Ok, so it may be time to quieten down on the Thai curry off-shoot repertoire as I am beginning to feel that I may be overdoing it slightly…. however, my Wife introduced me to this and I have to say, if you are after a recipe that is fresh, but with a little fire in it’s belly, then this may be the answer for you.

It takes the red curry base (well, most of it, there is a subtle difference!) and adds another dimension and provides a really great alternative from a neighbouring nation. Please see my previous article regarding red curry for the base recipe.

The base is similar to the red curry, however, rather than ,galangal just add the same quantity of ginger as a substitute and, do not add any coriander root or seeds, black peppercorns or cumin seeds. Also, add a teaspoon of tumeric, which will give it great orange/yellow colour once it is all blitzed together. For the best tasting curry, I have found that doubling the amount of paste from my previous post gives more flavour and adds a little more heat. As with any curry, increase or reduce the number of chillies to suit your own taste/tolerance or guests taste/tolerance. It’s amazing how quickly you can build up your tolerance to chilli heat and I have fallen foul in the past of making paste that I thought was fairly tame, only to see steam pouring from friends’ ears and their faces turn a shocking state of red, whilst politely asking for a drink or two…!

For the rest of the ingredients, use the following:

• Chicken thighs (skinned and boned, quantity to your choosing, I used about 1/2 kg) cut into bite-sized pieces
• A couple of good-sized onions
• 3 or 4 kaffir lime leaves (you can either get these fresh from your local supplier or, dried from most supermarkets)
• 1 Cinnamon stick
• 2 or 3 star anise
• 1 Can of coconut milk
• 100 to 200ml of chicken stock
• 1 Tablespoon of palm sugar
• 2 Tablespoons of light soy sauce
• 2 Tablespoons of fish sauce (don’t use any more as it can turn the sauce too salty)
• Green beans

And the fun bit….

• Make up the curry paste, in a similar vein to the red curry paste.
• Heat some oil in a pan and add the curry paste until it becomes fragrant
• Add the onion until it softens
• Add the chicken and cook until browned
• Add the coconut milk, chicken stock, palm sugar, fish sauce, kaffir lime leaves, soy sauce, cinnamon and star anise and simmer for about 45 minutes to an hour (depending on how much stock you have added). I have found that the longer you leave this, the better it tastes, however, don’t over-do it otherwise you will end up with dry, stringy chicken….
• Season to your taste and add the green beans for a few minutes – they add a great crunch to the dish
• Serve!

I hope you enjoy this as much as we do; it’s a firm favourite with our friends and family

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So, taking the base recipe for red curry paste, you can now amend this to produce variants, my favourite of which has to be phanang:

Thai Yellow Curry
Take 2 tablespoons of red curry paste, add 2 teaspoons of curry powder and follow the cooking instructions for the Thai red curry in my previous post.

Tumeric Curry
Take 2 tablespoons of red curry paste, add 2 teaspoons of tumeric and follow the cooking instructions for the Thai Red Curry on my previous post.

Phanang Curry
Take 2 tablespoons of red curry paste, add 5 tablespoons of roasted, crushed peanuts and follow the cooking instructions for the Thai red curry on my previous post (although use just ½ cup of coconut milk). When I cooked this in Thailand, the chef told me that you don’t normally use vegetables with this, however, if you want to then just increase the volume of coconut milk to ¾ of a cup.

So, a few additions to the household menu for the weeks to come, enjoy!

Kalorik Food Processor in Black HA 31535 $79.85

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Euro-Pro Ninja Master Prep Blender Food Processor NEW $31.00

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I was keen to learn as much as possible during the visit, because going out to eat good Thai food here is seriously expensive and has always come across to me as being a form of alchemy to concoct. With this in mind, we arrived in Northern Thailand and promptly booked ourselves on to a local cookery course. On the morning of the course, we arrived at the school feeling slightly nervous about how difficult this could be – after all, Thai curries are bursting with flavour and surely, must be pretty complex to create? Well, we couldn’t have been further from the truth and I noted down a number of the dishes we had the delight of cooking and sampling to share with you and hopefully dispel with this myth of ‘complexity’ (unless this myth was self-created, of course….).

