Prawns in Thai Red Curry Recipe

Prawns have become my latest favourites. They're easy to cook and yummy to eat. How can you stop yourself from falling in love with them?

My latest attempt in the kitchen was making Prawns in Thai Red Curry. The curry is fragrant with lemongrass and kaffir lime and heat of chillies, garlic and galangal soothed by coconut milk. Prawns pair very well with it.

Have this flavourful curry with steamed rice (use jasmine rice if you can find it!) and have yourself a bowlful of comfort!

Prawns in Thai Red Curry Recipe

Preparation Time: 15 minutes
Cooking Time: 10 minutes

Ingredients:

2 tbsps peanut oil
200 gms prawns deshelled and deveined
4 tbsps Thai red curry paste (recipe here)
2 cups coconut milk
6-7 Thai basil leaves (optional)
Salt to taste

Method

In a pan, heat the oil.

Add in the prawns and Thai basil leaves. Fry for about 30 seconds.

Next, add the thai curry paste and coat the prawns well with it.

Add in the coconut milk and salt and bring to a boil.

Lower the flame and simmer for a minute till prawns are done. Do not  boil the coconut milk too much or it will go bad in the curry.

Pour over steamed rice and relish!

Thai Raw Mango Salad Recipe

The first time I had this salad was in Singapore. We were having lunch at my husband's best friend's favourite place to have Thai food in a local food court. (Side note: If you're in Singapore and want to try South East Asian cuisines, local food courts are the best way to do it!). We had a feast that day of Thai dishes I'd never even heard of in India. This was one of them. And of course, because of my love for raw mangoes and Thai flavours, it instantly became a favourite.

Thai Raw Mango Salad Recipe

This salad is a burst of flavours in your mouth. It has fruity sourness from the mango, saltiness from soya sauce, pungency from chilly flakes, spice from the garlic and spring onions and sweetness from sugar. It covers the balance of tastes and freshness of ingredients that lie at the core of Thai cuisine.

Thai Raw Mango Salad Recipe

 This salad makes for a great side dish to any Asian meal.You can serve it at barbecues too for an extra zing!


Thai Raw Mango Salad Recipe

Preparation Time: 10 minutes

Assembly Time: 5 minutes

Serves: 4

Ingredients:

For the Salad

2 medium sized raw mangoes
2 spring onions
1/4th cup roasted peanuts
2 tbsps finely chopped corriander leaves

For the Dressing

2 tsps fish sauce or dark soya sauce
1 tsps lemon juice
1 bird's eye chilly finely chopped or 1 tsp chilli flakes
2 cloves of garlic finely chopped
2 tbsps sugar

Salt if needed

Method

Wash the mangoes well and julienne them. A large-sized grater works well for this. Thinly slice the spring onions and mix them with the mango. Deskin the roasted peanuts and break them roughly with your hands. Add this in to the salad mix.

Whisk together the dressing ingredients. Pour over the salad. Mix it in well with your hands, crushing a little to bring out the flavours. Taste and add more sugar if the mangoes are very sour.

Serve immediately.

Three Step Broccoli Salad Recipe

I recently appeared for the final exams of my Masters course... and like all exam times I ended up having a very hectic schedule everyday. This schedule left me no time for making elaborate lunches and dinners. And rather than rely on preservative-laden instant foods or heavily oily and spicy restaurant food, I prefer to make quick meals of soups and salads. One such recipe I 'came up' with during these exams (when I was supposed to be focussed on studying) was this quick broccoli salad.

Three Step Broccoli Salad

The three-step broccoli salad can be made in 5 minutes and is light, filling and tasty. In this salad, the typical pungent and astringent flavour of broccoli combines well with the sweet, spicy and sour Thai Sweet Chilli sauce based dressing. 

Three Step Broccoli Salad Up Close

This salad can be had by itself for a light yet filling summer meal. It can also be had as a side-dish with a meal of Thai Red Curry or Thai Green Curry and steamed rice. Here's how you can enjoy this salad at your home:

Three Step Broccoli Salad Recipe

Preparation Time: 8 minutes

Assembly Time: 2 minutes

Total Time: 10 minutes

Serves: 2

Ingredients:

2 cups broccoli florets

3 cups water

1 tbsp toasted sesame seeds

A pinch of salt

For the dressing

1 tsp lemon juice

2 tbsps Thai Sweet Chilly Sauce

Method

Step 1: Bring the water to a boil in a sauce pan with a pinch of salt. Add broccoli florets for two minutes. Drain and run under cold water. 

Step 2: Mix together the lemon juice and the Thai Sweet Chilly Sauce.

Step 3: Pour the dressing over the florets and garnish with sesame seeds.

And voila! Your salad is ready to eat! 

Thai Green Curry

The first time I was introduced to the Thai green curry was in 2010. My best friend had just returned from England after her post-graduation. We had gone to get our quota of some good, intellectual movie or a mindless one (I can't remember which one it was, but yeah, we watch both kinds!) and the mall had a Thai restaurant. My friend turned to me and squealed in her characteristic way that it had been so long since she had had some Thai food. Well, what was to be done? We went in.

I trusted her to order, not having eaten much of Thai food back then. She ordered the green curry as it was her favourite. And I fell in love with it too! I have been cooking for so long, and I have made Thai Red Curry often at home, but this has been a recipe I have not felt confident enough to attempt somehow. I tried it recently and it turned out to be as good as the restaurant one, so here is my recipe of this green soothing
goodness!

