Veg Thai Red Curry

Veg Thai Red Curry is one of the curries from Thai cuisine. The preparation of the curry requires vegetables, thick coconut milk and herbs. It is usually a spicy curry and served commonly with rice.

I had this curry for the first time at an island resort at Malaysia. Later I made it by using ready made pastes. After making the paste at home, I was really impressed upon the taste and don't feel like using the ready made one.

Measurement: 1 Cup = 180 ml
Serves: 2 to 3

Ingredients:

1. Thai red curry paste - 2 tbsp
2. Onion (diced) - 1
3. Bell pepper (diced) - 1
4. Vegetables of your choice (broccoli, carrot, french beans, cauliflower, mushrooms, baby corn, zucchini, eggplant, tomato) - as per your requirement
5. Kaffir lime leaves - 2 
6. Pandanus leaf - 2"piece
7. Coconut oil/ refined oil - 1 tbsp
8. Coconut milk (thick) - 250 ml pack
9. Corn flour/ maida - 1.5 tsp
10. Water/ vegetable stock - 1 cup
11. Sugar - 1 tsp
12. Salt to taste

Procedure:

• Boil vegetables except mushrooms and tomatoes, keep aside
• Heat oil and saute onion. 
• Add thai red curry paste, saute it.
• Add bell pepper and mushrooms. 
• Add water/ vegetable stock and bring it to boil.
• Add boiled vegetables.
• Add cornflour/ maida by mixing with water.
• Add kaffir lime leaves and pandanus leaf.
• Pour coconut milk.
• Add tomatoes.
• Add sugar and salt to taste. 
• Simmer for 5 min and serve hot with steamed rice.

For the Red Curry paste:

Ingredients:

1. Coriander seeds - 1/4 tsp
2. Cumin seeds - 1/4 tsp
3. White peppercorns - 1.5 tsp
4. Red spur chillies/Kashmiri mirchi - 5
5. Galangal (sliced) - 1.5 tsp
6. Garlic cloves (chopped) - 8
7. Shallots (sliced) - 2 or small red onion (chopped) - 1
8. Coriander roots and stem (chopped) - 1 tsp
9. Lemongrass stalk (chopped) - 1 tsp
10. Kaffir lime peel/ kaffir lemon peel (only the green portion) of 1/3rd lemon
11. Salt - 1/4 tsp

Procedure:

• Soak red chillies in warm water for at least  20 min.
• Take a mortar and pestle, pound ingredients numbering 1 to 3. Keep the powder aside.
• Cut red chillies into small pieces and pound them. 
• Add remaining ingredients one by one and pound.
• Add dry powder that was kept aside to it and pound slightly.
• Use the paste for making curry.

Tip:

• The other two flavours of the curry are yellow and green.
• Pandanus leaf is the one, which smells like basmati rice. It is contained in the thai fresh herbs mix pack.
• Pineapple can also be used in the preparation of curry.
• Use of mortar and pestle is very important to get the proper taste. Use of blender does not give a good taste.
• These pastes are readily available in super stores / hyper markets.