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- Sep 10, 2006
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SG, They make light coconut milk, I use it with little difference in taste, to me. Want to share your recipe? I'm not so good with Thai and Indian food--love it but know little about how to prepare it.
Yeah, I need to break down and make myself try the light stuff...the reason I don't is because the recipe says to let the thick coconut milk rise to the top. I was doubting the light stuff would do that. However, I'll never know unless I try.
Some of the ingredients can be found in a regular grocery store, but many are only found in an asian grocery store. CALL them ahead of time to make sure they have Thai basil and the lime leaves (p.s. the lime leaves freeze really nicely but the basil goes bad quickly and must be used ASAP). Not all asian grocery stores have the thai basil...and it MUST be thai (tastes sort of like licorice) for this recipe to be authentic.
Here's my recipe...warning, it's addictive! And I apologize to my fellow dieters...this isn't lo-fat!
Green Curry with Chicken(or beef/shrimp)
- 2 cups coconut milk
- 1/2 of a 4 oz. can of green curry paste (we like it HOT...adjust for your palate. Or use red curry for less heat.)
- 12 oz of boneless chicken, thinly sliced (we put it in the freezer for 15 or 20 minutes, then run it through the slicer attachment on our food processor for really thin slices)
- 1/2 cup chopped eggplant
- 1/4 cup pea eggplants (if you can't find pea eggplants, just use extra chopped eggplant. BTW, the pea eggplants have a very interesting almost bitter taste...really good - but I usually can't find them)
- 2 tbsps palm sugar (if you can't find palm sugar, use raw sugar or brown sugar)
- 2 kaffir lime leaves, stemmed
- 1/2 to 1 cup (or more...to taste) loosely packed thai basil leaves
- 2 tbsps fish sauce
- 1 red pepper, thinly sliced
In a wok or large frying pan, heat thick coconut milk over medium-high heat 3-5 minutes, stirring constantly, until it starts to separate. (if it doesn't separate, you can add a little oil) Add the green curry paste and fry, stirring constantly, until fragrant, about 2 minutes.
Add chicken and cook until meat is opaque on all sides, 2-3 minutes. Add remaining thin coconut milk and bring to a boil. Add the eggplants and red pepper and simmer for 4 minutes, until slightly soft. Add palm sugar to taste. Tear kaffir lime leaves (I roll them up and cut with kitchen shears into tiny slivers) and basil leaves into pieces and add. Stir in fish sauce.
Serve with jasmine rice.
ENJOY!
(if you make with shrimp, add them after the eggplants to the boiling coconut milk since they don't take long to cook)
Oh, also - cut up/prep everything before you start to cook. It cooks really fast!