In addition to this, my brother’s wedding was scheduled to take place during the trip; he has married a local girl from the Lisu Hill Tribe, who reside in the middle of the jungle, on the mountains near the Burmese border. During the wedding, we we honoured to be invited to to stay for 3 days in my brother’s wife’s village and during this, were able to sample some fantastically simple, yet incredibly tasty indigenous food. I think I shall dedicate another article to this, as it probably merits its own – it is the first time I have ever eaten raw pork, but as it was slaughtered not ½ hour before being consumed, then its also the freshest pork I have ever tasted too!

Ok, so here’s a recipe I noted down for Thai Red curry; its incredibly easy to put together, seriously flavoursome and the paste can be stored in the fridge for about a month (if you put oil over the top to seal it).

Red Curry Paste

So first of all, you need to make a paste – just up the amount if you want to make more for storage in the fridge:

• A couple of fresh red chillies (if you want spicy paste, then leave in the seeds)
• 1 tablespoon of lemon grass
• 1 tablespoon of galangal (if you can’t get hold of this, then double up the lemongrass)
• 1 teaspoon of garlic
• 1 teaspoon of shallot
• ½ Teaspoon of lime skin
• ½ Teaspoon of coriander root (or, 1 teaspoon of coriander stem)
• ½ Teaspoon of coriander seeds
• ½ Teaspoon of black peppercorns
• ¼ Teaspoon of cumin seeds

Ok, so start with the seeds and dry fry them in a wok until they become fragrant (they may even begin to pop) and then put them in to your mortar and grind them in to a powder.

Now there are 2 ways you can produce the paste:

1. Place all the ingredients in to the mortar, with a pinch of salt and grind together to make a paste, or
2. Place all the ingredients in to a blender and whiz up for a moment until its a paste

I’ve used both methods (usually the blender if I’m running short on time!), but they both produce good tasting paste. Obviously the traditional method is using the pestle and mortar and there is something pretty satisfying about expelling energy pounding the ingredients, rather than flicking a switch….!

Red Curry Recipe:

As with any recipe, this is just a guideline so feel free to use other vegetables – I’ve thrown in mushrooms, green beans (these added another dimension of texture as well as flavour), pepper and used fish such as cod rather than chicken. I also find that using chicken thighs rather than breast means the chicken remains moist.

• 1 Onion, chopped
• Eggplant (I tend to chop these at the very last minute, otherwise they turn brown)
• A couple of baby corns, chopped
• 1 Kaffir lime leaf chopped
• 4 or 5 mushrooms chopped
• 20 or so sweet basil leaves
• A couple of chicken thighs, de-boned, skin removed and chopped in to bite-sized pieces
• 1 Cup of coconut milk (about ¾ of a can)
• 2 or 3 Tablespoons of curry paste (to taste)

You also need to prepare a sauce to add at the end of the cooking, which is made of:

• 1 Tablespoon of palm sugar or brown sugar
• 3 Tablespoons of fish sauce

Ok, so now the fun bit!

1. Heat some oil in a wok
2. Add the curry paste until it becomes fragrant (only takes a matter of seconds)
3. Add the chicken and cook
4. TIP – if the paste or chicken start to burn, then just add some coconut milk
5. Add the onion, eggplant, baby corns (and any other harder vegetables you’re adding) and cook for about 30 seconds or so
6. Put in the coconut milk and stir, then wait until it starts to boil
7. Add the sugar and fish sauce
8. Throw in the mushrooms
9. Turn off the heat and add the basil leaves

I tend to cook either Thai fragrant or basmati rice to go with this. Enjoy!

Kalorik Food Processor in Black HA 31535 $79.85

KitchenAid 12 Cup Food Processor KFP750 white LARGE $129.99

Stainless Steel Food Processor Mini Chopper Kitchen Gadgets NEW B4060 $12.95

BLACK & DECKER 500W 10 CUP FOOD PROCESSOR $58.80

Euro-Pro Ninja Master Prep Blender Food Processor NEW $31.00

Euro Pro Shark Ninja Master Prep Pro Food Processor and Drink Mixer in Black $49.99

Kitchenaid KFP740WH – Food processor – white $95.00

Euro-Pro Ninja Master Prep Blender Food Processor 450 Watt $45.00

Regal La Machine 2 ll LM2 Food Processor SLICING DISC excellent 2 SIDED C & H $7.99

Regal La Machine ll LM2 Food Processor WORK BOWL FOOD BOWL EXCELLENT $10.49