thai green curry with jasmine rice

thai food is so wonderfully sensuous to cook. just washing the lemongrass before cutting it leaves a lovely scent on the fingers which last all evening long. and then there's thai basil which is much more fragrant than regular basil. galangal, cilantro and lime also add to the fresh flavour blasts one gets when cooking thai.

i made green curry last night from a kit i bought at waitrose, london's version of wholefoods. even though the vegetables came pre-cut, i felt like i was making the recipe from scratch as i made the paste in my blender from all the ingredients provided - shallots, green chillis, garlic, galangal, lemongrass, thai basil, cilantro and lime.



trim the ends of the lemongrass and place in a food processor or liquidiser, together with the shallots, garlic, zest of the lime and 1/2 tsp each of ground coriander, ground cumin and black peppercorns. add 4-5 tbsp cold water and 1 tbsp vegetable oil and blend to a smooth paste. the lemon grass is really hard on the blade of the food processor so take care not to have the green curry spray all over the counter.



heat 1 tbsp vegetable oil in a medium pan and gently fry the paste for 1-2 minutes. stir in 1/2 of a 400ml can coconut milk and cubed tofu.



simmer for 2 minutes until the tofu is piping hot. add the juice of 1/2 lime and season with a little salt. garnish with leftover coriander and the thinly sliced remaining chilli. serve with jasmine rice. i also made a vegetable stir-fry to enjoy with the green curry and rice.



ps - now that i am writing this recipe for you, i just realised that i used the whole can of coconut milk. no wonder the curry seemed light green and not as rich in colour as i was expecting after all that fresh basil and coriander!