Fresh vibrant aromatic and zingy this is a feel good curry that will leave your taste buds dancing long after you have finished eating, the wonderful fragrant flavours from the lemongrass, ginger and galangal are toned down with the rich creamy coconut and then lifted to a level of freshness with the finishing touches of the lime juice and fresh coriander, in all a brilliant Thai curry.
Prep time 10 minutes / Cooking time 10-15 minutes
Ingredients
(serves 3-4)
30 fresh shell and head on cold water prawns
1 tbsp coconut oil
1 shallot finely chopped
1 clove garlic finely chopped
1 small bunch fresh coriander chopped stalks too
2 red chillies finely chopped (optional)
2 cans organic coconut milk
1 lime juiced
(recipe to make your own below)
4 tbsp red Thai curry paste
(recipe below to make your own)
Serve with perfect basmati rice.
1 large coffee mug of basmati rice
2 large coffee mugs
Perfect Rice Method
Put your rice on to cook first.
Rinse your rice in a sieve and place in your saucepan with lid, add the 2 mugs of water, do not stir the rice, place the lid on and bring to a boil, reduce the heat to a simmer and leave to cook for 8 minutes, at this point take off the heat and leave to one side, under no circumstances take of the lid or touch the rice. Your rice will be ready to serve in 5 minutes but can sit there as long as 10 minutes.
The Thai Curry
First take the heads and shells off the prawns and place in a saucepan with around 400ml water, bring to a simmer and reduce by half, strain off the cooked shells keeping all the juice, this is your prawn stock, keep to one side and discard the prawn shells, (I mince the shells for my dogs they love them).
De-vein the prawns by running a knife along the black line of intestinal tract you can see on the inside curve of the prawn, scrape this out and discard.
Heat your skillet to a medium hot add the coconut oil then the shallot and garlic and gently soften for a couple of minutes, next add your red Thai curry paste and the chopped coriander stalks and cook out for a further couple of minutes, when the paste is starting to catch a little add the prawn stock and stir in well, next add the prawns and half way through being cooked add the coconut milk bring to a simmer and finish cooking the prawns, squeeze in the lime juice and take off the heat, as you do not want to over cook the prawns, stir in the coriander and serve with your perfect rice.
MAKE YOUR OWN RED THAI CURRY PASTE
I cannot shout out enough how fragrant and gorgeous this is, I made a small mason jar's worth that would have kept in the fridge for a couple of weeks, had we not eaten it all within the week!
Ingredients
(makes 4 tablespoons worth)
3 tbsp whole white peppercorns
1 flat tsp cumin seeds ground
1 flat tsp coriander seeds ground
8 dried medium hot chillies
(soaked in warm water)
1/2 tsp sea salt
6 cloves garlic
1 shallot finely diced
1 tbsp finely chopped bashed lemongrass stalk
2 tbsp coriander stems finely chopped
1 tbsp minced galangal
1 kaffir lime zested
This is the fun part, you can skip this and blitz all the ingredients up in a blender, but I urge you not to, it changes the flavour of the paste and is not as fragrant. Place all the dry ingredients in your pestle and mortar and grind to a powder then add the rest of the ingredients and pound away until you have a lovely smooth ish paste, this took my husband (I borrowed his muscles!) around 10 minutes.
Place in a air tight jar and keep in the fridge for up to 2 weeks or until needed. Most recipes for four servings require 2-4 tablespoons of the paste according to your taste.
MAKE YOUR OWN COCONUT MILK
There is a simple effective method to opening a coconut in one hit that breaks the coconut in half, over a bowl take a bolster, not a club hammer like in my photo! My husband hit this coconut several times and not a dent or crack did it make, a quick google and a bolster tool and hey presto successful full split all the way round in the first whack!
Take your coconut and locate the three eyes in a shape of a triangle on the end, hold the coconut with the one eye point of the triangle facing up, this is the side you are going to whack as it is the weak side of the shell, with a bolster or large (machette) style knife give one solid confidante whack holding the coconut over a bowl, a crack will appear all the way around the coconut, job done! Pull apart and let the liquid pour off into the bowl, to remove the coconut flesh from the shell you can do this one of two ways, either slide a knife between the shell and flesh and prize off or whack the outer shell cracking and peeling off.
Either finely grate by hand or blitz in a blender all the coconut flesh, I blended my coconut for quickness and ease.
Add twice the amount of just boiled water to the coconut and blend for around two to three minutes until you have a creamy coconut milk.
Take a bowl and place a muslin over the bowl, pour your blended coconut mix into the muslin and strain into the bowl, then gather up the muslin cloth and squeeze out all the liquid.
This is your first pressing and the top of this milk with set with the coconut cream. Repeat the process again and you will make coconut milk again but a little thinner on consistency and flavour. Keep the now soft coconut flesh and use in cakes, soups and stir fry's.
My geeky food science bit...
Coconuts are rich in fibre, Vitamin C, E,, B1, B5, B6,, iron, selenium, sodium, calcium, magnesium, phosphorous. Extremely healthy MFCA and lauric acid easily digested and almost immediately broken down in your saliva and gastric juices. This means pancreatic fat digesting enzymes are not essential which puts less strain on your liver allowing it to work more efficiently. Anti viral, anti bacterial, protects body form infections and viruses. Regulates thyroid function and is highly nutritious.
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