Thai Curry

A good object lesson in making two meals. On Friday, for dinner, with company (we were five) we had a thai curry on rice. Today the two of us had a thai stir fry with noodles.

The thai curry was a green paste mixed in with two cans of coconut milk (half fat) with a little stock, (c. 200 ml). When heated I added potato, cauliflower, broccoli and mange tout, not all at once, but so that they would all be cooked at roughly the right time. This was served a couple of ladles on nice hot fragrant rice. The recipe was that in the Newlyweds Cookbook a very kind wedding gift from our priest and his wife. The timings in it were nonsense, (two minutes to cook inch cubes of potatoes!) but obviously so, so I was prepared. The result was lovely, creamy and fragrant. It was quite mild (good for the company, not all of whom like spicy foods), and a change from the subcontinental style curries I usually prefer. It had a moderate sauce to veg ratio, more than a coating (see below) but it was not swimming in the stuff. I caused a moderate amount of amusement when I had to transfer from my medium casserole to my BIG casserole dish. It served five people, with seconds for some. There was a large extra portion which formed the beginning of the next meal.

That leftover portion would have served, as it was, as a light lunch for two. Or tea for two if those two didn't mind a stingy curry to rice ratio. Instead I bulked it out slightly. In a wok I heated the remaining paste with half a thai chilli, some mushrooms and about 500 ml of stock. I reduced this a little and added some mushrooms, after the mushrooms stir fried a little I poured in the tuppaware of curry. Alongside I cooked some noodles. I put the noodles in the wok with plenty of spinach. The combination of stir frying and the noodles made this much drier - the sauce really was just a coating. It had more of a kick, from the chilli, but was still fairly fragrant. Noodles are nice and filling, so the end result was a very satisfactory meal.

On friday we had it with beer, beer beer, rather than a more appropriate lager. Maybe Tiger would have worked. Tonight we had Lime and Soda, I like Lime with spicy dishes.

Yummy.