Thai Green Coconut Chicken Curry

Ooooh but I love Thai food, it’s always so beautifully balanced with its sweets and sours, it spices and curries. I don’t cook a lot of Thai dishes at home, but I’m on a mission to change that because it really is one of my favourite cuisines and I’d love to learn more about it.

I decided to start off with a recipe that isn’t too complicated, a Thai Green Coconut Chicken Curry. I think the hardest part about this was going to the shops and placing all the ingredients into the trolley. Making the curry paste from scratch was so satisfying, in fact whilst I was making it I was talking out loud to myself like I was presenting my own show, I sounded like a slightly confused and out of touch Nigella Lawson but I was having fun and that is all that counts.

In the end, it came out really nicely, there are a lot of flavours involved in this dish, but they all worked so well together and I was pretty proud of myself when I served it up to my Shane. This specific recipe called for egg noodles and not rice, it’s the first time I’ve had a Thai green curry with noodles, but it definitely won’t be my last. It was really good, plus I love noodles. I think need a t-shirt that says that.

All the homeware in my shots is from Weylandts. That place gets me every time, they always have such pretty things. How amazing are the marble and wooden serving board (R595) and the grey bowls which are made from iron and coated in enamel (R245), I’ve never seen bowls like that before. They also had a massive matching serving plate which I think I might go back for! Cakes would look amazing on it.

Ingredients for the green curry paste: 

1 Tbs coriander seeds

1 Tbs cumin seeds

1/4 t white pepper

1 tsp tumeric

2 x roughly chopped green chilies

2 x cloves garlic, crushed

1 x stalk lemongrass chopped

1 tsp shrimp paste (or 2 x Tbs fish sauce)

2 x 1 Tbs grated ginger

4 x limes leaves (I used the rind of a lime instead)

1 x finely chopped red onion

1 1/2 cups roughly chopped coriander

2 x Limes, juiced

Ingredients for the rest:

2 x Tbs peanut oil

5 x chicken breast, cubed

1 x 400ml coconut milk

1/2 tin of coconut cream

2 x Tbs fish sauce

1 x Tbs grated palm sugar (I used regular sugar)

1 x bruised lemongrass stalk

2 x Tbs lemon juice

medium egg noodles – cook according to instructions on the packaging

To garnish:

Basil leaves

Chilies

Chunks of coconut, grated

Directions:

1. To make the curry paste heat a small pan over a medium heat. Add the coriander seeds, cumin seeds, white pepper and turmeric and toast for 2 minutes. Transfer that to a food processor then add all the remaining ingredients and blend until smooth. Easy peasy.
2. Heat the peanut oil in a large pan over a high heat and brown the chicken, then remove from the pan.
3. Reduce the heat and add the curry paste. Cook for 1 minute or until fragrant. Add the chicken cubes, coconut milk, coconut cream. fish sauce, palm sugar, lemon grass and lime juice. Simmer for 5 minutes.
4. Serve the curry with the noodles and then garnish with basil, chilies, and grated coconut.