Thai Red Curry

Everyone has food preferences. Most of the people that I know gravitate towards Italian or Mexican food. I, on the other hand, have always been a big fan of Asian food. Mainly Japanese or Thai dishes. Thai being my personal favorite!

When I was pregnant with my daughter I CRAVED Thai Red Curry and for the better part of my pregnancy it was the only food that I could even keep down. Before we made the decision to go veggie, Thai Red Curry with Chicken was on the menu... often. Once we made the switch I found that Vegetable Red Curry was just as satisfying!

Here is the recipe for Red Curry with Chicken -

Yields about 4 Servings.

Ingredients:

1 1/2 c. water
1-2 chicken breast(s), cut into pieces
1 Tbls red curry paste or less if you don't want it too spicy. ;)
1 c. coconut milk
1/2 can bamboo shoots
1/4 c. peas (optional)
1/4 c. mushrooms (optional)

Preparation:

Pour half of the coconut milk into a large pot, over low to medium low heat.
Add the red curry paste.
Break up the paste and mix it with the coconut milk.
Stir constantly.
Lower the heat if it splatters too much.
Add the chicken when you see red oil bubbling on top.
Stir and coat chicken with curry sauce.
Add bamboo shoots, peas, & mushrooms when chicken is mostly cooked.
Stir veggies in well.
Add the rest of the coconut milk and water.
Let boil.
Serve hot with rice.

Tips and Substitutions:

In Thailand, people start off their cooking with the top layer of coconut milk, which is thicker and contains more oil. The rest of the coconut milk is added later to make the volume. For this recipe, you could use diluted coconut milk instead of water. However, this curry is quite thick already, so I just use water. In most other curries, you can use water in place of diluted coconut milk to keep the amount of oil down.

Cut bamboo shoots into small pieces along the grain.

Now for Vegetable Red Curry you follow pretty much the same directions except substitute the chicken for buttloads of your favorite veggies! I steam all of the veggies before mixing with the curry sauce. This gives you more control over your veggies' tenderness. Some people like their vegetables more crisp than others.

Voila! You just saved yourself about $12 per person by not running out to your local Thai Restaurant when a craving struck! If you're me, you saved yourself more than that because once you're there it's hard to refrain from Thai Spring Rolls as an appetizer and a Thai Tea or two! Haha.