Coffee, Curry, Khop Kun Krap

So the past few weeks have been a blur of work including overtime and coffee, much needed coffee.  I drink 'real' coffee whilst at work, and at home, an instant variety that comes in a beautiful reusable jar that I have been collecting for the past five years.  I use these jars to store just about everything in my pantry.  I like them because they are washable and come in two different sizes (in Australia, they also come in a mini tiny variety that is just perfect for herbs and spices and whenever I travel to Oz now I buy my coffee in these tiny jars just so I can take them home with me).

Of course having to work so much meant that there was very little time for anything else.  For a while there I was getting up at 4am so I could catch the 5:11 train to London.  Arriving at work at 6am I would put on one of the three hats that I am currrently finding that I have to wear whilst at work.  At about 10am I would switch to another hat and then I would alternate between this one and the other one and so on for the rest of the day.  Sometimes the day would end 12 hours after it began.  Then I would catch the train home and sort of veg out around David whilst he was cooking up something, barely making it through dinner and our obligatory dinner tv hour with Zack (Parks and Recreation of course....) before crawling into bed and off to sleep only to reset the cycle the following (early) morning.  This also included Saturday for a couple of weeks.... crazy.... but great for the bank balance.

So finally I am starting to pull back on the extra hours and find some time to do housework and of course some cooking and one of the easiest dishes that I find to cook is thai chicken curry - either the green or red variety.  This is also one of Zack's favourite dishes so it's a no brainer whenever I want to treat us as a family unit because David and I enjoy it immensely as well.

Being gluten free for a while now, I will not risk buying a store bought sauce so I always end up making my own.  It might seem like a lot of additional work, but nothing beats the flavour of your own green or red curry paste.  I sadly do not own a single cookbook in my vast collection that contains either of these recipes  (that I know of.... one of the joys of having a massive collection of anything is not actually being completely sure of what you actually possess and constantly stumbling upon something as yet undiscovered) but I do have access to the internet, and so I give you my favourite thai curry paste recipes.

Thai Green Curry Paste
Thai Red Curry Paste
 
They are both by the lovely Darlene Schmidt and they are a doddle to make (just throw everything into a blender (or use a hand blender and a large pyrex jug) and blend until smooth).  I am constantly varying these two recipes depending on what ingredients I actually have to hand, but I must add that I think that there is really no substitute for using fresh lemon grass - it is worth postponing your cooking until you actually buy these essential thai ingredients).  I always double up on the ingredients and store a pot of the curry sauce in the fridge for a second meal later in the week (it can last for much longer but rarely does in our house).

Now onto my next cookbook.  Ken Hom's Foolproof Thai Cookery (US try here).  Hom is a pretty cool chef.  He is famed for his Asian fusion fare and I own probably one of his more popular recipe books.  It's something that David picked up not long after he arrived in the country (having spent a good couple of months in the land of smiles on his way to blighty he became quite partial to thai food).  Looking back now on his time spent on the no-wheat diet (Thailand is pretty much wheat free) he was probably consuming one of the healthiest diets in his life, although the stress-free lifestyle he was living back then probably didn't hurt either.

I must point out, though, that Ken is annoyingly very much a chef and it becomes really obvious in his coobooks. Who measures out chopped onions in tablespoons?  Why only a chef who has somebody chop a bowl full for him every morning!  The good thing about such crazy measurements is that you end up just substituting your own vague portion quantities.  How much is 2 tablespoons of chopped garlic?  About 5 cloves maybe?  Yeah, let's err on the side of largess and make it 6.

Ultimately a green (or red) curry is pretty similar to cook once you have made your paste.  First, prepare your ingredients.  Chop 2 lemon grass stalks, 5 cloves of garlic, a 2.5cm chunk of ginger, 1 small onion and throw all of this into a bowl along with 4 kaffir lime leaves (or the rind and juice of a lime), 1 tablespoon of fish sauce, 2 teaspoons of sugar and 1 teaspoon of salt.  Next chop your chicken breast (or thighs) - about 500g worth of boneless meat into 2.5cm chunks.  If you're making a red curry, also chop (into smaller chunks) 225g of potato.  Finally chop a handful of coriander leaves and some thai basil leaves (just basil if you don't have the asian version).  If making a red curry, also slice a red chilli or two for garnish, as well as crushing 50g roasted peanuts.

With your ingredients prepared, get your rice cooking.  Then  heat a wok, and splash in some vegetable oil
 once it's piping hot.  Next add your green or red curry paste and stir fry for 2 mins.  Then add the chicken (and potato if a red curry) and ensure everything is coated with the paste before adding the bowl of chopped ingredients.  Stir fry for a minute before adding a 400ml tin of coconut milk (or 150ml coconut cream and the same again of water).  Simmer for 15 mins or until the chicken is cooked.  Stir in the coriander and basil and if red, garnish with chilli and roasted nuts.  Serve immediately on steaming hot rice.  Delicious!