Helen's attempt at Thai Green Curry

Hello!

There are just times when I crave Thai green curry. This craving struck me last week when I happened to have thai green curry paste and some Asian ingredients in the fridge. I proceeded to go for it and make a lovely curry. So, the curry paste I found was pretty legit. Like spicier than I thought and a little went a very long way. So, when you carry on with green curry adventures of your own, please start with a little of the green stuff and work your way up...since you probs don't want to burn a hole in your face!

Helen's Attempt at Thai Green Curry
1/2-1 tablespoon of Thai green curry paste. I got it from an Asian market, it has a Thai label so sorry I can't help with letting you know a brand...but isn't it a good sign that there's no English on it?
smidge of oil, maybe a teaspoon
1 can of coconut milk (I used low fat because I don't like my green curry to taste like slightly spicy coconut fat, but if this is your thing go for the regular full fat version)
1/4 - 1/2 cup chicken stock (could be optional, read below)

my curry add in's
2 Japanese eggplants (partially peeled, sliced on a bias and then into finger sized strips, and lightly sauteed in vegetable oil till slightly browned)
Firm, crispy skinned tofu (you can find this in Asian markets. Make thin slices. If you want it extra crispy, go ahead and saute this in some veg oil too, until brown and even more crispy!)
1 can of baby corn (rinsed, drained, and I go ahead and blanch them to get rid of the "tin" taste)
1/2 a pepper, 1/2 an onion, 2 cups of mushrooms (cook this together in some sort of fat. butter, oil, your choice, till its nice and brown and the mushrooms have lost a good amount of liquid)
1/3 cup of peas/carrots (this is straight up American of me, I won't even pretend. I had it on hand. don't use it if you hate peas or carrots or both
handful or two of thai basil leaves, depending on how obscene you want the basil flavor to be
depending on if this is the vegetarian meal or not...and depending on if I have leftovers to use, I add in some precooked chicken bits. yum.

make it work:
1. Fry the curry paste in the oil for literally 30 seconds or so, and then add the coconut milk. Stir to incorporate the curry into the coconut milk. This will be your yumtastic curry sauce. Let this simmer in the corner if you need to prepare the other stuff, like cook the eggplant or crisp the tofu. Make sure you taste your mixture. Too much curry? too intense? too much coconut? add the stock! not spicy enough? add more paste GRADUALLY. And keep in mind, this is going to cook down so flavors do concentrate....
2.  Dump in the add-ins. Is there an order? Well, think about what you want to soak up the most curry flavor and what you don't want to be a soggy, gross mush. For real, this can happen. I usually put the tofu in first, let it simmer for 3 minutes, then dump all the rest of the stuff.
3. Let this mish mash of curry stuff simmer for another 5-10 minutes on low, until the little bits have soaked up just the right amount of curry (which is obvi based on preference)
4.  I can imagine eating this by itself, but I like rice, so I serve it over rice. yumsville.

吃
HK