Recipe - Little Coconut Curry
Coconut curries are never boring...
It hasn’t escaped me that the term ‘coconut curry’ might just be the vaguest description for a recipe ever. In fact, I’m not even sure the definition of a coconut curry should ever exist. There isn’t one. It’s too broad. And it’s because of this breadth of recipe options that, as Helen Sproat says in Episode 2, coconut curries are never boring. Recipes for coconut curries span the globe from Asia to Africa, and then have been promptly adopted and bastardised by us up in the Global North. Then there’s the word ‘curry’ — I mean, this could be one of about a bijillion different dishes, from thin and soupy to thick and saucey, from spicy to mild. ‘Curry’ is like the word for ‘pasta’ or ‘taco’ or ‘stir-fry.’ What does it even mean? But Helen’s right — whatever it doesn’t mean, it is certainly never boring.
Many of us have a curry or two knocking about in our cooking repetoire, so I thought I’d share my version of veggie coconut curry. It’s much more based on a Thai recipe as these are the curries that I am most familiar with. It is certainly not authentic, but it IS fool-proof. Although it might seem like a bit of a faff to make an entire curry just for one as there are so many different ingredients involved, cooking yourself a nice meal is always worth it. If you want more, double the recipe. You can also double/triple/quadruple/whatever the recipe for the curry paste and use the remaining amount for another time, it keeps for about a month in the fridge. Serve with sticky rice and make sure you listen to Helen's 'dancing around the house alone' playlist whilst you're cooking it, which you can find here.
Time: 30 minutes
Faff Level: 5/10
Makes: Enough for one I reckon, but, depending on how hungry you are, there might be enough for leftovers lunch the next day.
Plant Based Diets: Completely vegan already, friend.
Ingredients:
For the curry
200 g roughly chopped vegetables - choose whatever you like (aka whatever is lurking in your fridge).
200 g coconut milk (use coconut cream to make this extra creamy)
100 g Hom Mali/Thai or Jasmine rice
For the curry paste - you can scale this up and use the remaining paste to cook with another time.
Hand blender or blender
1 small chopped spring onion
1 finely chopped shallot
2 cloves of finely chopped garlic
1/2 stick of lemongrass, chopped
1/2 a thumb sized piece of ginger, finely chopped
1/2 tsp cumin
2 tsp shrimp or fish sauce or miso paste for veggie/vegan options
A roughly chopped handful of coriander
2 limes - juice and zest from one, keep the other as a garnish and also for an extra squeeze of lime to serve.
Chillis - For this curry, I used 3 small chillis, two birdseye and one cayenne. I left the seeds in and chopped them finely. This equals a spicy curry (a phillosophical debate about ‘what is spice?’ is for another time, I have already posed the question ‘what is curry?’ and that’s enough chat for one recipe). To lower the spice level, de-seed them, as that is where chillis store all of their heat. If you do end up making a curry that is too spicy for your liking, add some sugar to the mix to tone it down. I also garnished my curry with a sprinkling of raw chillis for an extra kick.
Salt and pepper to taste
Directions:
1. Throw all the ingredients for the curry paste together and blitz in a blender or hand blend until smooth.
2. Heat oil in a shallow saucepan and add in the blended curry paste. Fry on a medium-high heat until it begins to sizzle, for about 3 minutes.
3. Add in all the vegetables and coat them in the curry paste for a further couple of minutes.
4. Pour over coconut milk, bring to the boil, then simmer for 10 minutes.
5. Whilst the curry is being cooking, boil 100 g rice until water has evaporated.
6. Once rice is cooked, garnish curry with extra coriander, lemon juice and zest, chillis. Maybe add something tarty like dessicated coconut, go wild. Eat it and thank yourself for cooking a nice meal.
8. If you have any leftover, keep it for the next day. My favourite thing to do with leftover curry and rice is to put it in a corn tortilla wrap for lunch to make a Thai curry and rice burrito.