17 January, 2009

Thai Yellow Curry: Sunshine in Bowl to Lift Your Spirit...

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Thai Yellow Curry
“How do they taste? They taste like more.”
-H.L. Mencken
And that’s exactly how I feel when ever I am served real good Thai food. I like everything about Thai cuisine; the ingredients used, its flavour, the way it’s cooked, the fresh herbs and aromatic spices and above all the way it tastes. And another reason for my love affair with Thai food is the use of coconut in most of the recipes. A typical Mangalorean girl that I am, my heart skips a beat and makes me do cartwheels in air whenever I find this favourite ingredient of mine in any recipe.

Since the day we have had come back from our India trip, we haven’t been cooking anything elaborate in our tiny kitchen. Although we would like to blame our mothers for spoiling us by not letting us cook in their kitchen, it was plain laziness that has kept us away from pots and pans. All these days we have been satisfying ourselves with soups and breads and simple dal/rasam and rice. But it didn’t take much longer for stomachs to start grumbling for something exotic and our taste buds to crave for something packed with flavours.

It’s not easy to tackle the situation when you are faced with laziness and desire to eat something delicious. And to add to our misery we stumbled upon some really delicious looking Thai Curries on one of the cookery shows. Did we have any choice left? Na…da… So it was decided on simple Thai menu for the day and of course for the blog also ;)

With typical cold and grey winter days and sun god gone missing for days together we were left with no choice but to create this sunshine in a bowl to lift our mood and spirit. We chose to cook this delicious bowl of Thai Yellow Curry and served it with fragrant Thai Jasmine Rice which resembled the snow flakes that had turned our neck of woods into snow kingdom. The colourful and delightful vegetables cooked in creamy and sweet coconut milk and flavoursome curry paste made using freshest of herbs and spices is sure to bowled any foodie’s heart and soul. Thai Yellow Curry is my entry for AWED-Thai event hosted by dear DK at Culinary Bazaar.

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Thai Yellow Curry

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Thai Yellow Curry Paste
Prep Time: 10 mins
Cooking Time: 2 mins for roasting the spices
Makes: 1 big Cup
Shelf Life: 1 month when refrigerated or 1 day if kept outside
Recipe Source: Real Vegetarian Thai by Nancie McDermott
Recipe Level: Easy
Spice Level: Medium

Ingredients:
1 medium Onion, peeled and quartered
8-10 finger length Dry Red Chillies, soaked in warm water for 20 mins
1½ inch Ginger or Galangal
1 cup Coriander Leaves, including its root and stems
4-6 Large Garlic Flakes
1 tbsp Lemongrass Paste or 3 stalks of Lemongrass, trimmed and cut into 1 inch pieces
½ tbsp Brown Sugar
1 tbsp Curry Powder (I used Kitchen King Powder)
1 tsp Turmeric Powder
2 tbsp Lime Juice
1 tsp Salt

Spices to Roast and Ground to Powder:
1½ tbsp Coriander Seeds
½ tbsp Cumin Seeds
10 Black or White Pepper Corns
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Thai Yellow Curry Paste

Method:
Heat a pan and dry roast coriander seeds, cumin seeds and pepper on slow flame till they change colour and are aromatic, about 2 minutes. Transfer them to clean bowl and let them cool completely. With a help of coffee grinder or mortar and pestle grind them to fine powder.
Add this powder to all the ingredients listed above and grind them to smooth paste adding little water at time. Make sure that you add water only when it is required to get fairly thick and smooth paste.
You can store this paste in an air tight container and refrigerate for upto one month and use as and when needed.

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Veg Thai Yellow Curry
Prep Time: 10 mins
Cooking Time: 15 mins
Serves: 4-6
Recipe Source: Real Vegetarian Thai by Nancie McDermott
Recipe Level: Easy/Beginner to Intermediary
Spice Level: Medium
Serving Suggestion: With Jasmine Rice or Basmati Rice

Ingredients:
5-6 cups of Mixed Vegetables of your choice cut into bite size pieces (I have used half each of Red/Yellow/Orange Peppers, 1 medium Potato, 1 medium Carrot, 5 Baby Corns, Few French Beans, 5 Button Mushrooms, and Green Peas)
1 medium Onion or 4 Spring Onions, thinly sliced
1 can Coconut Milk or 2-3 cups of Coconut Milk
2-3 cups of Vegetable Stock or Water
2-3 tbsp Yellow Curry Paste
2 Kaffir Lime Leaves, thinly cut
1-2 tsp Brown Sugar
1 tbsp Soya Sauce
Coriander leaves of Spring Onion Greens for garnishing
Salt to taste
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Thai Yellow Curry

