Thai Green Curry with Chicken

In Thailand we can find the green curry dish almost everywhere from street food vendors to high restaurants, and all kind of celebration parties and this dish also available at every Thai restaurants out side Thailand too.

If you’d like to serve the green curry with Roti or Paratha then the curry should be thick - you can skip the water. For more aroma of Thai taste, add the Kaffir Lime leave just before serving.  The best way to cut or chop Kaffir Lime leave finely is that – stack and fold the leave tightly and then cut.

* Freozen plain flat Roti or Paratha dough is available at Asian grocery stores.

for 3 – 4 serving

Ingredients

200 g.          Skinless Chicken breast cut in ½” thick 2” long or slice ¼” thick 2” long Pork loin

1                  clove Garlic, chopped

1  tsp            Soy sauce

¼  tsp            Salt

1                   Zucchini cut in chunks

1                   Medium size of red or green pepper cut in chunks

1  can            400ml. of Coconut Milk

5  tbsp           Curry Paste (see recipe)

1  tbsp           Vegetable oil

½  Cup          Water (optional)

2   tsp              Fish sauce

½  tsp             Sugar

3  stems          of Sweet Thai Basil leaves

3-4                  Kaffir Lime Leaves, chopped very fine.

Instruction

1.   Marinate Chicken at least half an hour with garlic, soy sauce and salt.

2.   Put vegetable oil in a frying pan or a pot until hot in medium high heat.

3.   Stir-fry curry paste in oil and then add chicken into curry paste mix well.

4.   Add half of coconut milk, simmer the pork or chicken in medium heat until tender.

5.   Add zucchini and red or green pepper and add the other half of coconut milk and water.

6 .  Add fish sauce and sugar for taste. Simmer until vegetables cooked but are still firm.

7.   Have a taste, you can adjust the saltiness, sweetness suit your favor.

8.   Add sweet basil and mix well.

9.   Remove from heat and add Kaffir Lime leaves.  Serve with Roti, steam rice or sticky rice, and or vermicelli rice noodles.

Thai Green Curry Paste

Green Curry is the most well known and popular curry in and out of Thailand. The method of making Green Curry Paste is the same as Red Curry Paste, except a few ingredients are different.

As for Thai cuisine using fresh ingredients, is the key of Thai food, produce the real aroma. Original the greenish colour in green curry is from Prik Kee Noo leaves (Thai chilli)(see herbs), they have a mild favour. People grow herbs, chilli and other vegetables in front or back yard of a house, it is called “Pak Suen Krua or Home Vegetable Garden” so the chilli leaves are always available. In this recipe we use coriander leaves instead. They will not change the favour of the curry as the Coriander roots are part of the ingredients of Green Curry Paste.

Ingredients

3 tsp         roasted Coriander seeds

3 tsp         roasted white peppercorn

3 tsp         roasted cumin

100 g        whole Coriander plants(including roots), chopped

150 g        Galangal, slice very thin

9              Lemongrass (cut off the top part and the bottom hard part remain 6” long and strip 2-3 the outer leaves), slice very thin

80 g          Fresh Thai green chillies, chopped

6              Kaffir limes, peel only green part of skin

10 cloves  Garlic, chopped

6               Shallots, chopped

3 tbsp       Shrimp paste, roasted

2 tsp         Salt

½ cups      Vegetable Oil

Instruction

1.  ground roasted coriander seeds, roasted white peppercorn and roasted cumin with mortar and pestle. Put aside.

2.  Mix all ingredients in a bowl.

3.  Pound the mixer small amount each time in a mortar and pestle and add oil and the rest of ingredients until finish and the mixture becomes smooth paste. (This process can be done by a food processer)

4. Divide and contain in the ziplock bags and freeze or for cooking. (see some tips at Red Curry Paste page)

Money Bags ( Tung Ngern and Tung Thong)

This recipe is slightly adjusted from the original one – one of the ingredients from the original one is pork but I use cream cheese instead but if you’d like to try the original one then you can just use ground fat pork and add ½ tsp corn starch other than that everything is the same. And for the wrappers you can use dumpling wrappers or spring roll pastry which you can find them easily at the Asian grocery stores. 

Tung Ngern and Tung Thong, from spring roll wrappers

These Money Bags are from the Dumpling wrappers

For 35 – 40  pieces

Ingredients

35-40 pieces Dumpling wraps or Spring Roll pastry

Oil for deep frying

Filling

120 g.        Ground Chicken

50  g.         Cream Cheese (or ground fat pork, and ½ tsp corn starch for the original recipe)

¼ cup        Carrot diced cube in ¼”

5               Water Chestnuts,(cooked or from a can) diced cube in ¼”

2               Green Onion, only white part chopped

1 clove      Garlic, chopped fine

3               Coriander roots with the green stems, chopped fine.

¼ tsp         Ground white pepper

 ½ tsp        Soy sauce

½ tsp         salt

Instruction

1.Mix chicken with soy sauce and garlic well.

2.Add carrot diced, water chestnut diced, green onion, coriander root chopped, salt , ground pepper and cream cheese. Mix well.

