My First Thai Curry

[pinback]

I made a spontaneous Thai curry for lunch today. As I know some of you have far more experience with such things than I do, I am soliciting your advice for ways to mess with this, what I'll call the "mother recipe", to increase my enjoyfulment of the MAGIC OF CURRY THAI CURRY.

Here's what I did:

Took two cans coconut milk, brought to a simmer.
Added cubed chicken.
Mixed in all of the following:
- 1-2 tablespoons of red curry paste
- .5 tsp turmeric
- Some X-Tra Hot ground red chile.
- Some garlic, some ginger.
- 1 tablespoon ground lemongrass.
- About 1-2 tablespoon fish (or "twat") sauce..
- Salt and sugar to taste.
Added cubed potatoes.
Added 1 cup chicken stock.
Simmered aggressively until potatoes were fully cooked.
Added 1/2 cup or so chopped fresh parsley.
Ate.

I mean, that's about right, right? That sounds like a Thai curry, doesn't it?

[bruce]

Took two cans coconut milk, brought to a simmer.
Added cubed chicken.
Mixed in all of the following:
- 1-2 tablespoons of red curry paste
- .5 tsp turmeric
- Some X-Tra Hot ground red chile.
- Some garlic, some ginger.
- 1 tablespoon ground lemongrass.
- About 1-2 tablespoon fish (or "twat") sauce..
- Salt and sugar to taste.
Added cubed potatoes.
Added 1 cup chicken stock.
Simmered aggressively until potatoes were fully cooked.
Added 1/2 cup or so chopped fresh parsley.

That sounds like a Thai curry, doesn't it?

Pretty much.

Other things that I'd do:

Galanga[l]! In addition to, or instead of, the regular ginger. Best if you buy it frozen and thaw and chop it up, but dried and then rehydrated works too.

Cilantro, not parsley.

Add some coriander. Maybe a little cumin too, but definitely coriander.

Chopped, not ground, lemon grass.

Bruce

[pinback]

Cilantro, not parsley.

Fuck. Not parsley. Basil. I put basil in the thing, and I went to type "basil" in the original recipe, and somehow it still came out "parsley".

BASIL.

Chopped, not ground, lemon grass.

Sure thing, once that lottery ticket hits.

[bruce]

Cilantro, not parsley.

Fuck. Not parsley. Basil. I put basil in the thing, and I went to type "basil" in the original recipe, and somehow it still came out "parsley".

BASIL.

Chopped, not ground, lemon grass.

Sure thing, once that lottery ticket hits.

Yeah, basil's good. Preferably Thai Purple Basil, but you know what? The regular old green Italian kind works perfectly well too.

Hunh. I guess maybe in DENVER you can't get fresh lemon grass for $1.29 a pound, and in BOULDER it's $7.79 a pound because it's organically grown in beds of purest hippie pubic lice, and in LONGMONT no one's ever heard of lemon grass because honkies don't eat it, but it's cheap here.

Adam

[pinback]

Hunh. I guess maybe in DENVER you can't get fresh lemon grass for $1.29 a pound, and in BOULDER it's $7.79 a pound because it's organically grown in beds of purest hippie pubic lice, and in LONGMONT no one's ever heard of lemon grass because honkies don't eat it

So, you've been.

[bruce]

So, you've been.

Oh, I've <i>been</i>, baby. I've <i>been</i>.

Bruce

[pinback]

Here's a pic, just to make this thread complete. Not surprisingly, as with most dishes such as this, the dinner version (after it'd sat for hours) was exponentially better than the lunch version, which was "fresh".

Wow.

Thai food. That might be where it's at, actually.

[Vitriola]

Did you make your own curry paste?

Hey, remember when I tried to make my own Mussamon paste, and nobody could breathe for an hour because apparently cinnamon and cloves volatilize into the air the minute they are heated? Good times!

[pinback]

Did you make your own curry paste?

I did not. But now that I am the world's foremost Thai chef, I think we'll start making that happen.

Even though it's hard to convince yourself it's worth it.

Because, you know, it comes in jars.

Already made.

Hmm.

[Ice Cream Jonsey]

Lemon.... grass???

???!?????

[Vitriola]

Lemon.... grass???

???!?????

Homeless people smoke it.

[Vitriola]

Because, you know, it comes in jars.

Already made.

Red paste, green paste, and yellow paste come in jars. Mussamon paste, panang(?) and others do NOT.

But yeah, sure, next time you go out and buy ingredients to make your own pizza dough, just pick up a JAR OF 'CURRY' PASTE.

[Ice Cream Jonsey]

Food Seasoning by the jar is very cheap in Longmont, CO.