Understanding Thai Curries

What's so great about Thai curry for me is anyone can make it from a fairly simple recipe and you can vary it quite a lot to suit your own taste providing you're careful what ingredients you change always bearing in mind that some ingredients have a much more potent flavours than others and can overpower your meal, so give it a little thought.

So lets start with the different types of Thai curry: First off there are two base styles of curry.....

1. Thai curry - Thai curry uses coconut mlk

2. Issan curry - Issan versions use water (Issan is a region in the north of Thailand)

This is important to know when ordering curry "in" Thailand, because in many restaurants, if you just order say, "chicken red curry", it is very disappointing to receive a watery dish as opposed to the lovely coconut version you were expecting. (or vise versa) In typical Thai style they will rarely ask which you want they will decide for you.

Don't be surprised if you get Issan curry in the south, Thais' move around a lot. Personally I prefer the creamy taste of a well made coconut version but not everyone likes coconut and in fact some folks are allergic.

Here's the top tip:

If you want the Issan version ask for "gaeng paar" which is the generic name for Issan style curry

Colour is the straight forward answer Red, Green and Yellow

These colours are derived form the ingredients used in the curry paste which is added to the coconut milk in the early stages of cooking

The recipes fo curry pastes are also many and varied revolving around the same basic ingredients,

Red curry paste: - is made using red chillies

Green curry paste: - is made using green chillies,

What a surprise!

There is a surprise, because yellow curry doesn't get it's colour from yellow chillies

Yellow curry paste: on the other hand derives it's colour from fresh turmeric which is also included in red curry but in a much smaller amount. Thai Yellow curry tends to be creamier as it uses coconut cream in addition to milk in the cooking stage.

But hey, if you want creamy red of green curry stick some in there too, but bear in mind what I said earlier about balance, coconut cream will temper the heat of the chillies, which is why a lot of folks prefer Yellow curry because it is not generally as spicy.

So on to the next choices......

These are two curry styles on their own.

Massaman Curry is a muslim influenced curry and derives its influence from India, again a coconut based curry. The word massaman is believed to be derived from the old word for muslim - Musulman

Apart from starting with massaman curry paste, the curry itself uses bay leaves instead of lime leaves and includes cardomum, turmeric, cinnamon, cumin, cloves and nutmeg which are not found in traditional Thai curries except occasionally, in minute quantities or in some curry pastes

Gallee Curry which also uses coconut is not even a Thai curry, although sold all over Thailand, gallee actually means Indian curry which is what it is, but worth a mention.

So what's next?

Red Curry with Fried Chicken (Choo Chee Gai Tod)

Ingredients:

2-3 Chicken Thighs (thighs are best for tenderness)

3-4 Thai Chillies (Pik Ki Nu)

1/3 Cup Red/Green Sweet peppers (bell pepper)

3 Large Kaffir Lime Leafs

1 ½ Cups Coconut Milk

2 Cups of sunflower oil

2 tbs Fish Sauce

2 tbs Sugar

1 tbs Red Curry Paste

1 Chicken stock cube

Preparation:

Cut the chicken open to expose the bones, and slice some cuts into the flesh to ensure even cooking, leave the skin on, then soak in half the fish sauce for 20-30 minutes

Cut red/green peppers and chillies and keep them to one side together

Slice kaffir lime leaves very finely, tear first, roll up and then slice off the roll

Cooking Instructions:

Heat the oil into a wok and bring to medium heat, add the chicken, fry until you get a golden brown colour, remove and leave to drain

Pour 2/3 of the coconut milk into the wok, bring to boil, turn down heat & simmer until it reduces and becomes a creamy consistency. During this process the coconut milk will crack and separate.

Add the red curry paste & stir constantly until you have a great smell & colour (you will know)

Add remaining fish sauce, sugar, stock cube and continue stirring. When it's all blended nicely, pour in the remaining coconut milk.

Add red/green peppers & chillies, stir 3-4 minutes then add half the chopped kaffir lime leaves, a quick final stir and take off heat

Cut up the fried chicken as per photo

Put on a plate, pour the curry on top and sprinkle the remaining kaffir lime leaves on top to finish

Serving Suggestion:

Serve with a portion of the ever popular Jasmine rice, some cucumber slices and lettuce on the side. As a complimentary dish, I would recommend Pork and lettuce soup a wonderful balance of light and delicate flavours to contrast beautifully with the curry