I can cook a few things rather well. Also helps that they are fairly simple recipes. Anyway, one of them is a red Thai chicken curry that I learned from my dad. I have had a few people (i.e. one person) ask me if they can teach me how to make it. So, I thought I would make it somewhat easier and just put it up here. I will still show anyone how to do it in person if they ask, it is easier to learn if you can actually see how things are made. This is my variation of how my dad taught me to cook it.
Anyway, here is a list of ingredients.
-2 chicken breasts
– 2 to 3 crowns of broccoli
– a clove or two of garlic
– two cans of coconut milk (and not light coconut milk, you’re going to dilute the coconut milk anyway)
– Curry paste, I always buy the Thai Kitchen Brand red paste
– A bit of oil, I have always used canola
– Fish sauce
– Galangal (not a necessary ingredient, it is a bit hard to come by as far I have seen. There is some in the curry paste itself)
So to start you’ll need a fairly large pot to cook this all in. You’ll want to err on the side of larger than necessary, I’ve made the mistake of starting with a pot that wasn’t large enough and it all went to hell. Put a bit of oil in the pot, just enough to cover the bottom of the pot, and turn on the heat to medium or so, just to get things going. Chop up the garlic, finely, and put it in the oil. Cook the garlic in the oil until they are browned slightly and take it off from the heat. Cut up the chicken, aiming for manageable bite sizes. Cut up the broccoli, I always aim to cut off the stocks and keep just the blooms. Keep those off to some side for the time being. Really it makes things a lot easier if you have two people, one to cut up the ingredients, the other to manage the pot. Pour the two cans of coconut milk into the pot, be mindful of the hot oil and the garlic. In order to get the most out of the cans you should fill about a third or half of the empty cans with water, shake ’em a bit and pour it in the pot, be sure to return the pot to a heating element. Next you had the curry paste. I use roughly a third or a half of the Thai Kitchen curry bottles, which is roughly two teaspoons. Let the curry paste dissolve, stirring the curry, and put some fish sauce and galangal in there. Now, I don’t use exact measurements really ever, so I just put in as much as I think is necessary. If you want to see how I do it, will just have to coax me into showing you how I do. But I’m a big fan of figuring out how to balance spices on one’s own. With the fish sauce, I shake the bottle six to seven times into the curry. As for the galangal, I shake it in until I can feel it in my eyes, which doesn’t take long really, it is pretty strong stuff. When the paste has fully dissolved and the curry is aromatic, add the chicken and broccoli. Bring the whole mix up to a boil and then lower the temperature to the lowest and leave it for an hour or two stirring occasionally. The longer you cook, the more broken up the broccoli will be. The curry goes well with rice, also curry is a good way to preserve cooked rice. You can also switch up ingredients. If you want different vegetables, add hard vegetables (like carrots) should be added at the start. Soft vegetables (peppers, green onions, cilantro) should be added after 30 minutes of simmering. I tend to cook as simply as I can and I am also irritatingly picky.
Some other variations. If you want to make pork or turkey curry instead, you should use a green curry paste. That works better than a red. I don’t eat red meat so you’ll have to do a bit of research on your own if you want to make a beef or lamb curry. As for seafood, I believe yellow is the best. Or at least that Yellow Oyster Curry I had my junior year here at Evergreen was the best I’ve had.