FOODIE WEEKEND - Thai Green Curry

Hello, everyone! Welcome to my Foodie Weekend where I share on a weekly basis my 'creation' in the kitchen. 

As I mentioned before in my previous food and recipe post, I consider Thai food as the most delicate and flavorful cuisine in the world (..and I am NOT Thai). Since I love Thai food so much, I try to learn and cook some of my favorite dishes including this green curry!  I learned this recipe from a TV show called Food Planet where the host travels all over the world and sample the food from each country.  

Before we start, maybe some of you who are familiar with Thai food are wondering what is the difference between green curry and red curry? Well, from that show I learned that the difference is only in the type of chili used!  For green curry, they use green chili and red, red chili that produces the color.  Nope, no artificial color or what so ever used in making this dish!  So lets see how it is made, shall we?

Thai Chicken Green Curry

Ingredients (serves 4)

For curry paste 

5 shallots or 1 medium red onion

3 cloves of garlic

5 green small chilies (very spicy) or you can substitute with bigger green chilies or mix.  All depending on your spicy level.  Mine is mild.

2 sticks of lemon grass, take only the white part

1 inch of gallangal  

6-8 leaves of kaffir lime leaf

1 tablespoon of chopped coriander roots or stem

1/2 a teaspoon of shrimp paste (optional)

The rest of the ingredients

2 big chicken breasts, sliced

1 - 1 1/2 can of coconut milk (2 cups)

3 leaves of kafir lime leaf 

1 teaspoon of palm sugar or brown sugar

1/2 a cup of Thai basil

1/2 a cup of pea aubergine or substitute with asian eggplant or the normal aubergine/eggplant you can find, cut in smaller pieces or cube.

Some fish sauce

Some vegetable oil ( I used about 2-3 tablespoons)

Thai basil

Kafir lime and leaves

Asian eggplant

Method

In a wok (you can use pot if you don't have one) heat some vegetable oil

Add the curry paste to the hot oil and saute until fragranced (about 3-5 minutes)

Reduce the heat and gradually add 3/4 of the coconut milk.  

Cook until it started to produce a sheen glossy film. 

Add in the sliced chicken, the eggplant and kafir lime leaves (don't forget to break them to release the fragrance/flavor) and cook until the coconut gravy starts boiling. 

Remember to stir once in a while.

When it started to boil and the chicken is cooked, add in the rest of the coconut milk, 

the palm sugar, fish sauce and stir well.

Finally sprinkle the Thai basil and turn off the heat.  

Serve hot with steamed white rice. 

Note : 

Noticed this recipe does not use any salt?  This is because the fish sauce is acting on behalf.  So use it sparingly and according to your taste.
You can also use the green curry paste that is being sold in the supermarket but if you can find all the ingredients, why not try and make your own paste? 
Please feel free to ask me any questions if you have any :)