3.Wet the edges of the wrappers and place a small portion(about one teaspoon) of the filling into the middle of  each wrapper. Fold and pinch the edges to seal. Continue with the remainder of the filling and wrappers.

4. Deep-fry the dumplings over medium heat for about 2 to 3 minutes or until they are light golden brown in color. Drain on a paper towel. Serve with Plum sauce.

  

Plum Sauce

You can get Plum sauce in a jar at an Asian grocery store. It is pretty thick and sweet. You can make it thinner with some water and vinegar.

¼ cup        Plum Sauce

2 tbsp        Water

1 tbsp        White Vinegar(optional if you like more sour sauce)
Pinch of Salt

Mix all well on the heat.

Gai Pad Med Ma-Muang

The full name of this dish is Gai Pad Med Ma-Muang Hima-Pan. Gai Pad Med Ma-Muang (literally, Chicken stir-frys with cashew nuts)

This dish is like many Thai dishes that we adopted from Chinese cuisine, it is original from high end Chinese restaurants, serve in a crispy deep fried bird nest. The bird nest is made from shredded Taro. This dish and North American Chinese sweet and sour pork were the same dish – one of Cantonese Chinese dishes.

Ingredients

200 g              Chicken breast, boneless and skinless, cut in ½ inch thick and 2inches long.

1 cup              Flour

½                   Onion, cut in 1 inch thick.

15                   Water Chestnuts (cooked or from a can)

1 cup              Roasted Cashew Nuts

1 cup              Pineapple cut in chunks.

7                     Thai Dry Chilli Peppers, deep fried

1 tbsp              Oyster sauce

1 tbsp              Tomato sauce

1 - 2 tbsp         Water

3 cloves           Garlic, chopped

1 tsp                Sugar

1 tbsp              Soya sauce

1 tbsp              Sesame Oil

2                     Green onion, cut in 1 ¼ inches long.

½                    Red sweet peppers, cut in ½ x 1 ½ inches long.

1½ cups and 2 tbsp Oil for frying and stir-frying

Instruction

1. Heat oil in a frying pan at medium high heat until hot.

2. Coat chicken in flour totally but not thick.

3. Fry chicken in oil until golden, remove chicken from oil and put them on paper towel.

4. Another pan. Heat the pan with 2 tbsp oil at medium high heat. Add garlic stir-fry until golden (low the heat down to medium high after put oil and added garlic if you use steel wok ,but if you use none-stick wok you can start with medium high heat), add chestnuts, onion stir-frying until mix well about 1 min., add tomato sauce, soya sauce, oyster sauce and sesame oil mix well and then add 1-2 tbsp water, stir-frying another 1-2 min. and add chicken, roasted cashew nuts, fried dry chilli peppers and red sweet peppers, stir-frying another 1-2 min or mix well, turn the heat off, add green onion. And serve.

Thai Red Curry Paste

In the past, you could hear the pestle and mortar pounding sound making curry paste everyday from your neighbours in Thailand but these days many people buy the curry paste from a market in stead which is convenient for contemporary lifestyles. Definitely the freshness and quality are not the same as you make your own.   This homemade fresh Red Curry Paste is from fresh ingredients. All ingredients you can find at Asian groceries, the fresh ingredients product the real aroma and good favour.

This recipe is for 4 – 5 batches. You can divide and contain in the small ziplock bags and freeze them for many months.

Ingredients

3  tsp            Roasted Coriander seeds

3  tsp            Roasted white peppercorn

3  tsp            Roasted Cumin
1                   Turmeric Root, about 2" long, chopped (or 2 tsp ground Turmeric)

30                 Coriander Roots including 2"green stems from the roots, chopped

150 g            Galangal, slice very thin

9                   Lemongrass(cut off the top part and the bottom hard part remain 6” long and strip 2-3 the outer leaves), slice very thin

18                 big dry red chillies, soak in warm water until soft  and chopped

80 g              Fresh Thai Red Chillies, chopped

6                   Kaffir limes, use only rind

10 cloves      Garlic, chopped

6                    Shallots, chopped

3  tbsp           Shrimp Paste, roasted (wrapp and roast in foil)

2  tsp             Salt

½ cups           Vegetable Oil

Instruction

1.  ground roasted coriander seeds, roasted white peppercorn and roasted cumin with mortar and pestle. Put aside.

2.  Mix all ingredients in a bowl.

3.  Pound the mixer small amount each time in a mortar and pestle and add oil and the rest until smooth and paste like. (This process can be done by food processer)

Tom Yam Goong (Thai Spicy and Sour Soup with Shrimp)

Tom Yam, Thai Spicy Sour Soup is the most well-known and popular Thai soup in Thailand and all over the world from street venders in Bangkok to high-end restaurants. The scent of Thai herbs and the favour of sweet, sour and spiciness are combined in this soup.

