Thai green curry (แกงเขียวหวาน)

Handsfromtheriver.com,. 'Benefits Of Coconut Milk | Hands From The River'. N.p., 2014. Web. 13 July 2015.

Feature Ingredient: Coconut milk

Coconut milk is the white liquid that is extracted by grinding the white flesh of ripe brown coconuts. The ingredient is popular in Southeast and South Asia (including Burmese, Thai, Vietnamese, Malaysian and many more), Southern China and the Caribbean, where a variety of cuisines incorporate the rich milk into both sweet and savoury dishes. Its use in curries is also popular in many Indonesian, Malaysian, Sri Lankan and Thai cooking, since the milk has a rich and creamy consistency. The ingredient is less popular in Western cuisine since it can be difficult to source, being a tropical plant. However, as canned coconut milk becomes more popular and readily available, its use has been spreading all around the world. The downside with coconut milk is that it has a high fat content, most of which is saturated fat. So use and eat in moderation! 

In this week's recipe, I'll be sharing a fairly simply Thai green curry dish that I made for a large family lunch. It isn't considered to be an authentic Thai green curry, since I did just follow the recipe guide advised from the pack of a pre made recipe base - but if you're interested, carry on! If not, here is a more traditional recipe (but I do warn you that there are more ingredients needed, and they may be difficult to find..) it will produce a more authentic flavour if that's what you are looking for.

Recipe: Thai green curry

Serves 30+ (Perfect for a large group!)

Ingredients:

For the rice (serves 10+)

2 cups jasmine rice

1 cup glutinous rice

Water

*You'll also need a rice cooker!

For the curry

4 cans (4x400ml) coconut milk

4 MasterFood recipe base packets (Thai Green Curry)

500g green beans, washed and ends chopped off and chopped into 3cm pieces

6 medium/large green zucchinis, sliced into 0.5cm thick circles

3 large chicken breasts (free range), sliced into small 0.5cm thick rectangles 

Method

1. Prepare all your ingredients! (e.g. chop, rinse etc.)
2. Prepare the rice; combine the 2 different rice types and then rinse with water 3 times. To "rinse", run the water on the rice and use your hands to gently stir the grains - drain out the water and repeat. 
3. Place the rice into the rice cooker with water* and allow to cook at the preset timer. If you don't have a rice cooker, check out this website to learn how to cook rice on the stove.
4. Stir fry the chicken pieces in a pan over medium to high heat. You may need to cook the chicken in 2 different batches due to the sheer amount!
5. Remove the chicken from the pan and then stir fry the zucchini pieces in the pan. Once the zucchini is soft, combine with the cooked chicken.
6. In a different pan, stir fry the green beans.
7. Once the beans has been stir fried, combine with the cooked chicken and zucchini, MasterFood packets and coconut milk. Stir through the curry until well combined.
8. Allow the curry to simmer on low heat for 10-15 minutes, or until the rice is ready.
9. Serve with rice whilst still hot!

*To measure the water, place your hand and compress (not too hard) onto the washed rice. The amount of water you use to cook the rice should submerge your fingers but not the back of your hand.

Here are some pictures!

The difference between jasmine rice (right) and glutinous rice (left). 

Rinse the rice at least 3 times. The water will look murky after the first few rinses.

 Slicing the zucchinis 

Cut the chicken breast into smaller pieces

Stir fry in a pan with minimum addition of oil

Stir fry until lightly golden and soft

Combine the zucchinis with the chicken pieces

Stir fry the beans in another pan

Combine with the chicken and zucchini

Add the MasterFoods recipe base

Add the coconut milk

Stir and allow the curry to simmer

Serve with the steamed rice - note that this recipe gives more curry than rice!

Serve hot!

Ratings/Comments:

Price: 4/5

Difficulty: 3/5

Taste: 5/5

Overall: 5/5

(1 being low/bad - 5 being high/good)

Cooking the curry was definitely an interesting experience, seeing as it was to cater at least 30 people - not your typical family dinner. I really liked how simple and delicious the recipe was, however, it probably is far from being authentic, so definitely try the more traditional version if you can. Otherwise, this is an quick and easy dinner/lunch that you can whip up in no time. You could also try adding more of your favourite veggies to the curry to make it more personalised! 

*As a side note, I've decided to change the rating of "price" because it was a bit confusing - the higher the number the better the price. i.e. it was not expensive. See you next week!

- C