My office is 2 blocks away from a famous Thai restaurant, Thai House. Usually, we in the office try to set aside a day in a month to order in. Most of us either walk or ride our bikes to go to work and so on some days that we are all “carless” and we feel like ordering in, we order from this restaurant. Not that we don’t want this restaurant’s recipes, but its entrees are just so pricey. I told you it is famous.
Thai Chicken Curry is at the top of our list more often than not. Over time, I was able to identify everything that was on it except for the aroma. I experimented for a while using lemon grass. It worked but it entailed a lot of pounding to extract the desired flavor out of it.
While grocery shopping one day, I chanced upon this cute jar by Thai Kitchen. I tried it and it was definitely the aroma I was looking for. Thai Kitchen has the red, yellow and green curry pastes and of course Thai House served different kinds of curries. I tried the green curry but with different vegetables and it was equally good. I don’t cook this very often because of its coconut milk content which is believed to be a source of bad cholesterol. I am partial of course to coconut but I’d rather be cautious than sorry.
Ingredients
1 can of coconut milk
1 tbsp of Thai Kitchen yellow curry paste
Fish sauce (Patis) to taste
1 ½ lbs Chicken breast, sliced into bite sizes
1 can (about 200 gms) Bamboo shoots
1 piece each of Green and red peppers, julienne sliced
Basil leaves
Green peas (optional)
Extract coconut oil from about 1/3 of the canned coconut milk in a pan. I usually use the cream that sits right on top of the can when you open it. Once the cream turns into oil, add the curry paste and the fish sauce. Use this oil to saute the chicken meat. Add the rest of the coconut milk and cook for about 10 minutes or until chicken meat is cooked.
Add the bamboo shoots and the green and red peppers and cook for another 3 to 5 minutes. You can also add the green peas at this point if you want. Season to taste.
Once cooked, add the basil leaves.
I usually make this recipe a night ahead for the office just because this recipe gets better when left in the fridge overnight.
4 comments:
I don't really have a say about that. You're always in our parties..invited or not. I don't mind. You're always the life of the party..cheaper than hiring a clown I guess..(hahahaha..just kiddin' okey)
Ting, how long does it take for the coconut cream to turn to oil? Is this same as turning it into latik?
Celia, oo ganoon nga but not too dry that you cannot dilute the patis and the curry paste. This is where the fusion happens :-) and this is where the success of your curry happens. You have to bring out the aroma dito sa process pa lang na eto. Hope I was able to help. Tanong ka lang kung may questions ka pa tungkol dito. This is my favorite dish pero kailangan hinay-hinay ang aking pagluto.
This really sounds so yummy! I have to hunt that yellow curry at the grocery store. I love anything with gata.
BTW, since coconut oil is from plant (and plants have no livers, which manufactures cholesterol), it has no cholesterol. A reader of my blog who is a food science student told me so, when I contested the claims that coconut oil is high in cholesterol. I made my research and all information led me to the fact that it is the medium-chain fatty acids that are in coco oil, which are easy to metabolize, and DOH came up with studies that may prove its benefit in the immune system in the fight against AIDS, plus there are a lot of American doctors who believe that it may be the healthiest oil. If you are interested, read here:
http://manangkusinera.blogspot.com/2004/06/coconut-milk-and-coconut-oil-is-it.html#comments
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