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AAF’s Recipe of the Day

A Thai Yellow, vegetarian curry is on the cards tonight. Even though I love the red and the green versions, I really go nuts for their creamy yellow curries, with rice, yellow lentils and potatoes added to it. A carb heaven, a wonderful way to recuperate from a boozy night! This is a recipe for vegetarians, it works well with either fish or chicken if you feel like it though as a vegetable curry, it’s unbeatable.

You can make your own paste or you can buy it. I’ll go the hard road and show you how you can make the paste, providing you have a food processor (I once attempted to do one with a mortar and a pestle, took a good hour and nearly broke my thumb)

For the paste: 1 stalk lemon grass, sliced, 2/4 yellow chilies (or 6 Thai green ones if you can’t find them), 2 shallots, 1 knob of galangal (or its close cousin, ginger), 6 cloves garlic, peeled, 1 tbsp ground coriander, 1 tbsp mustard seeds, 1 tbsp turmeric, 4 tbsp fish sauce, 1 tbsp palm sugar, 4 kaffir lime leaves, a pinch of nutmeg, ½ a tin of coconut milk, a dash of soy sauce. To make the paste, place all ingredients except the coconut milk into the processor and give it a whirl, just for a second. Then begin to add the coconut milk as you go, until you get a smooth paste. Voila, wasn’t hard was it?

Next, assemble the following ingredients for a knock-out veg curry, say for 6 persons (it’ll freeze well if you can’t eat it all): 1 medium-sized squash (or a few pumpkin chunks), peeled and cut into 1 inch chunks, 2 red onions, finely minced, 6 garlic cloves, finely minced, 100 gr of yellow lentils that need to be soaked overnight, and rinsed thoroughly, 1 bok choy (or chard, or spinach leaves), 200 gr baby potatoes, 1 large yellow bell pepper, 1 large red bell pepper, both cut into thick strips, 1 fennel bulb, cut into chunks, a handful of mangetouts or snow peas, a small bunch of chopped cilantro, 1 large can of coconut milk and a 250 gr packet of Jasmine Thai rice. Add to this a couple of good quality of vegetable bouillon cubes, enough to make 2 pints, and you’re rocking. And a little toasted sesame oil to kick-start this dish.

In a large saucepan, throw a little sesame oil, and add the onions, garlic, stir well, and add half the paste, keep stirring, add a dash of soy sauce or Tamari, then pour the stock made out of the bouillon cubes, then the coconut milk, then the yellow lentils. Bring to a gentle boil, reduce the heat and add the squash, baby potatoes and fennel. Simmer for 20 minutes then add the peppers, bok choy, snow peas and cook for a further 10 minutes. In the meantime cook your rice according to the packet’s instructions. Sometimes I cheat and add a little cream to thicken it. It should be ready to serve, add some chopped cilantro on top and you should end up with a delectable dish.