Thai Chicken Curry

Thai Chicken Curry
Serves 4

This dish takes a lot of preparation, although only a few minutes to cook. Before you start make sure you have all the ingredients freshly prepared. As soon as you cut the lemon grass, ginger etc, they starts to loose their flavour, so it is best to prepare them just before you need them.

450 – 550 g diced chicken (depending on appetites)
2 tbs sunflower or rapeseed oil.
6 shallots – roughly chopped
1 red pepper – diced into pieces about 5cm square
Small or 1/2 tin straw mushrooms (optional)
2 cloves garlic, chopped
5cm piece ginger, cut into matchsticks
1 or 2 chilies (depends on how hot you like it and how hot the chilies are)
4 sticks lemon grass, cut into thin slices
1 tin coconut milk
2 – 3 tbs fish sauce
Juice and zest of 2 limes
4 Kaffir lime leaves
2 tbs chopped coriander

1. Prepare all the ingredients.
2. In a saucepan, large enough for all the ingredients, heat the oil.
3. Add the shallots and saute for 5 minutes.
4. Add the peppers and saute gently for a further 5 minutes. The shallots and peppers want to keep their colour.
5. Add the garlic, ginger, lemongrass and chili. Stir for 1 minute.
6. Add the fish sauce and coconut milk. Fill the coconut milk tin with water and add this to the mixture. Bring to a gentle simmer.
7. Add the diced chicken. Cook gently for 15 minutes.
8. Add lime leaves, lime juice and zest.
9. Cook for a further 10 – 20 minutes until chicken cooked.
10. Add the chopped coriander, stir in and taste. If you think it needs salt, try adding some more fish sauce.

Serve with Thai sticky rice and broccoli that has been tossed in sesame oil and