Green chicken curry

(serves 6-8)

Couldn't resist getting out my Thai coconut ladle!

mMm.. Nothing like some good curry to warm you up on a cold rainy night! So this recipe makes quite a lot of curry, i may have gotten a little excited with the amount of vegetables i had stocked up in the fridge over the weekend but they are all great additions, especially the sweet potato! The cooking technique originally came from my cooking class with Yiu's A Lot of Thai in Chiang Mai during my last trip to Thailand (2008) ~ such a great day of cooking, market visiting and eating with one of my best friends Lisa! It still tasted better (and was a lot faster!) in class, but maybe that was just the lovely memories that came along with it!

Prep time: 20 min
Cooking time: 20-30 min (depending how many extra vegetables you have)


Ingredients:
1 can (120g) green curry paste (or 2 T of the strong curry paste)
1 can (560mL) coconut cream
1 can (400mL) coconut milk
250g chicken thigh fillets
1 medium eggplant (or 3-5 thai eggplant)
1 medium sweet potato
1 broccoli
6-8 mushrooms
5 T palm sugar, shaved
2-3 T fish sauce
handful of fresh basil leaves, to garnish


Method:
1. Clean the chicken with water, pat dry and cut into bite-size pieces (approx 2cm cubes).
2. Dice the eggplant, sweet potato, broccoli and mushrooms into bite-size pieces (approx 2cm cubes).
3. Heat a large pot with 2 T oil, then add the curry paste and stir until you can smell the aroma of the spices.
4. Add in half the coconut cream and keep on medium heat until you can see a thin layer of oil on top.
5. Add in the chicken and cook for 3-4 minutes, until mostly cooked.
6. Add in the rest of the coconut cream and coconut milk and bring to the boil.
7. Add in the eggplant and sweet potato and cook for 8-10 minutes, or until the eggplant is soft. Season the curry with the palm sugar and fish sauce.
8. Add the broccoli and the mushrooms and cook for another 5 minutes, or until the broccoli is soft (but not mushy).
9. Season again with palm sugar and fish sauce, if needed.
10. Serve with boiled rice and handful of fresh basil leaves!