The need for speed: Curry in a hurry, or Nigella's Thai Green Curry

 

 

Yes, I could make my own curry paste. I have made my own curry paste in the past and it was pretty good, but, fundamentally I am a) lazy and b) busy, and if you are either or both of those and you like Thai curry then here is the answer to what you can cook of an evening when you crash through the door with a selection of children/marking/ a loathing of the fact it's raining again, yadda yadda yadda.

 

One of the things I really like about this curry is its greenness. Despite dumping a tin of coconut milk into the mix you can't help but think that with such verdancy will be doing you the absolute power of good. The original recipe calls for soya beans which when I first started making this curry years ago, my supermarket didn't stock, so I subbed broad beans for the only reason that they look a bit like soya beans and because I absolutely adore them. I don't really care if soya beans are the greatest things in the world, I will not be changing.

 

So this is from Nigella Lawson's 'Nigella Express'. Not my first foray into this particular book it has to be said, for I am definitely not averse to employing the odd short cut to create something that tastes really quite good. And this tastes really quite good.

 

Not unsurprisingly Lola and Finn are really not keen. When I make this, it is because Lola and Finn have already eaten, or I will have given in to a clamouring for pasta. I aim to please.

 

Curry in a Hurry (Thai Green Curry), adapted from Nigella Express by Nigella Lawson

 

My adaptions in red

 

Ingredients:

 

                       2 tablespoons wok oil (I use sesame oil)                      

3 tablespoons spring onions (finely chopped)

3 - 4 tablespoons green Thai curry paste

1 kilogramme chicken thigh fillets (cut into strips about 4 x 2cm)

1 x 400 ml can coconut milk

250 ml boiling boiling water

chicken stock concentrate or cube

1 tablespoon Thai fish sauce (nam pla)

185 g Frozen peas

200 g Frozen soya beans (I use broad beans)

150 g Frozen fine beans

3 tablespoons fresh coriander (chopped)

 

Method:

 

 

 

Heat the wok oil in a large saucepan that owns a lid, drop in the spring onions and cook, stirring for a minute or two, then add the curry paste.

 

 

 

 

 

Add the chicken pieces and keep turning over heat for 2 minutes, before adding the coconut milk, stock (i.e. the water plus stock concentrate or cube) and fish sauce, then the frozen peas and soya beans.

 

Simmer for 10 minutes, then add the frozen fine beans to the mix and cook for another 3-5 minutes.

 

 

Serve with rice or noodles, sprinkling the coriander over as you do so. Put out a plate of lime wedges for people to squeeze over as they eat.