Thai Green Curry & Tammy’s Tail

I’m in a dog place just now.  Or at least, I will be in a few short hours.  Humour me whilst I explain.  🙂

 Tammy arrives today.  Tammy the Golden Retriever with the most waggy tail in the world and absolutely no spacial awareness whatsoever.  Everything tail height (plants, ornaments, lamps…) must be secured or moved before her arrival or risk being swept into oblivion by her excited bum waggling.  She’s such a sweetie!

 

 

Once Tammy, whose travelling companions are my lovely Aunt Val and Uncle Henry, leaves I will be heading down to Aberdeenshire to spend a couple of days with my best friend (Hi Gen!) and her adorable Working Cocker Spaniel, Rufus.

 

 

And then, on Tuesday, I’ll be picking up Rosie (my brother’s cocker spaniel) and taking her home with me for A WHOLE WEEK! 

 

A WHOLE WEEK!  Those of you who know me (or who read my recent meme) will understand just how excited I am about the prospect of 10 days with dogs.

To enable myself to make the most of every moment with my first doggy companion I planned our meals for the weekend carefully.  Thai green curry (made in advance) on Friday night and a Greek BBQ (very low maintenance) on Saturday night.

Thai green curry is a dish I have been making for years now; it’s very easy.  Only recently though have I begun to make my own curry paste and I don’t think I’ll be going back to shop bought paste anytime soon.  I was always perfectly happy with the Asian food store green curry paste but the homemade stuff has a freshness, a bite that preprepared paste simply cannot have.

I ought to say now that I am a chilli wimp.  Some heat is good but my tolerance is fairly low.  The following paste is seriously potent stuff.  My head almost exploded when I foolishly dipped my finger into my homemade green curry paste and tasted it.  Wow!  It was hot!  Painfully so!  Several minutes were spent running around my house and garden with my tongue hanging out, trying desperately to recover.  It was almost as awful as the time I got a chilli seed lodged in my eye.  Don’t recommend that either.

A couple of hints before I give you the recipes:

• Though the coconut milk goes a long way to cooling this dish down, add the paste a tablespoon at a time and taste until you find the perfect strength for you.
• Buy chicken thighs with bones and skin so that once you remove the unwanted parts you can use them  and a few veggies to whip up a stock for the dish.
• The curry paste freezes really well.  
• It goes without saying that this sauce makes a mean prawn  or vegetable curry too.

Thai Green Curry Paste

3 stalks of lemongrass

Big thumb of ginger or galangal, peeled and chopped

6 green chillies, seeds removed

3 cloves of garlic, finely chopped

1 onion, finely chopped

1 tsp cumin

1/2 tsp coriander

Handful of fresh coriander

Zest and juice of one lime

Generous grinding of pepper

1 tsp salt

2 tblspn olive oil

• Whizz all the ingredients in a food processor until it forms a speckled green paste.

Thai Green Chicken Curry

(for 4)

Ground nut oil

8 chicken thighs, skin and bone removed, cut into large chunks

150g of mushrooms, halved

400ml tin of coconut milk

200ml chicken stock

6 kaffir lime leaves

2 tblspns Thai fish sauce

Handful of basil, chopped

Handful of coriander, chopped

150g green beans

• Brown the chicken in the oil and remove with a slotted spoon.
• Brown the mushrooms in same pan.
• Add the chicken back into the pan and stir in two heaped tablespoons of the curry paste.  Stir to combine.
• Add the coconut milk, stock, kaffir lime leaves, fish sauce and herbs.  Stir well. 
• Bring to the boil, reduce heat and simmer for 15 mins. 
• Taste sauce regularly and add curry paste until the dish is perfectly hot.
• Add the green beans and simmer for another 7 minutes.

Serve with lots of Thai jasmine rice (the easiest and nicest rice to make, I think).

* This is my entry for Weekend Herb Blogging event hosted by the fabulous Susan at Food Blogga.

* A big thank you to Dad for supplying me with pics of Tammy and Rosie! x