For 4 servings

Ingredients

5   cups       Chicken stock (one whole chicken bone, 6 cups of water and ½ tsp salt)

24               Shrimp (size 34-40/lb.)

10               White Mushrooms, slice

2                 Lemongrass slice in 11/2” long

1                 Galangal 4” long or 2 pieces 2” long, slice ¼” thick

12               Kaffir Lime Leaves

3                 Thai red chillies (you can adjust the amount of chilli)

3   tsp           (3 round teaspoon full) Nam Prik Poa (or in English Chilli Paste with Soya Bean Oil)

6-7 tsp        Lime juice

4   tsp         Fish Sauce (you can adjust the amount of fish sauce more or less depending on the saltiness of the chicken stock)

Garnish

1  Coriander (plant) chopped

4  Kaffir Lime Leaves stack and roll and then slice and chop very small pieces

Instruction

Usually I will keep the roasted chicken bones for chicken stock if I make a roasted chicken.

1. Put chicken bones, water and salt to boil and simmer for 2 hours. Discard bones with a Sieve.
2. Put chicken stock on the heat until boiling.
3. Add lemongrass, galangal and kaffir leaves until boil.
4. Add shrimp, mushroom, fresh chilli and chilli paste until boil.
5. Add lime juice and fish sauce, have a taste – you can adjust the favour to your taste.
6. Remove from the heat. Serve and garnish with chopped coriander and kaffir lime leaves.

Thai Red Curry with Chicken, Beef or Pork

Chicken or pork red curry is very common, popular  and well-known dish in Thailand and around the world. You can find this dish from street food vendors to high end restaurants in Thailand. It’s hard to find homemade style curry paste at Thai restaurants outside Thailand. If you are real Thai food lovers you will notice it is really different.

I like to marinate the meat that I cook. The meat will be more tender and tasty than without marinating. The method using pork is the same as chicken but for beef you might not want to cook very long. For more aromatic you can add the Kaffir leaves just befor serving.

Chicken or Pork Red Curry for 3 – 4 serving

Ingredients

200  g.          Skinless Chicken breast cut in ½” thick 2” long

1     clove     Garlic, chopped

1    tsp         Soy sauce

¼   tsp          Salt

1                   Zucchini cut in chunks

1                   Red or green pepper cut in chunks

1   can          Coconut Milk (400ml.)

5   tbsp         Curry Paste  (see recipe)

1   tbsp         Vegetable oil

½  Cup         Water

2   tbsp           Fish sauce (or Chicken Base, adjust to suit your own taste)

½  tsp           Sugar

3 stems         of Sweet Thai Basil leaves
3-4               Kaffir Lime Leaves, chopped very fine

Instruction

1.   Marinate Chicken or Pork at least half an hour with garlic, soy sauce and salt.

2.   Put vegetable oil in a frying pan or a pot until hot in medium high heat.

3.   Stir-fry curry paste in oil and then add chicken or pork into curry paste mix well.

4.   Add half of coconut milk, simmer the pork or chicken in medium heat until tender.

5.   Add zucchini and red or green pepper and add the other half of coconut milk and water.

6.   Add fish sauce and sugar for taste. Simmer until vegetables cooked but are still firm.
7.   Have a taste and adjust the favor suit your palate by adding more fish sauce or sugar. 

8.   Add sweet basil

9.   Remove from heat and add Kaffir Lime leaves. Serve with steam rice, sticky rice, and or vermicelli rice noodles.

Chicken Mango Salad or Yum Ma Muang Gai

Mango is native to tropical to Thailand, south-east Asia and India from where it spread all over the tropics around the world. There are many different kinds of mangoes grow in Thailand, some are good for eating ripe and some are good for eating green.  Here in North America mangoes are available almost all round year, they are from many places – Mexico, Central America, and Asian mangoes at some Asian grocery stores. This recipe requires a green sour mango or firm sour mango.

Ingredients

 2                        chicken breasts

¼  tsp.                 salt

2   tbsps.             soy sauce

2   tbsps.             canola or vegetable oil

2   cloves             garlic, finely chopped.

1   tsp.                 sugar

(Chicken marinated with ingredients above for 1- 2 hours. And then grill it in the oven until cooked. Cut in chunks. Keep the dripping for the salad dressing)

½    unripe mango, julienne. (1 cup)

½    small carrot, julienne.

¼     red onion, thinly slice.

10    grape tomatoes, cut in half.

4      green onions,  chopped

4      stalks of mints, only leaves.

Mix all the ingredients and chicken in a salad bowl, put aside.

Salad Dressing

5   tbsp               condense chicken broth

¼  cake               palm sugar

1   tbsp               fish sauce

1   (round) tsp     chilli paste (chilli paste with soya oil)

3   tbsp                Lime juice (depending on the sourness of the mango, you can add more or reduce less)

4                         fresh red chilli peppers, finely chopped.

1   stalk               lemongrass (about 3 tbsp), finely slice first and then chopped in very small pieces

5                         kaffir lime leaves, finely chopped (Stack and fold the leaves when you chop, it will be easier)

Instruction

1. Melt palm sugar in condense chicken broth and fish sauce (it is easier to melt palm sugar on heat but not boiling).
2. Add fish sauce, chilli paste, dripping from grilled chicken pan, lime juice, fresh chillies, lemongrass and kaffir lime leaves.
3. Mix salad dressing in vegetable and chicken.
4. Taste and serve.