The secret to making a good Thai curry is making a fresh curry paste at home, preferably with a mortar and pestle instead of a blender. This is an elaborate and time-consuming process, so if you're making it, make enough so you can freeze and reuse later.
Paste ingredients (will make enough paste for 2 large pots of curry)
- 1 large shallot
- 1 square inch of ginger
- 1 square inch of galangal (it's in the ginger family, great if you can find it - has citrus-y notes - it's fine if you don't)
- 1 big bunch of cilantro (stalks and all. Traditional Thai curry uses cilantro roots, but that's hard to find)
- 5 cloves of garlic (optional)
- 5 Thai green chilies (as many as you would like depending on how hot you want it - remember that the coconut milk will significantly mollify the heat so go for more than you think you can handle. You also don't want to overwhelm all the subtle flavors with heat.)
- Kafir lime leaves a bunch
- Zest of one lime
Veggies for the curry
You can use whatever and as much as you like. My recommendation is to go with some classics/traditional:
- Thai eggplant - they're a little firmer than regular ones so they won't become very soggy in the curry
- Baby corn - hard to find everywhere though
- Carrots
- Mushrooms - whatever kind you have available
- Tofu for the protein (if you want - I didn't use it)
- Potatoes (if you want)
- Brat-paprika
- Green beans
- Coconut milk
- Coconut oil
- Fish sauce (or if you want true vegetarian, a mix of soy sauce and rice wine will do as well)
- Some nice granular salt - will help draw out the moisture
Topping
Completely optional but adds a whole new layer of flavor. Julienne ginger and red chili pepper, and mix with chopped Thai basil and the rest of the lime zest/lime juice that might be leftover from making the curry paste.
Cooking process
Finely chop all the ingredients for the green curry paste and put into a large mortar and pestle. You could, of course, blitz this in a grinder, but what happens from smashing in a mortar and pestle is the essential oils from the ingredients begin to seep out, which doesn't really happen in a grinder. Still, it's not a deal breaker - it'll still be better than anything store bought. If you're using the mortar route, then it's going to take a while. You probably have to pound for a good 15-20 minutes to make sure you get everything into a paste like consistency. It's perfectly okay if it doesn't feel like a spread - it never will, so don't stress about it. You'll probably need about two tablespoons of the paste for this dish, so you could freeze the rest to use another time.
Okay, wash and next cut up the vegetables how you would like. I would recommend braising the eggplant (if you're using this) before adding it to the curry - it's going to make the texture a lot nicer.
Now, in a large pot, add a healthy amount of coconut oil and once it's hot, add the green curry paste and fry. Once the raw smell is gone, slowly start adding the coconut milk - like you would do with stock when making risotto. A ladle at a time and let the oil separate from the milk slowly. After about 10-15 minutes or so you should see a layer of oil separated from the coconut milk. Now we are ready to add the vegetables.
Add them in order of how long you want them to cook; hard veggies and mushrooms go in first, so start with the carrots, potatoes (if you choose to use them), and mushrooms. The green beans, brat-paprika, and baby corn go at the end, about 5 minutes.
Now let the curry cook covered for 15 minutes. Then add fish sauce, the rest of the kafir lime leaves and Thai basil torn up and the rest of the veggies. Let it cook for 5 more minutes and you are ready to serve. Make sure you taste the veggies for seasoning and cook through.
Serve with some nice Jasmine rice and add a dollop of the topping as garnish :)
