Thai Red Curry Paste

This curry is a beautiful and fragrant, it will fill your kitchen with aromas of fresh lime and pungent ginger, all mouth watering and tempting. The ingredients for this recipe are now available in most large supermarkets and I think it is worth the effort to make your own curry paste if you can, it is amazing the difference between it and the shop bought variety, much richer. Some of these ingredients are very new on the Irish market so I have a brief explanation of the more unusual ingredients to help you on your way.

Chillies

There are two dozen varieties used in Thai cooking, including the green finger length chillies; medium length plump chillies (yellow, white, orange, green or red); and the tiny bird's-eye.

Galangal

Similar in appearance to ginger but lighter in colour and more tender. It's flavour is fresh and fragrant, with slightly less heat than ginger.

Lemongrass

These hard woody stalks add zingy citrus-lemon flavour to dishes. It can be added whole , then removed at the end of cooking. To release the flavours, the stalks are usually crushed or pounded using a mortar and pestle.

Ingredients
6-8 Long red chillies, deseeded and roughly chopped
1 Lime, juice of half and the rind
2 Shallots, roughly chopped
4cm Ginger, peeled and grated
4cm Galangal, peeled and grated
4 Cloves of garlic, roughly chopped
2 Stalks of lemongrass, finely chopped
10 Black peppercorns or 1tsp freshly ground white pepper
1tsp Salt
1/4tsp Corriander seeds or 1tsp ground corriander
1/4 tsp Cumin seeds or 1/2 tsp ground cumin
6tbsp Vegetable oil

Method
Blend in a food processor the red chillies, shallots, garlic, galangal, fresh ginger and lemongrass.

Add the lime juice and grated rind, peppercorns, corriander seeds and cumin seeds. Gradually add the vegetable oil and blend to a smooth paste. The more traditional method is to grind all the ingredients into a paste using a mortar and pestle, works up an appetite!!

When a smooth fragrant paste is achieved transfer to a sterilised jar and keep refrigerated. The paste will keep for 4-5 weeks.

TIP:To sterilise jars, either put them through a cycle in your dishwasher, boil them for 5 minutes in pan of water or place in an over preheated to 150C/ 300F/Gas 2 for 10 minutes. 

Thai Tropical Fruit Drinks

I think these refreshing healthy drinks are worth a try, if you are in need of a vitamin boost then it's worth the minimal effort to knock up one of these for breakfast. It can be tried with almost any ripe fruit from bananas, apples, pears to the more tropical papaya, mango and watermelon. I keep sugar syrup in my fridge at all times so that I can make one of these up at a moments notice!

Recipe complements of Vatch's Thai Kitchen by Vacharian Bhumichitr.

Ingredients

1 Ripe pineapple, peeled, cored and cut into small pieces

Ice Cubes

Sugar syrup

Pinch of salt

Method

Put a few pieces of pineapple in a blender with ice cubes, syrup and a pinch of salt (salt will bring out the flavour of the fruit). Blend well, then pour into glasses.

I used a handful of hulled strawberries for this glass, depending on the season you may need to use more sugar syrup for extra sweetness.

Pineapple is my favourite and a small pinch of salt really helps the flavour, this drink has a natural creaminess and is very refreshing. I also made orange, I peeled a medium sized orange, blended as above and then strained it into a glass through my fingers, leaving some of the flesh goodness but not too much.

Thai Chicken Rice Soup

This dish is a staple in the Thai diet, known as khaotom gai locally. It is sold by street vendors 24 hours a day to hungry passers-by either for a warming breakfast or for those who are busy burning the candle at both ends and need our equivalent to the curry chips on the way home from a big night out. This is very quick to make especially as it uses left over rice and cooked chicken. I adapted this recipe from Vatch's Thai Kitchen which is a brilliant book for authentic Thai recipes.

Recipe adapted from Vatcharin Bhumichitr's Vatch's Thai Kitchen

Serves 4-6

Ingredients
1.25ltrs Chicken stock
400g leftover rice (from about 150g uncooked rice)
500g Cooked chicken, diced
410g Can stir fry vegetables (I used Blue Dragon)
2tbsp Thai fish sauce
2tbsp Soy sauce
1tsp sugar
2cm Fresh ginger, finely chopped
White pepper

Method
Heat the stock in a large saucepan, add the cooked rice and chicken, bring to the boil. Stir in the vegetables, fish sauce, soy sauce, ginger and sugar and simmer for about 1 minute. Season and serve immediately.