Method:
Heat a heavy bottomed pan and empty 1/3rd of Coconut milk in a pan. Stir this coconut milk on medium heat till its sweet fragrance is released and starts to thicken, about 4-5 minutes, in a medium flame.
Now add 2-3 tbsp of Yellow Curry Paste and stir well. Keep stirring for 2-3 minutes till the curry paste blends well with the coconut milk and its raw smell disappears. Add the vegetables and spring onions to it and mix them well so that each piece is coated with coconut and curry paste mixture.
Mix in vegetable stock or water, remaining coconut milk, Soya sauce, kaffir lime leaves if using, brown sugar and salt to taste. Cover and cook for 5 minutes.
Open the lid and adjust the seasonings. Simmer the heat and let it cook uncovered for another 5 minutes till the vegetables are cooked to tender. Make sure that the vegetables are not overcooked and retain their crunch.
Garnish with finely chopped coriander leaves and greens of spring onion and serve with aromatic bowl of Jasmine Rice and enjoy.


Notes:
Other Thai recipes blogged so far,

32 comments:

  1. Am I getting luckier today..?First it was a Thai salad at Asha's and now this...I'm delighted.Have always seen only non-veg Thai dishes and I had lost hope of making/tasting Thai food..great great recipe!!

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  2. I haven't tried thai curry though I have a book with quite a few Thai recipes. Yours looks delicious, Sia!

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  3. Wow Sia, it looks divine. We love Thai food too and the weather is perfectly miserable for it right now. Thanks!

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  4. Wow and wow.I too have strted liking Thai.I tried the greencurry and used the paste with noodles as well.Never tried yellow.Looks comforting and delish.

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  5. Woow beautiful and delicious looks veg tahi curry.
    I have only made thai green chicken and that was ages and ages ago.
    This looks so yumm.
    Send it to AWED, theme is Thai this month.

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  6. wht a way to shoo away those blues of homesickness,perfect way to be back in action(in kitchen)
    Curry looks lovely and it strangely it made me crave for gujrati kadhi ;-)

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  7. Wow..looks yummy and delicious..Picture says it all:)

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  8. love thai food, i can have it everyday(i think so!!!!!). this yellow curry looks yummy.

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  9. curry looks amazing :) Yellow curry is my fav thai dish and now I can make it at home thanks for sharing

    chakali

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  10. I never tasted thai food before! You're tempting me with your words and description! mmm. the curry looks so mouth-watering! Stunning pics as always! Have a great weekend.

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  11. I make it just like this :) In fact, the same stuff too!

    The pics look great!

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  12. Wow really a comforting and warm recipe.. Perfect for the season.. Love the spicy flavour of thai paste..

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  13. Waw..Look the color of it...The look itself says how tasty it is..I never tasted thai food worried abt the ingredients in it,but by seeing some of your recipes I wanted to taste some...yummy one

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  14. Wow wat a lovely curry..yummy...

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  15. I love thai food :)
    the curry looks delicious :)

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  16. Been meaning to try the green curry for a while now. Maybe next week :)

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  17. a lot of blogs doing thai dishes - i ve been wanting to do the same - but just getting the ingredients together seems a pain lemongrass etc... your post is another painfully beautiful reminder of my laziness :)

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  18. I love all the Thai curries...they taste so close to Indian curries...Thank you for the recipe Sia :-)

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  19. looks so yum...perfect for the weather,...;-)

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  20. hv been looking out for a thai yellow curry recipe for long long.... i shall try it out soon... the pic looks just great

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  21. Wow Sia.. love thai foods...Looks yummy an mouth watering..Perfect fot this cold weather..

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  22. Happy New year to you Sia. Have never tried Yellow curry before Sia....looks delish. I usually make a stir fry version of the alu-capsicum. Will be trying out your curry version.

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  23. It does look like sunshine in a bowl!!!! lovely pic, as always....:)
    I hope you had a wonderful Sankranti!

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  24. Sia that bowl shure draws me close to the screen. It was a real sunshine I would say with the brilliant colors! And add me to your coconut milk club too :)

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  25. Funny thing i sow your blog in Sailu's kitchen and i am like is this the same monsoon spice i got on my bookmark as i have got both of you as my bookmarks
    Thanks to your recipes i always turn to your blog when in need for something different in kitchen
    Keep up the good work!!!

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  26. i have a question how do your make your blog public seems like i am the only one who can see it for now

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  27. As always - v colorful and droolicious. Thanks for sending it my way for AWED. :)

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