I had some left over chicken breasts and decided I would make a stuffing of roasted red pepper with a tomato sauce. But, after a walk on the beach I really did not feel like the whole process and turned my mind to making a green chicken curry. Alvin Quah gave us a lovely recipe for a green curry paste and so in my usual fashion, I set about making it. So, why read the list of ingredients first? I mean, I never do, so why start now? Well, if I had all the ingredients, I would have made a green curry. But, I did not have lemongrass and so my green curry became a mild chicken curry – and not a very strong one either as I used less chillies. I will add lemongrass to my shopping list so that I can make the curry paste to share with you. In the meantime, enjoy this dish – we certainly did 🙂
I am not very good at mise en place, and prefer to get my ingredients ready as I made a dish. This of course means that a lot of the time I cannot copy a recipe exactly. The positive side is the creation of new recipes.
Chicken Curry
Ingredients
- 2 green chillies, chopped
- 4 spring onions, chopped
- 30 mls coriander leaves, chopped
- 3 kaffir lime leaves
- 5 mls shrimp paste
- 5 mls ground cumin
- 10 mls coriander seeds, crushed
- 2 cloves garlic
- 30 mls fish sauce
- 30 mls canola oil
- 1 lemon, zest only
- 15 mls lime juice
- 400 mls coconut cream
- 60 g asparagus, cut in half
- 2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, sliced
- 80 g exotic mushrooms, cut in half
- 10 sugar snap peas, trimmed
- 15 mls palm sugar
- 15 mls fish sauce
- 30 mls lime juice
- 10 Thai basil leaves
Method
- place the ingredients up to but not including the coconut cream into a blender
- process until all the ingredients have combined
- place into a pot and bring to a simmer
- add the coconut cream and bring back to a simmer
- add the bottom halves of the asparagus
- add the chicken breasts and simmer for 10 minutes
- add the rest of the asparagus, the mushrooms and the peas and bring back to a simmer
- add the palm sugar, the fish sauce and the lime juice
- stir in the Thai basil leaves
- serve on a bed of jasmine rice
Click on the links for conversions and notes.
Did you use the fresh Thai basil leaves from your garden? Sounds yummy. Take care, BAM
I did indeed 🙂
Lovely, Tandy! Some of the best recipes come about when we don’t quite read the recipe correctly.. 🙂
I so agree Celia 🙂
Funny how sometimes you plan something and then change your mind, happens to me all the time……or maybe I just forget what I had planned! 🙂
must be the age Sue 🙂
A recipe is often made up of what ingredients a cook happens to have at hand. Most of my dishes are spontaneous.This sounds delicious, Tandy.
I think spontaneity wins every night in my house 🙂
Looks just wonderful!
thanks Greg 🙂
I LOVE curry and I love that the tamarind in the curry is a anti inflammatory agent that always helps my great aunt with her arthritis. Wonderful recipe and post.
thank you so much for letting me know tamarind is an anti inflammatory – I will use it more often 🙂
I never made curry from scratch…always cheated using pre-mix powder and/or cubes. Yours looks delicious, and I love when you cook by mixing and matching what you have available.
Hope you are having a great day Tandy 🙂
Thanks Juliana – I always try and make my own blends as then I know they have no ‘nasties’ in them 🙂
It looks good, I must get out and stock up my spices again, we buy in bulk and grind our own, so much cheaper!! Oh how I miss the greens though.. still.. summer will come! c
I love the smell of the spices when I grind them 🙂
Ooh, Tandy what wonderful flavours, even without the lemongrass – must have been beautifully fragrant as well as delicious.
🙂 Mandy
thanks Mandy – it really was good 🙂
This looks delicious – even without the lemongrass. It has all the other flavours. I love Thai food and not having one ingredient certainly wouldn’t stop me making something like this.
Thanks so much Corina! I try to not let the fact I am missing an ingredient stop me from making what I had in mind 🙂