Not Following the Crowd & a simple Thai Green Curry

It's Jeanne this week. Dad's birthday has taken him up north to see family and friends, so I'm stepping in with a recipe I've only recently started making, a pretty simple Thai Green Curry. 

More on that shortly, but first, a little story.

Over Christmas I was very unwell, a nasty infection that had me cutting out sugar and alcohol (both of which I now know, feed infections) for about six weeks. When I'd recovered, I went out with friends on a couple of occasions and decided to stick to one or two alcoholic drinks. My close friends were fine with it. Others, not so much. Friends of friends kept pushing me to drink, and no matter how many times I politely declined, they kept at it. Eventually, out of mild desperation, I mentioned I'd been ill. That is when they stopped, took a step back, apologised and asked if I was all well now.

And I couldn't stop thinking about it afterwards. What if I hadn't been ill? What if I'd simply decided that not drinking made me feel better?

It struck me that we seem to have an unspoken rule, opting out of alcohol is only socially acceptable if you have a medical reason or a recovery story. Choosing not to drink because you just feel better for it, or because you'd rather not, doesn't appear to count. This felt to me like something worth bringing up.

Even if it’s done in the name banter or with humour, there’s always a judgemental tone behind these kind of comments. So, for anyone who doesn't drink, I hope you're feeling good about that choice, because you should be. And for anyone who does drink but sees someone being pressured or shamed for not doing so, I hope you find the courage to stand up for them.

To Product
We have a large number of Le Creuset Shallow Casseroles in stock and it struck me that maybe we hadn’t done a great job in explaining their benefits as people often overlook them in favour of the more traditional Le Creuset Round high sided casseroles. 

The low sides give you a large frying surface which makes stirring far easier. So many meals look stunning on the table in a casserole with shallow sides.  

If you aren’t looking to make high volumes of stews, and don’t plan on roasting lamb joints or a whole a whole chicken in your casserole, then a shallow casserole is likely a good choice.  For the same diameter frying surface the shallow versions of the casseroles are significantly cheaper.

For many people, one of the things that really puts them off the traditional Le Creuset Cast Iron Casseroles is the considerable weight.  Cast iron is the ideal material for cooking casseroles, but it’s not light.  Choosing a shallow sided one could give you a casserole that you are comfortable lifting on and off your stove, rather than one that you’d worry would be a danger to your wrists. 

Shallow casserole are ideal for dishes like Paella, Curries, Bolognese, Chillis, Hot Pot actually any dishes where you want to get a lot of colour on the dish or when serving you don’t want the ingredients to sink to the bottom of the pan.

For example when frying chicken thighs, in a shallow casserole the thighs will sit on top of the curry or stew, in a traditional round casserole they might sink out of sight under the sauce.   

As I said earlier, I’ve recently started making a Thai Green Curry, I chose the shallow casserole as I needed a lot of frying surface area but needed a little depth and a lid for simmering once the coconut milk is added.

Dad and I did a Thai cooking course a couple of years ago and the recipe we got to make, was this Thai Green Curry, it was just really good. The only thing that was bit of a kerfuffle was making the paste. I often don’t have the time but making a paste from scratch always adds more flavour and depth than store bought versions. Anyway, recently on my day off I decided to make this curry again, and I remembered that we had bought Thai Red Curry paste once upon a time and I thought I’d just use it up and see if it was any good. Whilst looking for that, I stumbled upon a plastic tub of Thai Green Curry paste and thought ‘jackpot’, let’s give this one a go. 

Being a fan of paste made fresh, I was really sceptical that it would be any good and the colour was a pretty dull green. We eat with our eyes, so I wasn’t hopeful of the results. I looked at the ingredients list and saw that there wasn’t any basil in it, so, I decided to add some by blending the leaves with a tiny bit of oil in our nut and spice grinder and that did the trick. When I was cooking this, I was a bit shocked by how simple it was to make but the results… omg! Well, first I put way too much paste in and it was really really hot but to my surprise, it was actually really tasty and full of flavour. 

Recipe
 Thai Green Curry

Ingredients
•    4 small red onions thinly sliced•    50g Thai Green Curry paste (100g if you like your dishes extra spicy) – I use Mae Ploy Green Curry Paste (available from Sainsburys or Asda)•    1 big bunch of basil (around 100g), blended•    2 chicken breasts diced (4 if you are big meat eaters, just add an extra tin of milk too)•    1 tin of coconut milk
 

Method
•    Fry the onions in a buffet (shallow) casserole with some salt until they are golden brown. I always add salt when I cook onions. One, to bring out the moisture which helps cook the onions quicker and two, adding salt at the beginning only increases the flavour of the ingredients but the taste of salt disappears! When we add salt at the end, we get a bit of an enhanced flavour of the ingredients but always taste salt. 
•    Blend the basil with as little oil as possible in either a mini chopper or spice and nut grinder. Adding too much oil will make the dish too oily at the end. The blending could take a bit of time due to restricting the amount of oil.
•    Add the curry paste and cook for at least 1 minute. This is to cook off the strong spices and makes it taste a bit less harsh. I used 100g of paste last time and accidently forgot to fry it off, so it was a bit unpleasantly spicy. 
•    Add the diced chicken and blended basil and stir until it’s all coated.
•    Add the tin of coconut milk. If you find it’s not wet enough for your liking, then do add another tin of coconut milk but be aware that it might dilute the taste so try just half a tin at first if you are unsure.
•    Bring to the boil and then let it simmer for about 20 minutes (the time should depend on how big or small you dice your chicken). If your curry is quite wet, then I would recommend not putting the lid on as it simmers.
 
And that is it.

Serve with rice and you can bulk out the curry with mange tout or baby sweetcorn right at the end. If it is too spicy for your liking (I hope 50g won’t be) then serve with rice, that will reduce the spice level a bit.  

If your curry is too dry for your taste then you can add coconut cream or yoghurt.

We have a number of Le Creuset shallow casseroles on offer right now.

Cast iron is the classic option, you get to pick your favourite colour but they all make your final dish look fantastic on the table, but there are also stainless steel versions that are more responsive to heat and pretty bomb proof. 

There’s also non-stick ones, which makes cleaning easier but you don’t get the same caramelisation (which is flavour) as you do with stainless steel or enamelled cast iron.     

If you decide to buy a new pan, enjoy your new baby!  

Either way, I hope you have a pleasant weekend,