Thai Green Curry from Scratch

Thai Green Curry

Thai Green Curry

Preparation Time: 20 minutes

Cooking Time: 15 minutes

Total Time: 35 minutes

Serves: 4

Ingredients

For the Green Curry Paste

1/2 cup tightly packed Thai basil leaves
1 cup tightly packed fresh corriander leaves
1 lemongrass stalk thinly sliced
3 kaffir lime leaves thinly shredded
1 inch piece of galangal or 1/2 inch piece of ginger
4 cloves of garlic
1 medium onion sliced
2 green chillies
1 tsp soya sauce
1 tsp corriander powder
1/2 cumin powder

For the Thai Green Curry

2 tbsps oil (peanut or olive)
1 medium green bell pepper diced into 1 inch cubes
1 medium red bell pepper diced into 1 inch cubes

1 medium yellow bell pepper diced into 1 inch cubes
5 baby corns cut into 3-4 pieces each
6-8 button mushrooms cut into half lengthwise (optional)
6-8 broccoli florets (optional)
6-7 Thai brinjals cut into half (optional)
3 tbsps Thai Green Curry paste
400 ml fresh coconut milk (thick)
Salt to taste

Method

Grind together the green curry paste ingredients with about 1-2 tsps water in a mixer/ food processor till a smooth paste is formed. And that is your green curry paste that people buy in stores!

To make the curry, heat oil in a pan.

Add in all the vegetables - the bell peppers, the baby corns, the mushrooms, the broccoli florets, and the Thai brinjals and saute till the vegetables are cooked.

Now put in the Thai Green Curry paste and mix well with the sauteed vegetables.

Finally add in the coconut milk and stir. Bring the curry to a boil while you keep stirring.

Add in salt. Be careful, Thai brinjals add a salty flavour to the curry, so taste and then add based on how much salt you'll need.

Serve with steamed rice. No, it doesn't taste good with any form of bread. It is to be had only with rice or noodles.

Thai Green Curry with Steamed Rice (the ONLY way to eat it!)

Thai Style Red Cabbage Salad with Mint

Salads are healthy and filling but the real reason I eat them are because they are tasty and easy to make! I am not lazy when it comes to cooking but its great once in a while to take time off and just chop some stuff up add a dressing and just enjoy the meal. Salads to me are also a great way to play around with textures and minimal flavours and make it really fun to experiment with!

This is again a recipe I found online but I have adapted it to the ingredients commonly found in an Indian vegetarian kitchen except the red cabbage which however is easily found nowadays at your local vegetable vendor!

Thai Style Red Cabbage Salad with Mint

For the salad

1 small red cabbage shredded
1/2 medium sized green cabbage shredded
1/4 cup mint leaves shredded
1/2 cup spring onion greens chopped
1/2 cup roasted peanuts broken down coarsely by hand

Contrasting purples

For the dressing

2 tbsps olive oil
1 tsp soy sauce
1 tbsp lemon juice
1/2 tbsp sugar
1-2 tsps chilli flakes (depending on how spicy you like it)
Salt to taste

Mix all the salad vegetables, pour the dressing and then add the peanuts last to preserve their crunch. Refrigerate for some time (about 20-30 minutes) before serving.

The photo Contrasting Purples is for The Colour Me Photography Challenge Series

Thai Red Curry

Look at the beauty of the thick red curry below. I wish I could share the refreshing spicy lemongrassy coconut-y fragrance rising from it and I made it from scratch!

I stumbled upon Thai Red Curry at 14 when one of my favourite restaurants Monis, one of the oldest restaurants in Thane, introduced new dishes in their menu. I took a chance despite reading coconut and I fell in love at first bite! Since then it has always been my preferred order at the restaurant and even at Thai restaurants with a wider menu, I still order this comforting meal.

I have tried to figure out how to make it without having to buy the readymade pastes and having to hunt for the ingredients all over the world! I have finally attempted and cracked the recipe for an Indian kitchen with most of the ingredients now most commonly found in one. The only new ingredient we don't find are the lime leaves, but a trip to Crawford helped me with it. I am sure they are available with certain vegetable vendors (hey now they stock lettuce and cherry tomatoes and broccoli et al!) and next time I will look for them there.

Thai Red Curry (Vegetarian)

For the red curry paste

7-8 whole kashmiri chillies soaked in water for at least 3-4 hours

1 onion

6-8 cloves of garlic

1/2 inch piece of ginger

2 lemon grass leaves

5-6 Kaffir lime leaves (which the vegetable vendor I got from called it nimbu ka patta!)

1 tbsp dhania-jeera powder

Salt to taste

For the curry

1/2 medium sized red pepper diced

1/2 medium sized yellow pepper diced

1/2 medium sized green pepper diced

4-5 baby corns diced

200 ml coconut milk

2 tbsps olive or peanut oil

Salt to taste

Method

Grind the chillies, onion, garlic, ginger, lemon grass, Kaffir lime leaves dhania-jeera powder and salt to make a smooth paste.

In a deep frying pan, heat the oil, add the vegetables and toss them till they are a bit glossy. Add the red curry paste prepared as above and the coconut milk with the salt. Cook till it comes to a boil, you can add a bit of water for adjusting the consistency as you like it.

Serve it with a heap of hot steaming rice.