[anniemarie]

I made thai red curry this week and the only person who ate it was the garbage can!

The type of curry I'm interested in learning how to make consists of coconut milk, curry paste, chicken, green pepers and bamboo shoots or whatever vegetable would go great with this-perhaps eggplant.

Has anyone had any success in trying to make this? Any tips? The curry was way way too strong ( I'm pretty sure I put too much curry paste in).

Also, any tips on types of brands I should use for ingredients? I live in the US.

Thanks in advance!

[birgit]

I'd recommend Mae Ploy brand, it should be available in asian grocery stores and it comes in jars or sachets and generally there's a recipe printed on. I mostly tweak the recipe a bit ... I take one Tbsp. curry paste for 1 cup of coconut milk, a little water, a little shrimp paste (pea-sized), let it boil vigorously and after a while I put in meat/shrimps and veggies. In the end I add some veggie stock cube to taste (or, even better: a splash of thai fish sauce). I wouldn't put in any canned stuff, though.

[Erin]

Hi Anniemarie,
Here is a recipe from the cookcook "Hot, Sour, Salty, Sweet", it is a really great source for Thai, and Southeast Asian cooking,

Quick Red Chicken Curry
5 cups canned or fresh coconut milk, divided into 1 cup thicker milk and 1 cup thinner milk
3TBS Red Curry paste
1 pound boneless skinless chicken breasts diced into 1/4 in pieces.
2 TBS Thai fish sauce
4 wild lime leaves, (lime zest works as well)
2 red chilies julienned
1/2 cup Thai basil, if none sweet is fine
Heat a heavy bottomed sauce pan over med-high heat. Add 1/2 cup of the thicker coconut milk. When it boils add the curry paste and cook stirring for 2 min., then addremaining 1/2 cup coconut milk. and cook for 5 to 8 min or until the oils begin to separate.
Stir in chicken pieces. and cook over high heat for about 4 minutes, until the chicken has firmed up a bit and changed color. Add remaining coconut oil and bring to a boil. Lower heat and stir for 5 to 10 minutes. Stir in the fish sauce and lime leaves. Simmer 5 minutes longer. Just before serving add chilies and basil. Serve with rice.

There is also a recipe for the red curry paste, but I don't have time to type it now. Let me know!
_________________
"It's watery....and yet there's a smack of ham."

"It's hot ham water."

[Barbara]

I find reducing the coconut milk to a third (by boiling), then adding the paste, followed by the meat works best for me. Charmaine Solomon, an Australian food writer recommends the coconut reduction method.
_________________
Barbara

[frantom]

hi! i'm thai! but i'm from alabama, so that doesn't mean too much.

for what it is worth, i agree with the reducing coconut milk theory. the best is to not shake the cans of cocnut milk and spoon the cream off the top to fry the paste in. curry paste should be used to taste, so there's no right amount, just what you like. i use a lot for me because i eat spicy, but recently i made a curry for french people and reduced the spice by 4 and still had some complainers.

fish sauce, although it smells bad to americans in it's raw form, is what gives curry you eat at a restaurant its distinctive flavor. don't skimp. i usually add some palm sugar to the curry after i add the fish sauce. a few teaspoons, again, to taste. plam sugar can be replaced by light brown sugar or raw cane sugar if you can't find the real stuff.

another thing to consider is that canned or bottled curry paste can be very spicy. if you want to use considerably less, think about adding extra lime zest (or lime leaves, if you can get some), minced garlic, and fresh lemongrass for flavor without spice, because that is basically what is in curry paste, plus spice.

before you serve the curry, squeeze in some lime juice and stir, or just give each of your guests a wedge of lime. you can also add some thai basil or cilantro while cooking. good luck!

[Oswulf]

Have a look at the authentic recipes of the late Colonel Ian Khuntilanont-Philpott at http://www.chetbacon.com/thai-html/thai.html.

Curiously, he also recommends the Mae Ploy brand if you're not making your own curry pastes.

[queenla]

Hi anniemarie,
its been a quest for me too. I have now given up bothering to make the curry paste from scratch and have found 'the best' red and green jars of paste- perhaps I mean jars of red and green curry paste. Um. You can marinate the meat in the paste or cook it first with the onions, or by itself. My new thing is replacing coconut milk with yogurt. Not that I am fat conscious, but coconut milk is HUGELY fat fat of the saturated kind. Anyway I still love its just that we do do a fair bit of curry making here and I like a bit of variety. Best jars I have found to date are Charmaine Soloman, as Barbara so generously revealed, and I am sure you can buy them online. New ones I want to try are Christine Mansfield ( have i got that right?)- simon johnson.com.au sells her stuff online- and the best cheaper ones I've found are Blue Dragon.
good luck!
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truth, like gold, is not the less so for being newly brought out of the mine.

[anniemarie]

[anniemarie]

[Erin]

Although I don't know offhand what the fat content is, I use low fat coconut milk in my curry and have had great results.
I don't know where you are from but in Seattle most of the basil sold is actually Thai, instead of the genovese sweet variety.
_________________
"It's watery....and yet there's a smack of ham."

"It's hot ham water."

[anniemarie]

[frantom]

[queenla]

It's very tasty. The yogurt smooths out the curry paste like coconut milk does. Consistancy is not 'creamy' looking, it is thinner and sometimes some little blobbies-if it has gone to boil without me knowing, but still fine to eat, but I think its a smash. I do love fresh coconut milk and cream and use it at times but i never seem to use the whole tin and I end up wasting it. I got onto coconut milk powder-which sounds disgusting and I am not a powder kind of eater, but it is the real deal in taste and you can control how much you use, no waste. Yogurt, of course, is not coconut milk, but the main reason I use it is to tone down the paste, which I think enhances all those beatiful flavours. I've found the thing is not to put it in too soon, don't boil it, and bob's your uncle.
(the real key is a good paste)
I look forward to your future experimental results- or is that the results from your experiments.
_________________
truth, like gold, is not the less so for being newly brought out of the mine.