The mange tout peas are proving to be
one of my most productive crops. Very nice straight off the plant, or
stir fry would be my usual default cook but I wanted to try something
different.
Somehow I got it in my head that I would do a Thai curry.
I have never done a Thai curry before and to be quite honest I don't
really know how it differs from a non-Thai curry, except that I think
it should have lemongrass in it. So I picked up some lemongrass at
the supermarket the other day, as well as some spring onions which I
thought would be appropriate, and hoped that I be able to cobble the
rest of the ingredients together from the fridge/freezer/cupboards.
I thought that it would be a good idea
at least get some sort of recipe to work to. I found one about how to
make a Thai curry paste but had barely any of the components, and
another for Thai vegetables with coconut milk. As it was I basically
ended up making something up. We are trying to clear a bit of space
in the freezer for more ice-cream so I decided to use up some of the
white fish that we have stored away from various bargain purchases.
Matt kindly helped out by defrosting.
The curry also had in it (in addition
to the mange tout, lemongrass, fish and spring onions):
- Groundnut oil – in preference to olive oil, I thought it would be more authentically Thai (or at least more Thai than olives)
- Red pepper – I sliced this thinly and put it in to fry off before anything else. Red pepper never seems to cook enough so I wanted to give it a fighting chance
- Celery – the recipe had this in. I wouldn't usually put it in curry but didn't see that it could do too much harm
- Chilli – I put a whole one in (chopped) and just had to hope that this wouldn't make it too hot. Following my most recent chilli incident I am being most wary of touching my eyes / lips etc
- Cumin – Matt's favourite spice
- Ginger – my favourite spice
- Sweet potato – grated. The recipe suggested one and a half cups of grated pumpkin. I didn't have any pumpkin but was intrigued by this kind of thing so used a sweet potato instead. I don't like using “cups” as a measurement because it is not specific as to what size cup it should be or how densely packed the ingredient should be in it. So I used one medium sweet potato. It looked just like grated carrot and I am contemplating its possible role in a cake.
- Coconut milk, lime juice and vegetable stock – added as it was all looking rather dry.
- Broccoli – probably not very Thai but I love it. I put this in right towards the end so it steamed in all the vapour.
Due to my inability to reliably cook rice I would have been quite happy to eat the
curry without any accompanying carbohydrate, but Matt volunteered to
do some rice for us. As usual his rice came out perfectly. When I try
to replicate his method I still fail.
We were a bit unsure as to how edible
this would be – Matt suggested that it would be somewhere on the
spectrum between average and excellent (it did smell good). I had
barely followed any recipe and all the quantities were guesstimated.
With the lemongrass I had used an ingredient that has never before
graced my kitchen shelves, I sliced it up a little bit and crushed it a
little bit before putting it in the pan; we decided that we wouldn't
eat it and pulled the little woody bits out as we went along. But now
I'm kind of curious to know what it would have tasted like.
The verdict on the whole thing was that
it was towards the excellent end of the spectrum, but that it could
have taken a little more spicing. Matt may regret saying that as next
time I'll put two chillies in.
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