Green curry paste
, a spicy condiment used often in Thai cooking, is a tasty addition to chicken, beef and even vegetarian dishes. The paste itself is a combination of green hot chiles, garlic cloves, and a variety of herbs like cumin, coriander and peppercorns. Cooking with green curry paste will give your Thai dishes impressive color and bold taste.
Green Curry Chicken
Purchase green curry paste at your desired level of spiciness from your local grocery store or Asian market. If the paste is too thick, add a little coconut milk until it reaches the consistency that you want. Saute chicken breasts in vegetable oil, along with slices of onion and shallots. Add green pepper slices, and pour the curry paste into the saucepan while the chicken is cooking to meld the flavors. Serve the curry chicken mixture over a bowl of brown rice, and garnish with sprigs of cilantro.
Green Curry Seafood Dumplings
Featherback fish and fresh shrimp, along with white pepper and a couple tablespoons of fish sauce are the main ingredients of seafood dumplings that taste great with green curry. Combine these ingredients with coconut milk, Thai galanga (a spice similar to ginger), kaffir lime leaves, palm or coconut sugar, pea eggplant or shelled peas, and Thai basil, and mix in a food processor. Bring green curry paste mixed with coconut milk to a boil, and form the dumpling mixture into small lumps before dropping them into the sauce to cook. After about three minutes, the dumplings will float the top of the pot when done. Serve over a bed of plain white rice.
Green Curry Tofu and Noodles
Cubes of firm tofu are best for this green curry recipe; marinate the tofu in a mixture of sweet soy sauce and minced garlic for at least 20 minutes. Add vegetable oil to a saucepan, and heat a few tablespoons of green curry paste in the pan for one minute before adding coconut milk, shredded carrots and slices of red pepper. Then add the tofu, and allow it to soak up the mixture for a few minutes -- include bean sprouts and fresh or frozen green peas last so the vegetables will maintain their crispness. Cook the entire mixture for five or 10 minutes more while boiling a pot of Thai noodles to serve on the side. Garnish the tofu dish with chopped shallots or cilantro.
Green Curry Beef
Mildly spicy green curry beef is a healthy and tasty dinner. Saute a pre-packaged or homemade green curry paste in a wok until the mixture is fragrant; add a broth of red spur chilies, fish sauce, coconut milk and palm sugar to the mixture, along with strips of beef and kaffir lime leaves. Cook for about three minutes, or until the beef is cooked thoroughly. Then transfer the mixture to a large pot, and add more coconut milk -- bring the dish to a boiling point so all the flavors will mix, and add fish sauce and slices of eggplant. Cook the beef and curry broth until the eggplant is fully done, and fill a bowl with jasmine rice to pour the meat and vegetables over. Add red chilies and basil leaves for garnish and added spice.
Tags: coconut milk, curry paste, green curry, green curry paste, along with, fish sauce
