Thai Green Chicken Curry

The funny thing about doing this blog is that its very telling. I tend to cook whatever I fancy at the time, so I am never really sure what my favourite food is. But looking back over the posts on the blog - it appears that I slightly favour Asian food. But considering my love for punchy flavour and chillies aplenty, maybe that makes sense.

The main reason I made Green Curry last night at all was actually because last weekend we went to a place called Hoo Hing in Leyton, London. They are an Asian wholesalers and you can get all sorts of goodies there. One of them was some mini aubergines which are perfect for this dish. You can use normal purple large aubergines of course, but if you can get the baby aubergines it gives it that extra touch of authenticity. I love them.

As with many if these recipes, you can make your life a lot easier by buying green curry paste, I recommend the 'Thai Taste' brand. But here I have made the paste first as I had all of the ingredients and all you need is a mini blender (about £15 in Argos). It does look like a long list but the flavour is worth it and it is the main part of the recipe. The curry takes no time at all!

For the paste:

1 stalk lemongrass, sliced finely
1 shallot roughly chopped
5 cloves garlic, peeled
1 inch piece of galangal, or same of ginger, peeled and roughly chopped
3 green chillies (1 used 2 medium heat and 1 Thai birds eye, seeds included)
handful fresh coriander
handful fresh basil
2 tbsp. fish sauce
1 tbsp. light soy sauce
1/2 tsp. ground cumin
1/2 tsp. ground coriander
1/2 tsp. white pepper
1 tsp. shrimp paste
1 tbsp. palm sugar (normal sugar is fine)
juice of 1 limes
2 tbsp. coconut milk.

Put all of the above into a blender and blend to a loose paste. You will need all of this paste to make a curry for two.

Chicken Thai Green Curry

2-3 chicken breasts, cut into bite size pieces
curry paste (as above or 3-4 tbsps. of ready made)
3 kaffir lime leaves, chopped or freeze dried, crumbled
180g mini aubergines, quartered or 1 large chopped
1 can (400ml) coconut milk
100ml chicken stock
1 tsp. fish sauce
1 tsp. palm sugar
basil to finish

Method:

Pour half a can of the coconut milk into a pan and heat. Add the curry paste, stir and cook for about 10-15 minutes until fragrant and the spices have cooked. Add chicken and cook on medium heat for another 5 minutes. Add the aubergines, stock, remaining coconut milk, sugar and fish sauce. Leave to cook for another 10 minutes until sauce glossy and the smell in the kitchen is amazing. Serve with the basil over the top and a little steamed rice on the side. Yummy!

Potato and Leek Soup

Avid readers of this blog will notice that I have put up quite a few recipes for homemade soup. The reason for that is obvious of course, I personally happen to love soup. Although not until I started making it at home. Tinned varieties just don't seem to quite have the warming happy feeling included which is the whole point to me. The smell of Leek and Potato soup has me feeling like I am wrapped in a blanket all warm, whilst looking out the window on a cold day.

The Bloke's favourite is Potato and Leek soup, so this is the one I make the most often. The other day he mentioned his surprise that it wasn't on the blog! So here it is. My potato and leek soup.

Ingredients:

40g butter
3 large (baking) potatoes, chopped
3 large leeks, sliced
1 small onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, chopped
1 litre chicken stock (cube is fine)
100ml milk
100ml double cream
streaky bacon, chopped and fried (for garnish)
few chives, snipped (for garnish) 

In a large pan, melt the butter. Add the onion, leeks and potatoes and coat well with the butter. Season with pepper (I don't add salt as the garnish is bacon which is salty - but you can add some at this stage if liked). Cook for a few minutes on a medium/low heat while you make a cartouche. This is a piece of greaseproof paper which you cut to a little larger than the surface of the soup. Crush it into a ball under running water and shake off the excess. Put this on top of the vegetables (tucking in snugly) and put the lid on the pan. This helps the veg steam nicely without browning. Cook like this for 10 minutes.

After 10 minutes, remove the cartouche and add the stock to the pan. Cook for a further 5-10 minutes until vegetables soft. Remove the pan from the heat and using a hand blender, blend the soup. You can make it as smooth as you like, but I like to keep a few bits of leek unblended for texture. Put the pan back on the low heat and add the milk and the cream. Stir through to heat and serve in a big bowl scattered with the bacon bits and some snipped chives. Perfect with fresh crusty rolls!