5 Days Food Challenge: Day 1 with Thai Green Beef Curry

We loves curry –Indian,Thai,Malay,Indonesia, Japanese, anything-  and always had great feedback from my kids.

I cook Thai Green Curry regularly, using many different recipes from many sources, and now my kids can tell the different between ‘light curry’  that recipe requested not more than 5 steps cooking, or something more serious.

This Green Curry recipe is my interpretation from Gordon Ramsay’s Great Escape book, a rather long process including washing loads of kitchen utensil, but you really can tell the different. One first spoon and layers of flavour hits in an instant.

Original recipe is using chicken, we change with beef and substitute the aubergine with sweet baby corn –whatever available on my fridge-

Here what I use for curry paste:

·         4 large green chillies, deseeded, chopped coarsely

·         4 garlic cloves, peeled & chopped

·         3 shallot, peeled & chopped

·         2 lemograss stalks, trimmed & chopped

·         3 kaffir lime leaves

·         2 tbs ground coriander

·         1 tsp cumin seed

·         2cm galangal, peeled & chopped

·         Handfull of corriander stalks, chopped

·         1 tsp salt

·         1 tbs canola oil –original recipe using groundnut oil

And for the curry:

·         2 tbs canola oil

·         3 garlic cloves, peeled, thinly sliced

·         1 medium carrot, peeled, diced

·         10 sweet baby corn, discard its tip, diced

·         Handfull of french beans, cut into 2cm long

·         400gr thinly sliced beef

·         200ml thick coconut milk –we not biggest fan of coconut milk-

·         500ml water

·         1 tsp palm sugar

·         2 kaffir lime leaves

·         2 tbs fish sauce

·         Handfull of corriander leaves, chopped, reserve some for garnish.

·         2 tbs fresh basil, torn –it should be thai/holy basil, but I found difficulty finding it-; reserve some for garnish.

·         Juice of 1 Lime, if you like

How to paste:

Place all paste ingredients in a blender/ food processer, process it until smooth.

How to cook the curry:

·         Heat the oil in heavy based pan, add all the curry paste to the pan, stir fry for 2-3 minutes.

·         Add garlic, carrot, french bean and sweet baby corn –all veggies- and stir fry for about 3 minutes.

·         Add beef, cook for about 4-5 minutes; then ad coconut milk, mix well and cook for another 5 minutes.

·         Add water along with palm sugar, lime leaves and fish sauce. Mix well

·         Reduce the heat, simmer gently for about 20-25 minutes, or until all cooked well.

·         Add corriander & basil, cook for further 1-2 minutes.

·         Turn off the heat. I added juice of 1 lime to get extra punch on the flavour –but you could skip this part if you don’t feel like to-

Scoop into a bowl, garnish with reserved coriander & basil.

Serve with white long grain rice on the side.