FOOD

This Thai Green Curry with Chicken recipe is inspired by The Oriental's Cookery School in Bangkok.

Thai Green Curry with Chicken (Serves 4-6)

Ingredients

1 lb (450 g) cooked chicken, sliced into bite size pieces
1 pint (600ml) coconut milk (you will need to buy two tins)

For the green curry paste
8 green bird eye chilies (whole)
1 lemon grass stalk, sliced thinly and soaked for 30 minutes in 2 tablespoons lime juice
1 rounded teaspoon kaffir lime peel, pared and thinly shredded
7 thin slices Thai ginger (galangal)
1 heaped teaspoon coriander stalks, chopped
½ level teaspoon roasted ground cumin
½ level teaspoon roasted ground coriander
3 garlic cloves
5 Thai shallots peeled (or normal shallots if not available)
1 level teaspoon shrimp paste

For the finished sauce
3-4 level dessertspoons Thai fish sauce
1 level teaspoon palm sugar
3 level dessertspoons fresh green peppercorns (or preserved in brine)
7 kaffir lime leaves
½ mild red chili, de-seeded and cut into hair-like shreds

Garnish
1 oz (25 g) Thai basil leaves

You will need a large frying pan, ideally a wok

Preparation
The curry paste can be made well ahead of time and there's absolutely no work involved if you have a food processor or a liquidiser because all you do is simply pop all the curry paste ingredients in and whiz it to a paste. In Thailand, of course, all these would be pounded by hand with a pestle and mortar, but food processors cut out all the hard work for us! What you should end up with is a coarse paste but don't worry if it doesn't look very green – that's because we have cut the chilli content - in Thailand they use about 35! Ouch!

To make the curry, first place the tins of coconut milk upside down. Then open them and inside you will see the whole thing has separated into thick cream and thin watery milk. Divide these by pouring the milk into one bowl and the cream into another. Next place a wok, without any oil in it, over a very high heat and then as soon as it becomes really hot, add three-quarters of the coconut cream. Fry it, stirring all the time so it doesn't catch alight! It will start to separate, the oil will begin to seep out and it will reduce. Ignore the curdled look, this is normal. Next add the curry paste and three-quarters of the coconut milk, which should be added a little at a time, keeping the heat high and letting it reduce down slightly. Stay with it and keep stirring to prevent it sticking. Then add the Thai fish sauce and palm sugar, stir these in and then add the chicken pieces and the peppercorns. Stir again and simmer everything for about 4-5 minutes until the chicken is heated through. Then just before serving, place the lime leaves one on top of the other, roll them up tightly and slice them into very fine shreds. Then add them along with the red chili and torn basil leaves to garnish.

Serve with Fair trade Organic Thai Fragrant Rice, available from most health food shops and food superstores.

Tarn hai aroi na ka – enjoy!