The King of Thai Curries
Prep: 10 min // Cook: 25 min
What is it?
Thai green curry doesn’t need special introductions and recommendations. For the oblivious, this is the most comforting curry in Thailand and an equally well known and cherished Thai dish in the Western world. It’s bursting with flavour, it's silky smooth, refreshing, warming and just as spicy as a westerner can handle. Suitable for introducing someone into Thai cuisine without popping their eyeballs out. Its creaminess from coconut milk along with the freshness of the basil and kaffir lime leaves makes it unique. Usually made with chicken, beef or prawns, but can be easily turned into a beautiful vegan plate using sweet potatoes, pumpkin and other matching vegetables or roots (like my pumpkin, green beans and bean sprouts of the photo).
Origin
The dish takes its colour (and name) from the green paste made of green bird’s eye chillies and other green stuff (like kaffir lime and coriander). In Thailand, traditional home cooks make this paste fresh from scratch, pounding a long list of around 15 ingredients in a large mortar by hand. In the west, gathering this long list of rare tropical ingredients is a bit hard so we just go for a good quality paste from the supermarket’s Asian food section. Although I was taught how to make a proper paste during my travels to Thailand, I still find it very time consuming and labour intensive, so I buy ready-made pastes
What's the secret to the best Thai Green Curry at home?
Three things will elevate this dish to the next level:
A good authentic Thai curry paste (I use the Thai products Maesri or Mae Jum that you can find on Amazon or selected Asian stores)
Fresh kaffir lime leaves (if available in your local Asian grocery store buy bulk and freeze)
Fresh Thai Basil leaves (their earthy, peppery, anise-like scent with hints of clove stand out compared to the European relatives).
Recipe
This is the easiest Thai dish you can make at home. It's one-pot and uses authentic Thai store-bought green curry paste.
Ingredients (serves 4-6)
350g (2 cups) Jasmine rice (preferably the Royal Umbrella brand)
100-120g Thai Green Curry paste (preferably Maesri or Mae Jum brands)
400ml Coconut milk
200ml Coconut cream (thin consistency) or another 400ml Coconut milk
500g chicken breasts, diced
40g Garden peas or Edamame soybeans
2 Zucchinis (medium to small size), cut into discs
6-8 fresh kaffir lime leaves (or double the quantity if using dried)
2 tbsp fish sauce (preferably the Thai Tiparos brand)
10-12 Thai basil leaves (or plain basil leaves)
2 tbsp Vegetable oil
Substitutes
Meat Substitute: Sweet Potato or Pumpkin: Replace the meaty protein with potato or pumpkin or squash and you have the vegan version of the same dish. The rest of the ingredients, technique and cooking times remain the same.
Thai basil leaves with any basil leaves: Thai basil leaves have an amazingly sweet, citrusy and peppery fragrance that makes them unique. I've tried this recipe with normal European basil and while it's not the same, is still good.
Soy Sauce: the vegan Fish Sauce substitute: Effectively a similar flavour, utterly salty in both cases. A fishy salty and slightly sour flavour for fish sauce and a roasted nutty flavour for soy sauce. I prefer using fish sauce as it gives a unique Thai flavour to this dish, but soy sauce would do the trick too, so feel free to experiment. Taste-wise is not much different as the dominating flavour in this curry is the creamy green sauce. This dish allows a lot of improvisation.
Method
Heat a large wok (or large soup pot with a matching lid) on medium heat with vegetable oil, add the green paste and cook for 1-2 min until fragrant. Add 200ml coconut milk and stir until the paste dissolves. Add the rest (200ml) of the coconut milk and bring to hard boil.
Cook the chicken: When the sauce starts bubbling, reduce the heat to medium and add the chicken with the kaffir leaves (slightly bash them first to release a more intense citrus scent), and stir regularly for the first minute. Let the chicken cook for 5-10 minutes until you prepare the vegetables.
Prepare your veggies: Pick all basil leaves by discarding stems and cut the zucchini (discard the ends) into round discs 1 cm thick.
Toss the veggies and cook: zucchini, peas (or beans), fish sauce and the 200ml coconut cream (or another 300ml coconut milk) into the pan and stir carefully. Bring to boil and let it simmer with a closed lid for another 10-15 minutes until the chicken is tender cooked. If the sauce looks too thick, add a couple of splashes of water.
Remove from heat and stir the basil leaves to wilt. Let the curry sit to infuse the flavours before serving. I usually prepare it in the morning to be served at lunchtime or even for dinner.
Make the rice: Wash the rice thoroughly to remove the starchy outer layer and put it in a pan with the lid on and 3 cups water (around 700ml; best rice-water ratio is 2:3). Bring to boil and once boiling, reduce the heat to low and simmer for 10 min. Take the pan off the heat and set it aside with the lid on for another 10 min before serving.
Tip #1: This curry needs no salt. Saltiness comes from the fish sauce. Give it a try before serving and only top up if needed.
Tip #2: do not let the curry over boil as that will dry up the sauce. Check how it goes regularly and add splashes of water if it looks too dry. The consistency we are looking for the sauce is like a thick and rich soup.
Wine pairing
Although spicy food better washes down with ice-cold beer as a good friend suggests, this dish is not that spicy and can be accompanied by wine too. I'm not a wine expert but when I asked my Thai cook teacher chef about wines, he suggested either a light acidic rose with fruity flavours (like a Provençal rose) or some rounded and zingy white like Sauvignon blanc which both make a good match for Thai curries.
Freezing ❆
Can I freeze kafir lime leaves?
The answer is YES, kafir leaves are perfectly suitable for freezing. Wash them, pat them completely dry in a towel, wrap them in cling film and freeze them all together in a sealable freezer bag. Although there's no need to unfreeze before use, I usually thaw them in warm water for a few seconds. They can keep in the freezer for 6 months (and even more)
Check some more of my recipes with kafir lime leaves here.
Shopping List
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Shop the look
If you like the serving styling in my photos, here are some suggestions for products you can buy from Amazon and build similar dining sets of your own:
Shop the Book
If you were to buy just one Thai cookbook, that should be Thailand: The Cookbook from the prestigious cookbook publisher Phaidon. Bulky but comprehensive, this book is the A-Z of Thai food; with recipes collected from chefs and locals throughout the whole country, you will find here all the authentic food that you've tasted in Thailand or in your local Thai restaurant. But if you are addicted to Thai food and cook a great deal of Thai, I'd totally recommend getting at least one more book. I prefer something from Bangkok as it's not only the capital of Thailand but the whole Thai cuisine too. My first choice would be Bangkok Cookbook. One other spectacular cookbook with unique twists to authentic recipes that you can only find being cooked in Bangkokian street stalls, food stories from the capital and stunning photography. Alternatively, I also liked a lot the Busaba cookbook. Not just for being one of my favourite casual Thai restaurants in London, but also because the recipes are designed for a party table or casual dinner with friends, meaning they are fun and simple to recreate and the ingredients easy to find.
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