Thai Curry

Published December 29, 2020

Firstly, I don’t claim this is authentic Thai Curry. It started as a recipe from a book by chef Mai Pham and then it gradually evolved over the years of my cooking it.

Also, this is not an exact recipe. I consistently use The seasonings in the ingredients section. The specific vegetables used vary with what you have on hand. I love adding Japanese eggplant to it and do that with most batches I make when I can get it.

Also, Markut / Thai lime leaves freeze well. If you find the right store, get a bunch fresh and put them stright into the freezer. Sacramento’s A&A Supermarket is my consistent source for them.

Ingredients

• 4-5 green onions, minced
• 2-3 tbsp Thai curry paste (my favorite is Mae Ploy brand, red paste in particular)
• 2 cans coconut milk (18 oz size. not “lite” coconut milk)
• beef or pork sliced into bite sized pieces. use about as much as you’d get from 2-3 boneless pork chops
• 5-6 Markut or Thai lime leaves
• 2 tbsp sugar
• 3 tbsp fish sauce (Three Crabs Brand preferred)
• Vegetables (see notes below)
• Thai basil - 20 or so whole leaves

Preparation

1. Start sauteeing the onions in some oil.
2. Once the onions start to soften, add the curry paste. Stir it around for 2-3 minutes. Let it get fragrant. If the paste start to turn color a little, that is good.
3. Add in up to 1/4 cup of the coconut milk and stir into a smooth paste of milk, curry paste, and onion.
4. Now add the meat. The meat doesn’t need to fully cook, I like to brown the outside for a few minutes.
5. Add the rest of the coconut milk, lime leaves, sugar, and fish sauce. Bring to a low simmer.
6. Add your first vegetable. I start with the one that will cook the longest.
7. Add your next vegetables in phases. Ideally, you are solving the puzzle of getting all of the vegetables with different cooking times to be just cooked in simmering liquid by the time you are done.
8. At the end, turn off the heat, toss in the basil leaves, stir and ladle into bowls.

Cook some jasmine rice to go with it, if you eat rice. Even cutting carbs, I find it adds amazing extra deliciousness to add only 1/4 cup of rice to a bowl.

Vegetable notes

Here are the vegetables I’ll typically use. For any batch of curry, I’ll add 3-4 vegetables from this list.

• Japanese eggplant. Slice into rounds / ovals. I’ll always start this one cooking first as it takes the longest. And probably let it simmer for about 5-8 minutes before I put in the next vegetable.
• Sliced mushrooms. These cook fast.
• Sliced yellow squash or zucchini. These cook a medium amount of time. 4-5 minutes.
• Sliced bell peppers. Cook about as long as eggplant. I might put them in with the egg plant.
• Pre-blanched broccoli. These can go in at the very end.
• Sliced carrots cook similar to squash.
• Fresh or canned corn can go in at the end.

For vegetables I don’t recommend:

• Green beans in curry don’t interest me. I wouldn’t recommend them.