Thai Vegetable Curry

What is the difference between the curries of Thailand and other Southeast Asian countries and the curries of India? Well, the range of Asian curries is wide. Some use dry ground spice mixtures similar to those used in Indian cooking, but just as many use only fresh ingredients, such as chilies, coriander roots, galangal, garlic, ginger, lemon grass, shallots and sweet basil as in Thai curries.

Some of the best curries use a combination of dried and fresh ingredients, so a korma prepared with dried spices may be given an aromatic top note with fresh coriander, mint and sweet basil. A typical Thai curry that uses fresh spices is the green curry below. It can be made with either chicken, pork or shrimps instead of vegetables.

Recipe: (Serves 2)

6 baby eggplants or 2 zucchini
1 carrot
1 teaspoon sugar
2 green chilies, seeded and roughly chopped
1 small bunch fresh coriander with roots, thoroughly cleaned, pound the whole stalk and leaves
1 large onion, roughly chopped
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 teaspoon shrimp paste
1 stalk lemon grass
2 thin slices galangal
2 kaffir lime leaves
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
500 ml coconut milk
20 green beans, trimmed
2 tablespoons fish sauce

Method:

Peel and cut the baby eggplants diagonally into slices 2 cm thick; if using zucchini instead, peel and slice them. Peel and slice the carrot diagonally. Finely grind the sugar with the chilies, coriander, onion, garlic, shrimp paste, lemon grass, galangal and kaffir lime leaves in a pestle and mortar, coffee grinder, or food processor (the mixture should be dry).

Heat the oil and fry the spice paste over a low heat for 5 minutes until it smells powerfully aromatic. Add the coconut milk, green beans and other prepared vegetables and bring the mixture to the boil.

Add the fish sauce, then lower the heat and simmer for 8 minutes. Adjust the seasoning and serve the curry hot with plain boiled rice.