Thai Green Curry

This green curry recipe is by far the best I've ever made. Granted, this is the only green curry I`ve ever made without actually using a small container entitled "green curry paste", but who's actually counting? I do admit that there are a couple of ingredients in this recipe that are a little 'out there', like the fish sauce, lemon grass and coriander seeds, but if you're serious about making "kick-ass, cannonball curries", I highly recommend you bite the bullet and track these ingredients down. In a funny story about fish sauce, poor Jerms was scanning his items through the self-serve checkout at Loblaws when his 1L bottle of fish sauce slipped out of his hands, dropped bottom down to the floor... and... SMASH. Fish sauce everywhere. Lesson learned: be very, very careful when purchasing copious quantities of fish sauce. It'll try to get away on ya' every time.

ps - to brother Gilesies: I highly recommend you guys give this one a go. It's so much fun to make. You'll feel like a pro and the fam` will be so impressed!



SERVES 3

Ingredients:
For the curry itself:
A large bunch of fresh snow peas
1/2 a fresh red chilli
1 red pepper, sliced thinly
1tbsp sesame oil
1 boneless skinless chicken breast, diced and cooked
1 x 400ml tin of coconut milk
1 lime

For the green curry paste:
2 stalks of lemongrass
4 spring onions
3 fresh green chillies
4 cloves of garlic
A thumb-sized piece of fresh root ginger
A large bunch of fresh coriander
1tsp coriander seeds
8 fresh or dried lime leaves (optional)
3tbsp soy sauce
1tbsp fish sauce

Rice or noodles to serve with


Directions:


TO MAKE YOUR GREEN CURRY PASTE
1. Trim the lemongrass stalks, peel back and discard the outer leaves, and crush the stalks by bashing them a few times with the heel of your hand or a rolling pin.

2. Trim the spring onions. Halve and de-seed the green chillies. Peel and roughly chop the garlic and ginger. Set aside a few sprigs of fresh coriander, and whizz (yup, that`s what the cookbook says!) the rest in a food processor with the lemongrass stalks, spring onions, chillies, garlic, ginger, coriander seeds and lime leaves (if using), until everything is finely chopped - the smell will be amazing!

3. While whizzing, pour in the soy sauce and fish sauce and blitz again until you have a smooth paste. If you don't have a food processor, chop everything by hand as finely as you can - it may take a while but it will be so worth it.

TO MAKE YOUR CURRY
1. Snap the woody ends off the asparagus and discard them. Run the stalks through a runner bean slicer, or finely slice them lengthways with a knife. Finely chop the red chilli and put to one side.

2. Push down on the lime and roll it around to get the juices going, then cut it in half. Squeeze the juice into the pan - this will give your curry a lovely tang

3. Place a large pan or wok over a high heat. When it's really hot, add the groundnut and sesame oils, swirl them around, then carefully drop in the prawns. Add the asparagus and your green curry paste and stir-fry for about 30 seconds. Pour in the coconut milk and add the mangetout.

4. Give it all a good stir, bring to the boil and cook for a few minutes. Have a taste and add a bit more soy sauce if you think it needs it. Push down on the lime and roll it around to get the juices going, then cut it in half. Squeeze the juice into the pan - this will give your curry a lovely tang.


TO SERVE YOUR CURRY
Pick the leaves off the remaining coriander sprigs. Serve the curry sprinkled with the coriander (cilantro) leaves and the chopped red chilli, and some basmati rice.

Oooo. Beautiful pictures from Jamie Oliver's site. Our curry wasn't 1/2 as pale green as this though!

* recipe & photo cred Jamie Oliver