It's been too long since I've posted anything here and for that, I apologize. My hubby and I will be celebrating our 20th anniversary this August and decided to take a very overdue vacation and our destination? MAUI! We've never been to Hawaii and at the urging of our family and friends have decided to bite the bullet and go. Needless to say, our lives have been filled with excitement ever since and we've just secured lodging and our plane tickets - so, NOW, it's a REALITY! OHEMGEEEEEE!
In the middle of all this vacationy excitement, a friend of mine asked me to come to her house and show her how to make a curry dish that she's had at our house before. One of the things I like to do when I share recipes with someone is to actually go to the grocery store with them so that they understand everything that is necessary when selecting everything that goes in a dish.
This trip to the "store" was special. We were going to venture to the neighborhood Asian market to get some of the ingredients for my Thai Chicken Curry dish. One thing I can tell you about the Asian market is that you will find things here at a FRACTION of the cost of the regular supermarket. FOR INSTANCE: Coconut Milk. Asian Market Price: $.89 Typical Grocery Store Price: $2.89
So I'm going to just list the ingredients for you here so that you can start your adventure at the Asian Market and then we'll get into how to slap everything together, okie doke? GREAT!!!
Asian Market Grocery List
Jasmine Rice (I prefer jasmine rice and most Thai restaurants serve Jasmine Rice with their curry)
Red Curry Paste (buy 2 cans - smaller than tuna cans, but the same flat shape - you only need one for this recipe, but that way you'll have another in the cupboard ready for next time.)
Coconut Milk - 1 can (buy extra cans of all the following items if you think you'll make more than one recipe soon - less trips to the store and all...)
Coconut Cream - 1 can
Sliced bamboo shoots - 1 can
Pineapple Chunks - 1 can
Palm Sugar (They have these in crystallized "nugget form" as well as in jars like you see Peanut Butter packaged [which starts out as creamy...then it gets rock hard if you don't use it up - like honey]. My helpful hint is to buy it in "nugget form" so that all you need is one nugget per batch and you're good to go! Palm sugar is similar to honey - it's sweet, and the rule with Thai cooking is to find a voice for sweet, savory and citrusy sour.)
Thai Basil - a bushel of basil is only usually a DOLLAR at the Asian Market!
Lime - you'll need about 3 limes. If you use one of those little lime shaped plastic bottles for this recipe, I will hunt you down and haunt your dreams when I die. (ALSO - If you enjoy using fresh lime for anything else, be sure you frequent the Asian Market - Limes are normally MUCH cheaper than the regular grocery store...usually.)
Carrots
Green and Red Peppers
Onion
Garlic
Sugar Snap Peas - or the flat asian peas.
*Chicken Breast - about 3 halved chicken breasts gives a decent chicken to veggie ratio. If you like more chicken, add another half.
So, with the exception of purchasing the chicken breast at the Asian Market, I'm usually good to go. I mean no offense, but I just can't bring myself to purchase meat at the Asian Market. Something about the open bins of meat with no packaging just totally TURNS ME OFF and gets my OCD tendencies working OVERTIME...but that's just me.
Cooking Instructions/Silly tips
Now we need to start cookin!! I will do some prep work so that all I have to do is throw stuff in and it's ready. #1 THING: Start cooking your RICE! I've been so excited to cook this dish and eat it that I've actually forgotten to cook the rice until it was about 5 minutes before we had to eat. COOK YOUR RICE FIRST!! Just follow the directions on the package or - 2 cups of rice, 3 cups of water - put it on high with a lid, until it starts boiling, give it a stir, then turn off the burner. It'll sit in there and steam and get happy-happy! If there are more than 3 people eating this dish do 3 cups of rice and 4 1/2 cups of water.
Now, you should have all your veggies cut, peppers and onions and carrots (carrots are easy to slice if you have a mandolin - but if you like your knuckles/fingertips/fingernails - you will be CAREFUL - I don't want to read any comments about how you had to take a trip to the ER for stitches, please and thank you.) You should also have your chicken all diced up to about 1-inch cubes or strips...there's no science here, folks...just whatever kind of chicken chunk you want to bite into, cut it that way. In fact, that's a pretty good rule for this dish - if you want to just keep everything except the carrots sized to about 1 inch cubes/slices, that's a pretty good idea. If you slice the peppers into long "julienne" slices, they tend to break down and get too soft - just know when to throw them into the pan, okay? :o) Easy so far, right?
First thing I do when cooking is get a really large frying pan with slightly taller sides to create this masterpiece in. I'll heat up (fairly high temp) about 3 tbsp of oil and add most of a can of the red curry paste. THIS WILL SPLATTER ON YOU...you have been warned. What we want to do is release the oils in the curry...this doesn't take long.
Then we add the chicken. We want to get the chicken cooked through and if it gets a little brown, that's fine too...just make sure you don't burn the curry paste while you cook the chicken - if you feel more comfortable cooking the chicken in a separate pan, then by all means do that. (You can even cook the chicken first, get it browned a little bit and then add the curry - just make sure there's olive oil in the pan when you add the curry.) About half way through the cooking process for the chicken, you'll add the onions - get them a little browned too - or at least wilted. Once the chicken is cooked, you'll start adding the coconut creme. Just dump in the entire can. At this point you'll add the carrots - remember, some veggies take longer to cook than others. Carrots will take much longer to get soft/al dente than the peppers will and the peppers take longer than the Asian peas. As long as you remember that, you pretty much have an idea of when to add all the veggies.
About the time I put the carrots in, I'll place one of the palm sugar nuggets into the bubbling coconut infused pan. This takes a while to dissolve because it's crystallized, so put it in as soon as you get the coconut creme in. At this time, you can crush some garlic and put it in. Probably 3 cloves of garlic will be perfect. I'd say to let this bubble on the stovetop for about 15 minutes before you start to add the peppers and peas and anything else you want to add to this dish. The BASE of the dish is the soupy curry sauce...once you get that down, adding veggies and stuff is all optional. I'm not a very good veggie eater, but I can tell you that the peppers, onions and carrots add important flavor to the curry, so if you don't enjoy eating those veggies, then just pick through the final dish to get the stuff you like. The peas don't add any flavor to the DISH, but I like to eat them, so I throw them in. Add about a healthy teaspoon of salt to the dish.
The final steps to the dish after you test to be sure that the peppers and carrots are done to your liking is to add the Lime Juice and the Basil. I'll squeeze 2 full limes worth of juice into the pan, if your limes aren't that juicy, then add another one. The lime element is really important to this dish. And remember...if I hear about you using one of those plastic lime shaped juice bottles...I'm COMIN' AFTER YOU!! :o)
Regarding the basil. I'll start taking the leaves off of the stems and get a really good bushel in my hand and throw the leaves in. Remember, they wilt down like spinach, so even though you think you're putting a lot in, put just a little more. The dish really SINGS once the basil is introduced. There's no need to chop up the basil. Give your pan a good stir and let it simmer for another 5 minutes or so.
Once you feel that your dish is complete, start dishin' it up!!! I like to serve it in a bowl with steamed rice on the side of the bowl, my husband likes to drown his rice in the curry liquid. There's no WRONG way to serve this. We also enjoy making garlic bread with this dish for some reason. It just seems right to have something to sop up the curry with once you get to the bottom of your dish.
I'm so excited for some of you to try this dish, and I hope you really enjoy it. I truly is delicious!!! I get rave reviews whenever I make it.
Are you a VEGETARIAN???? You can totally leave out the chicken and this dish is perfect for you too!!
Enjoy - and remember to leave me a message letting me know that you tried it!!!
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