Cafe Lula

Thai food is another one of those things I missed out on for the first 16 years of my life. In fact, I don’t think I was brave enough to try it until I was at uni. Now it’s one of my favourites and I can’t believe I haven’t got any Thai recipes on the blog yet, so here’s one of my favourite Thai curries to rectify the situation!

Now, if you remember the difficulty I had getting large pasta shells then you’ll appreciate that it’s virtually impossible for me to get one or two of the more unusual ingredients needed for an authentic Thai curry (kaffir lime peel anyone?), at least fresh, anyway, so I often have to replace a few. This one, though, only required me to used dried galangal instead of fresh, and I think it tastes beautiful.

I like to make curry pastes in bulk and freeze them in 2 tbsp sized portions, which makes curry on a weeknight an easy task. However, there are a few quite good ready-made curry pastes available, so feel free to skip the curry paste recipe and use one of those instead. I also make the paste in the food processor because it takes about 2 minutes, compared to a billion years with a mortar and pestle, so if you want to take the more traditional route, chop the shallots and garlic finely and bash away.

Oh! One more thing before you get started. The curry paste does not smell good. But don’t panic! Once you’ve turned it into curry it will taste amazing. Promise.

Thai massaman curry paste

Adapted from The Big Book of Thai Curries by Vatcharin Bhumichitr

Makes around 16 tablespoons

Ingredients:

4-7 large dried red chillies, depending on taste (4 is very mild, 7 fairly spicy)

1 tsp sea salt

30g shallots, peeled and quartered

40g garlic cloves, peeled (About 15 cloves. I know, it’s a LOT of cloves, but it’s yummy!)

2 tbsp finely chopped dried galangal

4 tbsp lemongrass paste (or 4 lemongrass stalks)

1/2 tsp ground white pepper

1 tbsp coriander seeds

1 tbsp cumin seeds

8 cardamom pods

1 small nutmeg

1 tbsp shrimp paste

Heat a frying pan over a medium heat until hot. Put the galangal, coriander seeds, cumin seeds, cardamom pods and nutmeg (and lemongrass stalks if using) into the pan and dry fry until you can smell the spices, being careful not to burn. Remove the pan from the heat, peel and quarter the nutmeg.

Put all of the ingredients except the cardamom pods into a food processor and process briefly.

Break the cardamom pods open by crushing them gently with a spoon and scrape the seeds into the food processor. Scrape down the sides of the food processor and process again until the shallots are finely chopped and the ingredients are well combined.

Divide into 2 tbsp portions. Use straight away or freeze for future use.

Thai massaman curry

Adapted from The Big Book of Thai Curries

Serves 4

Ingredients:

oil, for frying (I think groundnut or vegetable are preferable but I used olive oil!)

1 roasted medium free-range chicken, meat stripped and juice reserved (150C fan oven for 1.5 hours) Alternatively, you can use around 900g bought roast chicken meat and 100ml chicken stock

2 tbsp Massaman curry paste

800ml coconut milk

2 tbsp tamarind paste

2 tsp light brown sugar

3 tbsp fish sauce

1 large potato, peeled and cut into inch cubes

6 tbsp whole roasted peanuts

3 shallots, peeled and chopped

rice, to serve

In a wok, heat the olive oil over medium-high heat and add the curry paste. Stir well, then add 400ml of the coconut milk. Heat the curry sauce until simmering and then add the chicken and around 100ml of the reserved chicken stock. Stir well.

Add the tamarind, sugar, fish sauce, and more coconut milk (depending on how much sauce you like, I used the whole extra 400ml) and stir well. Bring to a simmer and add the potatoes. Simmer for 5 minutes, then add the peanuts and simmer for another 5 minutes. Add the chopped shallots and simmer for a final 5 minutes. Serve with rice.