Thai Coconut Curry (Any Variety)

Basic recipe for a delicious Thai Coconut Curry! Use your favorite curry paste and add your favorite vegetable! My favorite are sweet potato and broccoli :)

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 small to medium onion, cut into large pieces 

3 cloves garlic, finely minced or pressed (3 teaspoons)

1 tablespoon ginger paste (find in produce section) OR 1 teaspoon ginger powder

1 teaspoons ground coriander

1-14oz can coconut milk, full fat*

4 tablespoons (60 grams) Thai Curry Paste (any color, red, yellow, green)**

Approximately 2-3 cups of chopped vegetables, whatever combination you like (white potato, sweet potato, carrots, green beans, peas, broccoli)

8-16oz thin sliced chicken breast (depending on how much veggie to chicken ratio you want)

1 teaspoon kosher salt, or to taste

1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, or to taste

2 tablespoons sugar, or more to taste

1-2 tablespoons lime juice (optional to taste)

Water or chicken broth to thin if needed

chopped fresh cilantro and or chopped peanuts, for garnishing individual servings (optional)

Directions:

Saute onions on medium low heat in oil until tender. Add spices (garlic, ginger, and coriander) and stir for one minute. Add a couple tablespoons of coconut cream from the top of the can and the curry paste. Stir for 1-2 minutes. Add rest of coconut milk. Puree with immersion blender (optional).

Add vegetables, chicken, salt, pepper, (and sugar and lime juice to taste). Cover and simmer low for 20 minutes or until chicken is tender and vegetables are cooked. 

Thin with ¼ cup of water or chicken broth if needed. Serve over jasmine rice. Garnish individual servings with fresh chopped cilantro and or chopped peanuts.

*I like Chakaoh and Thai Kitchen Brands of coconut milk

** Curry paste brands will vary in taste and heat. I like Mae Ploy, Thai Kitchen and Mae Anong brand

Pad Thai

This baby of mine has been a long time coming, but I finally have it perfected. This is one of my favorite Thai dishes and now I can make it at home! It requires a good amount of prep work but it only takes a short time to put it all together at the end. Most of the ingredients can be obtained from any grocery store. You may have to go to an Asian store to find the tamarind concentrate or order it online. I use a food scale to measure some of the ingredients in this recipe, but I put the approximate volume equivalents in here too for those that don't have one yet. Serves 2-4 people. Adapted from shesimmers.com.

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Prepare Noodles

7 oz Thai Kitchen Brand Stir-Fry Rice Noodles (½ of box, can find at Walmart) or other Thai brand pad thai style rice noodles

Bring large saucepan of water to boil. Remove from heat, add noodles, cover with lid and let soak for 2 minutes. Drain off hot water and cover noodles with room temp water. Cover with lid and let soak for 20 minutes. Drain off water, rinse noodles with cold water, and set colander of noodles aside. Cut noodles with kitchen scissors to shorten to make stir frying easier in the end. Noodles should be soft but not mushy.

Sauce - makes ⅔ cup (or use equivalent a jarred sauce that you like (Double Golden Fish Brand is Good!))

60 grams Kikkoman soy sauce (reduced sodium is best) (¼ cup)

80 grams white sugar (5 ½ T)

40 grams brown sugar (3 T packed)

50 grams tamarind concentrate (2 ½ T) (I use this brand)

Bring to boil in small saucepan, stirring until sugars are dissolved. Cover and set aside. 

Prepare ahead or while noodles are soaking, and set aside:

4 tablespoons canola oil

1 large carrot, julienned

¼ small onion, minced or grated, or roughly chopped (big pieces for flavor but can easily be removed at end)

1 teaspoon minced garlic

1-2 cups chopped broccoli florets

2 eggs, scrambled and chopped (optional, I usually leave out)

8 oz super firm tofu cubes prepared as below*) or 4-8 oz of cooked cubed or shredded chicken

How to Prepare Crispy Baked Tofu

Dry block of tofu with paper or kitchen towels. Cut into cubes. (Most blocks come in 16 oz, so you can freeze half of the cubes for a later time: just lay cubes on cookie sheet to freeze and store in a freezer safe ziptop bag.) Whisk together 1 T oil, 1 T cornstarch, 1 T soy sauce, and 1 Tablespoon hoisin sauce or Go-Chu-Jang sauce. Stir 8oz of cubed super firm tofu into sauce. Sprinkle generously with salt and pepper. Bake on nonstick baking mat or parchment paper lined cookie sheet at 375 for 15 minutes. Set aside until ready to add to recipe. 

Toppings to Garnish When Serving (optional)

large handful freshly chopped cilantro

large handful of chopped or crushed peanuts

lime wedges or lime juice

Final Steps

Add 4 tablespoons of canola oil to deep nonstick skillet (mine is 3.5 quarts) or wok . Heat over medium heat until piece of onion sizzles. Add onion, garlic, and carrot, and any other vegetables and reduce heat to medium low or low (if garlic starts to burn), stirring frequently for 5 minutes. Onions should be tender and carrots and broccoli should be at least half cooked (can spray with water to steam and speed up cooking).

Raise heat to medium and add noodles, sauce, eggs, and tofu/chicken. Stir frequently over medium heat for 3 minutes. Serve immediately. Garnish individual servings with chopped cilantro, chopped peanuts, and a squeeze of lime juice (optional). 

Notes
*Optional - increase amount of sauce to serve extra on the side.