Thai Green Curry

We love curry!  Usually we use the curry paste out of a jar or can, but for today's meal we decided to make our own.  The jarred version, from our local chain grocery store is fine in a pinch.  We also use the canned version from our local Asian Market it tastes better then the chain store variety, but when you can do homemade that's always the best.  They both have more sodium that I'm comfortable with so I have been on the lookout for a homemade version.  I found one from a Cook's Illustrated Magazine called, "All Time Best Soups and Stews".  Daryl has been a long time fan of the TV show "America's Test Kitchen", and the magazine is the written form of the show.    What they do that is different then most cooking shows is that they pick a dish to make and then they experiment with many different ingredients and cooking methods until they feel like they have come up with the best combination of them.  They get to do the trial and error and let us know what worked best and why it worked best.  Before every recipe they go over the steps they took to get there. If you're into reading cookbooks this is the one for you!

Right here in Eagan MN, a suburb of St. Paul, we have an Asian market, called Asian Food Market, where we can get authentic ingredients for your Asian meals.  If you don't have a treasure like this you can now get most of these ingredients at most mainstream markets these days.  My biggest complaint about the Asian cooking that you get at take-out places, or for that matter restaurants, is the high sodium content.  The meal is satisfying but leaves you drinking water for the rest of the evening, even into the night.   That is not pleasant, and not good for you!  That is why we prefer to eat homemade food most of the time anyway. We know what we are using and we only choose the best ingredients.

You can pick your protein for this mea, we went with chicken this time. Shrimp would have been a nice choice too.  The folks at Cook's Illustrated taste tested coconut milk for us, they do this with all kinds of ingredients, one of my favorite things about them.  Have you ever stood in front of a wall of products trying to decide which tastes best?  I know, it's a crap shoot.  They do the work for us.  In this case they chose Chaokoh Coconut Milk as superior over KAME, which they deemed as WAY too sweet, more for a Pina Colada then a curry.

Thai chilies are the best for this recipe, however if you can't find them Serrano and jalapeno chilies will also work.  We found the Thai chilies at the Asian Market.

As I am writing this Daryl is cooking and I sure wish that the computer had a scratch and sniff app. because you would LOVE the way this smells!

Ingredients:
Curry Paste:
1/2 cup water
12 Thai, Serrano, or jalapeno chilies, stemmed, seeded and minced
2 lemon grass stalks, trimmed to bottom 6 inches and sliced thin
3 shallots, peeled and quartered
8 garlic cloves, peeled
2 T. grated lime zest, 3 limes
2 T. vegetable oil
2 T. minced cilantro stems
1 T. grated fresh ginger
2 t. ground coriander
1 t. ground coming
1 t. salt

Chicken and Sauce
1 1/4 cups water
2 T. fish sauce
1 T. packed light brown sugar
1 1/2 pounds boneless, skinless, chicken breast, trimmed
1 3/4 cups coconut milk
1/2 cup fresh Thai basil leaves
1/2 cup fresh cilantro leaves
2 T. lime juice



Curry paste:  Process all ingredients in blender to fine paste, about 3 minutes, scarping down sides of blender jar as needed.

Chicken sauce: heat curry paste in 12-inch non stick skillet over medium high hear, stirring often , until paste begins to sizzle and not longer smells raw, about 2 minutes.  Add water, fish sauce , and sugar and stir until combined.  Add chicken and return to simmer.  Reduce hear to medium-low and flip chicken.  Cover and cook until thickest part of breast register 160°, 15 to 2 0 minutes.


Transfer breast to plate and let cool slightly. Meanwhile, stir coconut milk into skillet, return curry to simmer over medium hear, and cook until thin and creamy, about 8 minutes.

When chick in coll enough to handle , use 2 forks to shred meat into bite-size pieces.  Return shredded chick to skillet and continue to cook until chicken is warned through and coated with curry, abut 2 minutes.  Off hear, stir in basil, cilantro, and lime juice an serve.

Sticky Rice Recipe
Rinse and drain the rice in cold water before you cook it. It rids the rice of certain starches and allows other to be released, making the rice sticky.

Do not stir the rice as it cooks. The finished rice can stand off hear, covered, for up to 15 minutes.

2 cups long-grain white rice
3 cups water
1/2 t. salt.

Place rice in colander or in-mesh strainer and rice under cold running water until water runs clear. Darin thoroughly.

Bring rinsed rice, water, and salt to boil in saucepan over medium-high hear. Cook, uncover, until water level drips below surface of rice and small holes form, about 5 minutes.

Reduce hear to low, core, and cook until rice is tender and water is fully absorbed, about 15 minutes. Serve.

Daryl likes to put peanuts on his.