Thai red curry with chicken and veg

A 'hot' favourite of the Thais and one of our favourites too! 

It can be as easy as buying the ready made paste from an Asian supermarket or you can make your own paste (recipe below) to add to the coconut milk. This really is cooking at it's easiest and most delicious!

Cut up your chicken breast into small bite sized strips and chop up whatever veg you would like to go in. We use potatoes, green beans, carrots, broccoli and cauliflower but you can use whatever veg you prefer - we sometimes put red pepper in too. If you are vegetarian then just leave the meat out and add more veg. We usually pre-boil the potatoes and carrots in water for 5 minutes to soften them a little.

Warm the 440ml of coconut milk in a pan (you will need a lid) and then add the red curry paste to the warming coconut milk and make sure it is all dissolved - it should be a nice pink colour when all the lumps of curry paste have gone.

Once the red curry sauce is starting to bubble add the raw chicken breast and stir around a little. When the chicken has changed to a white colour add the harder veg to the red curry sauce, bring to the boil and then allow to simmer for 10 minutes. Then add the softer veg for another 5-10 minutes (depending on what veg you have included) and simmer allowing the flavours of the sauce to seep into the veg. Check the potato and harder veg are soft, if not then leave to simmer for a while longer.

It's then ready to eat with the perfect rice you have cooked in your Zojirushi rice cooker!

For making your own curry paste:

• 5 Large red Dried Chillies or 3 long red chillies deseeded (leave some seeds in if you like it hot)
• 5 Cloves of Garlic peeled and sliced
• 2 or 3 Shallots peeled and sliced
• 2 Stalks of Lemongrass finely chopped
• 1 Tsp Grated Kaffir Lime peel (or substitute fresh lime peel if not available)
• 1 Tbsp Galangal finely chopped
• 1/2 Tbsp Coriander root, chopped
• 1 Tsp Coriander seeds
• 1/2 Tsp Peppercorns
• 1/2 Tbsp Gapi (Shrimp Paste)
• 1/2 Tsp Cumin seeds

Blend all ingredients together into a paste using a mortar & Pestle or a blender. This recipe will make about 180g of paste. The left over will keep for several days in a sealed plastic bag in a refrigerator.

You need 50g of paste for every 440ml tin of coconut milk.