Thai Red Curry
Recently, my roommates and I were invited to spend the weekend in a cabin in the woods in Peru, Maine. The friends who invited us has three dogs, along with our rescue, Red, makes four. A large part of the weekend was spent keeping Red away from the other rescue and making sure that they don’t kill each other, but when we were not worried about them, we were in the water or building fires by the water. That’s what the weekend was all about. Woods, water, dogs, booze, Don Quixote with a post-it for a bookmark, excellent company, and good food. The price – a bad tan and a worse case of Monday blues. Totally worth it!
On Friday, right before we were to leave, I went shopping to buy groceries to take with us and noticed a lemongrass stalk. Since these aren’t easily available where I live, I grabbed it and vowed to make Thai red curry over the weekend. Now, I’m sure somewhere deep inside I knew that I didn’t have all the ingredients for a Thai curry, but I was still determined to make it. This could also have something to do with the fact that I recently purchased a Thai chili plant from the farmers’ market. It’s a darling plant which gives me at least 10 chilies each week. Either way, I gathered most of the ingredients I remembered and hightailed out of there.
This is the story of (1) not having the ingredients or the instruments, (2) screwing up and scratching my head, and (3) lemon to the rescue.
So the first step to making a Thai curry is to make the red curry paste. Ideally, you are supposed to blend chilis, shallots, coriander seeds, lemongrass, garlic, peppercorns, and kaffir lime leaves. I only had chilis, lemongrass, garlic and peppercorn. I also did not have a blender in the middle of the woods, but I did have my trusted mortar and pestle (which, as I write this, to my horror, realise that I’ve left behind in the cabin. On the bright side, another trip through the White Mountains to Maine!). I took a bite out of the Thai chili to assess how hot it was and considering I could handle and eat it without getting second degree burns, I was sure it was not that spicy, so I decided to add about 15 small ones. Mistake #1. Since I didn’t have any shallots, I decided to add a red onion instead.
I sat at the table trying to break down these ingredients in my mortar and pestle as everyone else sat around the table playing board games. An hour later, it finally broke down and became something close to a paste, so I decided to go with it. Once I cooked it, it was time to add the veggies and coconut milk. What I didn’t think of was tasting it before adding the veggies. Mistake #2.
It was so spicy that it blew my top off! But now my veggies were already in, and cooking fast. I added water and adjusted the salt in the hopes that it might reduce the heat, but no luck and now not only were my veggies close to becoming mush, the curry was too thin and had to be boiled to reduce. Like a dumb woman, I kept staring at it, wondering what to do. Now, it’s not a very uncommon thing for me to go overboard with the spices, but I always had yogurt or cream to fix it. In the middle of the woods I had nothing. I kept tasting the curry, wondering what I could do to fix it, until Nihal came by the stove and asked what the hell I was up to.
My brain finally clicked into place. With his help, I fished out my veggies before they suffered more damage and to the curry, I added some sugar. Clearly it was no match for the fiery chilis. I kept alternating between sugar and a touch more water until I remembered the bag of limes I had picked up for the cocktails. I immediately squeezed two limes into the curry and finally, it was edible! I also dumped the wedges of the lime into the curry as well and cooked it for five minutes before fishing them out and adding the veggies.
My curry wasn’t the traditional Thai curry and it wasn’t thick enough, but damn did it taste good. One of my friends grilled a couple of chicken breasts on the side for the non-vegetarians in the house, which went so well with the jasmine rice and curry. Needless to say, there wasn’t a drop left. Screw ups always happen, and with most non-baking dishes, there is always a way to fix, so fret not but experiment with your instinct instead.
Heat oil in a pan and saute the chopped onions till they sweat and become translucent.
Add the veggies, and if you are using any protein like chicken or tofu, now is the time to add it.
Allow the veggies to get a bit of brown on the edges before adding the coconut milk.
Let this simmer for about 20 minutes, stirring every once in awhile. The curry will thicken in this time and will cook the proteins and veggies along with it.
Check for spice and salt. Once the curry is thick enough to coat the veggies or protein, take it off heat. Garnish with fresh basil leaves and serve with steaming rice.
Ingredients
Directions
Heat oil in a pan and saute the chopped onions till they sweat and become translucent.
Add the veggies, and if you are using any protein like chicken or tofu, now is the time to add it.
Allow the veggies to get a bit of brown on the edges before adding the coconut milk.
Let this simmer for about 20 minutes, stirring every once in awhile. The curry will thicken in this time and will cook the proteins and veggies along with it.
Check for spice and salt. Once the curry is thick enough to coat the veggies or protein, take it off heat. Garnish with fresh basil leaves and serve with steaming rice.