Thai curry

[sofiaviolet]

I am so proud of myself, y'all. After months of trying, I finally have something that is seriously tasty, albeit not as good as restaurant food. Much cheaper, though.

Thai curry

Ingredients (per serving)

½ can (approx. 7 oz) coconut milk

0 to 6 birdseye chili peppers or similar, according to taste (I use 4)

dried basil, lots

fish sauce

½ to ¾ tbsp curry paste

one chicken breast fillet or one half boneless thigh, sliced

red, orange, and/or yellow bell pepper (about ¼ to ½ of a pepper), sliced

½ to 1 cups rice

Directions

1. Possibly begin making rice.
2. Coconut milk in saucepan of appropriate size.
3. Add chilis, fish sauce (about ½ tbsp, but I eyeball it), and curry paste. Stir for a little bit.
4. Basil. Make a little mound, then stir it in. I would recommend overdoing the basil rather than underdoing it.
5. You should probably make the rice here if you didn't earlier.
6. Let the coconut milk etc. sit over low heat. Turn the burner off if it starts to froth.
7. About five minutes before the rice is done, add the chicken and bell pepper and possibly nudge the heat up a bit (or turn it back on if you had to turn it off earlier).
8. Serve and eat.

I give per-person ingredients because I haven't found a way to make the leftovers good (the chicken always tastes funny, so vegetarian versions might reheat just fine).

Comments

[jesse_the_k]

I'm a little confused: are you heating uncooked chicken in the coconut milk?

[lassarina]

I was also wondering about this; it seems like it wouldn't heat through enough to be safe.

[teapot_rabbit]

It heats just fine. That's the way I make coconut milk curries too. You just simmer it until the chicken is cooked through.

[holyschist]

In Thai coconut curries and soups, the meat is always cooked in the coconut milk, as far as I know.

If in doubt, fish out a piece of chicken and cut it to make sure it's done. Once the chicken's cooked, the sauce or broth has been heated enough for safety, too. It's no different from cooking uncooked chicken in chicken soup.

[sofiaviolet]

I am; I slice it pretty thin and the coconut milk is hot when the chicken goes in. It's in there for about five minutes.

[highlyeccentric]

The coconut milk doesn't curdle? My housemate kayloulee always reports coconut milk curries going funky and strange on her (presumably not ACTUALLY curdling, I think you need dairy for that, but doing something equally weird).

[sofiaviolet]

Not sure whether you're talking about the length of time I cook it for or the storing of leftovers, but it never goes weird on me. *shrug*

[holyschist]

I've never had coconut milk curdle, and I use it in soups and curries all the time...my only guess would be that she might be heating it too high and/or too quickly? Coconut milk in leftovers will quasi-solidify because the fat in coconut milk is a solid at room temperature--but reheating it will liquify it again.

(I also make curries with yogurt regularly, and have never had full-fat yogurt curdle on me, so I may just be lucky.)

[chessbot]

How important is the fish sauce? (Also, does it typically contain shellfish or just normal fish?) I'd love to be able to make curry, but I'm not terribly sure how... Going to try this, though!

[holyschist]

Fish sauce is made of anchovies, salt, and water, but I'd check the label carefully. Personally, I feel that it's really important to pull together the flavors of most Thai foods, but you can sort of substitute salt (I used to have a recipe for a vegan pseudo-fish sauce that used seaweed and mushroom for umami and a "fishy" flavor, but it was a lot of work just to try out a recipe).