Sunday 30 March 2014

Thai Green Curry From Scratch

It was Maddie's birthday the other day and she asked if I would whip up a Thai Green curry on the Friday night.

Being a bit of a special occasion and all, I decided to make my own curry paste for a change.

I've never done it before and to be honest I want any excuse to use that beast of a magi-mix.

It is incredibly easy to make your own paste, as long as you have a blender of some type and the curry was so much better than anything a shop bought paste makes!

It may look like a lot of ingredients, but you might have some of these spices in your store cupboard. If you don't, yes it will be expensive this time round but, think of all the things you could make afterwards!! See it as an investment towards future dinners.

I apologise now for the lack of step by step photos. I was chatting at the same time and forgot a couple of steps!

This made curry for 6.

To go on the curry you will need:

6 boneless chicken thighs, cut into chunks
1 aubergine in bite-sized pieces
1 courgette cute into the same size pieces as the aubergine
2 400g cans of coconut milk
1½tbsp fish sauce
2tsp level brown sugar
1tsp fresh coriander seeds, ground
1tsp fresh cumin seeds, ground
2 kaffir lime leaves, shredded

For the paste: 
3 lemongrass stalks
3 hot green chillies
3 kaffir lime leaves
6-8 garlic cloves, peeled
2 shallots, peeled
10 black peppercorns
1½tsp shrimp paste
5cm ginger, peeled
½tsp ground turmeric
1 large handful fresh coriander leaves
½tsp salt


As I always say feel free to put whatever vegetables you want in the curry. It is your meal after all!!

Start by prepping your items for the paste. Peel the garlic, ginger, shallots, take the hard ends off the lemongrass. Cut the gingers down into slightly small chunks and maybe halve the shallots.


Now throw everything into the bowl and blitz. Viola, you have a curry paste. Hard wasn't it.....


(maybe scrape down the sides check the seasoning and blitz again just to make sure)
Here's another money shot of the lady in action, using the smallest bowl...


Put the paste to one side and get everything else ready for the curry, dice that chicken into whatever size chunks you want and organise the veg.

Pour the some vegetable oil into a wok and get it smoking hot then chuck in coriander seeds, cumin seeds and kaffir lime leaves. Let these fry and little so they release all their aromas and then chuck your beautiful paste on the top.


Fry this off as well for a couple of minutes to awaken all the goodness within it.


Now its time to add the coconut milk,


Make sure you get every last morsel


fish sauce


and brown sugar. Give this all a good stir and bring it up to the boil.


Now chuck in the vegetables and chicken. Make sure everyones got to know each other well enough in the pot and clamp the lid down.


Stick your rice on at this point, if you're having it with your curry. 

The only thing I found with my curry was that there was a lot of oil in it. If you have this problem, simply grab a big spoon and scoop it off the top.



As soon as the veg is done, have a quick look to see the chicken is done and the rice and then call everyone to the table. Dinners ready!










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