Cooking with Jawsua: Thai Red Curry แกงเผ็ด (Kaeng Phet)

Hello All,

So I have been on a ridiculous curry kick the past month or so. It is a comfort food but with a fresh and healthy twist. A win-win if you ask me. Over the past few weeks I have tried out green, panang, and yellow curry recipes, and this week I thought I would take on red curry. I hadn't cooked this kind of curry before but I thought that this blog would be a good example of what goes through my mind when I tackle a new dish. If you are a fan of the other curries, don't worry, I will blog about them soon enough. Red curry has a spicy herbal fragrance and taste, and has more of a soup like consistency than other curries. It is most popular in central plains region of Thailand, around Bangkok. (Sorry, had to do the geography lesson. haha)

Central Thai Plains Region

The recipe of red curry that I decided to work off of came from the website Temple of Thai. I have used recipes from the website before and they turned out really well. I figured it was a trusty source to begin my blog with. The recipe called for these ingredients:

Temple of Thai Red Curry

3 Tablespoons of red curry paste
4 cups coconut milk
2 lbs (1 kg) small chicken drumsticks or chicken in small pieces (about 1.5" x 2")
3 cups (600 grams) pumpkin pieces (about 1" x 1.5")
2 cups lightly packed fresh sweet basil or 4 kaffir lime leaves

I decided to tweak the recipe a little and move away from the Asian pumpkin (known to many as kabocha) and go to vegetables that are popular in the central plains of Thailand. While I have used Asian pumpkin quite a bit in Korean cooking, I was looking for something a little lighter and more fragrant, to fit in with the spring like weather we have been having in Oregon. In replacement of the Asian pumpkin I decided to go with a mix of Thai eggplant, bamboo shoots, white onion, and carrot. Thai eggplant and bamboo and very popular central Thai ingredients, white onion adds great fragrance, and carrot makes up for some of the loss sweetness that the pumpkin had. I also made a few tweaks to the chicken and lime leaves that I will explain in my recipe. With out further ado, here is my first recipe from Cooking with Jawsua!

Josh's Thai Red Curry

Ingredients (Serves about 4):

4 cups of coconut milk
3 tablespoons of red curry paste
2 large boneless skinless chicken breasts cut in thin strips (roughly 1 to 1 1/2 lbs)
5 Thai eggplants quartered
1 8 oz can of sliced bamboo shoots
1/2 cup of onion chunks
1/2 cup of sliced carrots
4 finely chopped kaffir lime leaves
1 tablespoon of fish sauce
1/2 tablespoon of palm sugar
2 1/2 cups of Thai basil

Directions:

Pour 4 cups of coconut milk into a large pan. On medium heat bring to a slight boil. I encourage people to buy cans of coconut milk from your nearest Asian grocery store. It is about two dollars cheaper a can. I go to Fubonn on 82nd St. in Portland.
Add 3 tablespoons of red curry paste to pan and blend with milk. I use canned curry paste but I hope to eventually start making my own. With the curry paste that I buy, 3 tablespoons is half the can.
Add strips of chicken breast. Bring back to boil. I thought that it would be much healthier and easier to eat the curry with chicken breast versus drumsticks. Some flavor is lost by doing this though. An alternative could be to cut up a whole chicken and keep the skin on.
Add quartered Thai eggplant, sliced bamboo shoots, onion chunks, and sliced carrot, and chopped kaffir lime leaves to curry. Cook for around 10 minutes or until veggies just start to get a little soft. I think that the veggies in curry are a best when they are a little al dente. They still keep their flavor but it is not too overpowering and gives a chance for some of those flavors to meld into the coconut milk. If you aren't a fan of one of these veggies. Just cut it out and add a little more of the others, or go with less or more veggies overall. Have fun with it!

Some of you might be asking "What the heck are Thai eggplants???" The best way to describe is to just show a picture.

You can also get these at Asian grocery stores. Don't have one next to you? I say it would be best to just skip it, but you could also use purple eggplant. The original recipe called for kaffir lime leaves to be added at the end and only as an alternative to basil. I love the slight flavor of lime leaves though, and they are edible when smaller, so I thought it would be smart to chop them up and add them earlier so that their flavor infuses more into the curry.
Add a tablespoon of fish sauce and 1/2 a tablespoon of palm sugar. When taste testing my curry I thought that it was just a hair off and could use a little more sweetness from the palm sugar and savory flavor from the fish sauce. In my opinion I was spot on. I encourage to cater to your tastes though. Cane sugar can be used in place of palm sugar but the taste is not as authentic.
Turn off stove and add 2 1/2 cups of Thai basil. I love Thai basil. It is a little on the sweet side and makes dishes taste and smell very fresh and light. The original recipe called for 2 cups, but I felt like it needed just a bit more.
Plate up bowl with a side of Thai jasmine rice and enjoy! Too cook jasmine rice I rinse the rice and then do 1 1/2 parts water to 1 part rice. I bring to a boil on the stove and then cover and simmer for 30 min.

I hope you enjoyed reading my first recipe and found it easy to follow and educational. I am receptive to any feedback, both positive and constructive. If you have an opinion on the blog or the recipe, let me know in the comments. This is definitely a spicy curry dish. I will be doing more mild curry dishes in the near future. That being said, I hope you all get a chance to try the dish soon!