Red Curry
Serves 4Ingredients:
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
3 tablespoons Thai red curry paste
1 can regular coconut milk
1 pound any kind of meat or tofu
12 ounces sliced mushrooms
1/2 green bell pepper, cut into strips
Handful of fresh basil leaves
Sugar
Fish sauce (or salt)
Crushed red pepper
Any kind of vegetable you want to add, so long as it is not something you would not add to a soup, such as lettuce or cucumber
Method:
Stir-fry the curry paste in the oil on medium-high heat for one minute. Add half of the can of coconut milk.
Bring to boil.
Stir occasionally for a few minutes. If using meat, add it here and bring the curry to boil again.
When the meat looks done, add the rest of the coconut milk.
Rinse the can with a little bit of water and add the rinse water.
Bring the curry to boil again.
Add the basil and all vegetables.
If using tofu, add it here and stir carefully so it does not break into crumbs.
Flavor the curry to your taste by adding sugar, fish sauce (or salt), and crushed red pepper. The curry should be somewhat sweet; there’s virtually no limit to the spiciness.
Garnish with basil and cilantro and serve with steamed Jasmin rice.
Green Curry
The ingredients and method are pretty much the same. Just change the curry paste from red to green and add a large amount of basil. Maybe change the color of the bell pepper as well. Also, green curry does go well with eggplant. Add cubed eggplant instead of mushroom.