-size pieces

Red Pepper – ½ -1, diced

Butternut Squash – 1 cup diced

Zucchini – I, diced

Plum Tomatoes – 1-2, cut in quarters, lengthwise and seeded

Baby Spinach – 2 large handfuls

Basil – 1 large handful, torn into pieces

Basmati Rice for Serving

To make the curry sauce:

Heat the oil in a large saucepot over medium heat.  Add the curry paste and stir with a wooden spoon. You want the curry paste to become nice and fragrant (you should feel it in your nose!). Open the coconut milk and once you have heated the curry paste for at least one minute scoop out the heavy, creamy part of the coconut milk that sits at the top of the can and add it to the pot.  Let it cook along with the curry paste for another minute before adding the rest of the milk to the pan. Add the lime leaves and water and bring to a simmer. Allow the sauce to gently simmer for at least 5-10 minutes so that the flavors of the lime leaves infuse the curry. Finish the sauce with the sugar and fish sauce and taste for seasoning.

Close your eyes when you taste the sauce and see if you can taste the 3 essential flavors of a good Thai Curry: Spicy, Salty & Sweet. If you feel like you need more of anything do not be afraid to play around. Add more curry paste (Spicy), Fish Sauce  (Salty) or Sugar (Sweet – be careful here though – you don’t want it to taste like dessert!). Or – if it is too spicy (no such thing!!) for you then thin it out with a bit more coconut milk and water but you may then need more salty and sweet as well to make up for the extra liquid. Also, keep in mind that once you add the chicken and vegetables to the recipe it won’t taste quite so spicy so you can always adjust the seasoning right at the end.

For the Chicken and Vegetables:

Sauté the chicken in a frying pan until almost cooked through. If you make this recipe with beef or shrimp you can allow them to just cook in the curry sauce. However, for some reason unknown to me, the chicken causes the coconut milk to separate so cook it separately first then add it to the sauce.

While the chicken is cooking begin adding your vegetables to the sauce in the order in which they need to cook. For example, the butternut squash needs at least 10 minutes more cooking time than the other vegetables so add them first. One of the main characteristics of Thai food is FRESH, FRESH – so don’t overcook your vegetables! You want the red pepper and zucchini to still be crunchy and not soggy mush when you serve the curry. Lastly, add the tomatoes – they don’t need much time at all and then add the chicken and just finish it off in the sauce. Immediately before serving add the spinach and basil and stir just to make them wilt.  Check again for seasoning: Spicy, Salty and Sweet. Serve the curry with plenty of basmati rice for sopping up the delicious sauce.