Curry

I like curries, so at some point I decided to try to make some myself. I pretty much failed at imitating restaurant dishes, but I did eventually home in on a curry-like dish that I think is pretty good. Here's the "recipe". I highly doubt it will be very useful to anyone (except for me, in case I forget it), but whatever.

Ingredients:
Rice
Chicken Breast
Mushrooms
Broccoli
Oil
Thai Kitchen Red Curry Paste
Thai Kitchen Coconut Milk
Fish Sauce
Soy Sauce
Lime Juice (unsweetened)
Sugar
Ginger

1. Prepare the rice however you like. I like white basmati rice. 2.5 cups is a good amount.

2. Wash and chop up the broccoli and get it ready to steam. I don't know how much broccoli to use except that it's this much. When the rice is done, steam the broccoli. I put it in a steamer insert in a pot with 1cm of water, and it takes 7 minutes to steam from the moment I turn the pot on high.

The broccoli in the picture is not yet chopped.


3. Wash and slice the mushrooms. I usually get mushrooms such as those pictured. I recommend getting more than 16 though - maybe 24.


4. Start the main pan. Fry maybe 2 tablespoons of curry paste in a bit of oil for a couple minutes. It doesn't really matter. Then dump in a can of coconut milk.

The picture shows only some of the coconut milk added. Put it all in.

Mix it up and let it simmer a bit.


5. Add a little bit of soy sauce. This is maybe one shake if the bottle has a standard small aperture. Add maybe 5 shakes of fish sauce, and a couple tablespoons of lime juice. Also, throw in a couple tablespoons of brown sugar.

This step requires you to taste it. The sauce should be spicier, sweeter, sourer and fishier than you think it should be, because the chicken and vegetables will dilute the flavor a lot.


6. Put the mushrooms in the pan. Then dice the chicken (1lb to 1.5lb), and add that too. The chicken is the only thing you're cooking in the pan that you care about not overcooking, which is why it's basically last. You want to cook it at medium heat, with the sauce right around the boiling point, for about 4 minutes. Make sure to stir it around a bit so every side gets cooked.

Also, grate a stick of ginger approximately the size of a large thumb into the sauce while the chicken is cooking. If you have some random spices such as cardamom lying around go ahead and throw them in too.


7. Add the broccoli. Serve with rice.


This dish is fairly spicy for a dish, but not for a curry. Also, it is a very friendly spiciness. I wish I knew the actual quantities of things I put in, but unfortunately the best I can do is pictures. Ah well.