Please be aware of any personal allergies if following this recipe, and please exercise caution when handling knives and open flames.
The essentials:
-Green curry paste
-400ml tin of Coconut milk/cream
-Cooking oil (I use Olive Oil, personally)
-Water
-A medium sized pot or pan with a lid
-Something to stir with
What I usually add, but you can remove or substitute at your leisure:
-1/2 an Eggplant (Chopped into strips)
-1 Capsicum/Bell Pepper (Chopped into strips)
-1 Bok Choy (Freshly washed in cold water, and chopped finely)
-1 teaspoon of Crushed Garlic
-Cucumber (Either a handful of baby cukes, or about 1/3 of a regular sized cucumber. I chop them into strips, but you could also chop them smaller if you'd prefer)
-An assortment of frozen vegetables (Usually Broccoli, Corn, Peas, Carrot & Green Beans because those are fairly cheap to buy in bulk and can help make meals like this go a bit further)
-I tried Mushrooms this time and quite enjoyed them, but they may not be for everyone.
Instructions:
Coat a medium-sized pan with your cooking oil of choice. You can lift and rotate the pan to help coat the surface, and is an easy way to tell if you need to add a bit more oil. Turn your stovetop's burner on (mine only has two settings: on or off) and add 1 teaspoon of Green Curry paste. I also add 1 teaspoon of crushed Garlic here, but it's not required.
Stir the paste so that the oil begins to break it down, for about a minute, and then, once the paste has broken down, you add your tin of Coconut Milk/Cream. Fill that empty tin about halfway with water and add that as well. Keep the empty tin for now as well, as it may be usefule for adding more water when you think you may need to. You may also notice the water and the oil not really mixing together, but it comes around by the end.
This next step is where most of the time making this dish is spent: slowly stirring it through every minute or two until it begins to boil. Once it starts to boil, this is when I add my assortment of frozen vegetables. They need longer than the fresh vegetables to defrost and cook through properly, so this takes about 8-10 minutes usually.
Once the curry begins to boil again, this is where I add my freshly chopped vegetables. This is where you may also need to add more water, just to make sure all the vegetables are properly submerged & cooking in the curry. Again, you only need to gently stir it through every minute or two until it is once more brought to a boil.
I tend to save the leaves from the Bok Choy and add them here and give it another gentle stir through for a few minutes, then put the pot lid on and turn the stove burner off.
Then it's pretty much done, and it'll stay warm for a while with the lid on. I like to eat it with some pre-packaged microwavable brown or red rice, just because it's cheap and more convenient than cooking a big batch of rice to go along with it.
The amount I make tends to last me 3-4 meals, so I will have one meal and then portion the leftovers out into microwave safe containers to eat over the next few days. Only refrigerate the leftovers after they have naturally cooled down, and never reheat something more than once. This is why I use multiple containers for my leftovers. I usually eat it with rice, but it could also serve pretty well as a side dish to accompany some meat.
Closing thoughts:
I make this about once a week, and I'm still experimenting with it. Fundamentally, it's a lot like cooking a pot of soup. Sometimes I add some tinned fruit, usually lychees. I've tried some things that work, like Eggplant & Mushrooms, and some things that haven't, like I don't think onion goes very well with it. I used to have it with sausages, but I think I prefer it with just vegetables. It only takes about 20-25 minutes to cook and is a pretty handy recipe that I am still tinkering with.
The essentials:
-Green curry paste
-400ml tin of Coconut milk/cream
-Cooking oil (I use Olive Oil, personally)
-Water
-A medium sized pot or pan with a lid
-Something to stir with
What I usually add, but you can remove or substitute at your leisure:
-1/2 an Eggplant (Chopped into strips)
-1 Capsicum/Bell Pepper (Chopped into strips)
-1 Bok Choy (Freshly washed in cold water, and chopped finely)
-1 teaspoon of Crushed Garlic
-Cucumber (Either a handful of baby cukes, or about 1/3 of a regular sized cucumber. I chop them into strips, but you could also chop them smaller if you'd prefer)
-An assortment of frozen vegetables (Usually Broccoli, Corn, Peas, Carrot & Green Beans because those are fairly cheap to buy in bulk and can help make meals like this go a bit further)
-I tried Mushrooms this time and quite enjoyed them, but they may not be for everyone.
Instructions:
Coat a medium-sized pan with your cooking oil of choice. You can lift and rotate the pan to help coat the surface, and is an easy way to tell if you need to add a bit more oil. Turn your stovetop's burner on (mine only has two settings: on or off) and add 1 teaspoon of Green Curry paste. I also add 1 teaspoon of crushed Garlic here, but it's not required.
Stir the paste so that the oil begins to break it down, for about a minute, and then, once the paste has broken down, you add your tin of Coconut Milk/Cream. Fill that empty tin about halfway with water and add that as well. Keep the empty tin for now as well, as it may be usefule for adding more water when you think you may need to. You may also notice the water and the oil not really mixing together, but it comes around by the end.
This next step is where most of the time making this dish is spent: slowly stirring it through every minute or two until it begins to boil. Once it starts to boil, this is when I add my assortment of frozen vegetables. They need longer than the fresh vegetables to defrost and cook through properly, so this takes about 8-10 minutes usually.
Once the curry begins to boil again, this is where I add my freshly chopped vegetables. This is where you may also need to add more water, just to make sure all the vegetables are properly submerged & cooking in the curry. Again, you only need to gently stir it through every minute or two until it is once more brought to a boil.
I tend to save the leaves from the Bok Choy and add them here and give it another gentle stir through for a few minutes, then put the pot lid on and turn the stove burner off.
Then it's pretty much done, and it'll stay warm for a while with the lid on. I like to eat it with some pre-packaged microwavable brown or red rice, just because it's cheap and more convenient than cooking a big batch of rice to go along with it.
The amount I make tends to last me 3-4 meals, so I will have one meal and then portion the leftovers out into microwave safe containers to eat over the next few days. Only refrigerate the leftovers after they have naturally cooled down, and never reheat something more than once. This is why I use multiple containers for my leftovers. I usually eat it with rice, but it could also serve pretty well as a side dish to accompany some meat.
Closing thoughts:
I make this about once a week, and I'm still experimenting with it. Fundamentally, it's a lot like cooking a pot of soup. Sometimes I add some tinned fruit, usually lychees. I've tried some things that work, like Eggplant & Mushrooms, and some things that haven't, like I don't think onion goes very well with it. I used to have it with sausages, but I think I prefer it with just vegetables. It only takes about 20-25 minutes to cook and is a pretty handy recipe that I am still tinkering with.
