Thai Curry

A lot of people don't know how easy it is to make the Thai curry dishes (the kind with coconut milk) that is served at restaurants.  It is basically assembly work if you have the right ingredients.  Since we learned how to do this, we almost never eat Thai out anymore.  In our world, that is a good thing!  So I'm passing the info along to you.

The key ingredient, for us, are the seasoning cans.  They look like this, and can be found in most Asian food markets, and maybe even in some grocery stores.  (If you live in Chicago, try the grocery stores on Argyle.)  If you can't find these, a general red or green curry paste will do.  But these are way cheaper, and the flavors are a lot better:

You can experiment with which flavors you like best.  At 65 cents per can, it's hard to go wrong.

For us, the rest of the ingredients are as follows:

A can of coconut milk (sorry, the low fat kind just doesn't work), extra firm tofu, and fresh basil (dried will do in a pinch).  That and jasmine rice (experimented with other rice, and the flavor isn't the same, but of course you use whatever you have.)  Depending on the flavor, we also sometimes add cubed potatoes (just dice and cook before adding) or peanuts.  But most often we keep it simple.  Really, though, you can use whatever sounds good to you.

Here is the technique we learned:

1. First, rinse and cook the jasmine rice.  We rise ours using a small-hole strainer under running water until the water runs relatively clear through it. You might need to grab it a few times with your hands to release some of the crud that is inevitably on there.  Put the rinsed rice in a pan, and we make 2 cups of rice with a little less than 3 cups water.  Close the lid and bring the rice and water to a boil.  The second it begins to boil, turn the heat down as low as your stove will possibly go.  Leave the lid on until the rice is fully cooked.  (I think this takes about 15-20 minutes with jasmine rice?  But really we just sneak bites until we taste that it has the desired texture.)
2. Once the rice is almost finished, dump the entire can of coconut milk into your wok.  Turn the heat on to high, and stir until the milk starts to bubble and simmer.  Keep stirring!  You want just a nice rolling "boil" going, but you don't want to BOIL boil it.  Just get it moving and keep it moving with your stirring utensil (we use a wooden spatula; use whatever works) until it is bubbling.
3. Once you've got the milk heated, add the can of seasoning.  It is in the form of a paste.  I drop it into the center of the wok.  Get it all out of the little can, and then stir it all in to the coconut milk.  This takes about a minute; just keep stirring until it is all evenly blended.  You can leave the heat on high if you're going to immediately add your other ingredients.  If you still need a minute of prep on those, turn the heat down to medium.  Just stir it every so often so nothing burns to the wok.  (We don't use non-stick pans.)
4. For us, we usually already have the tofu pressed and diced.  If not, do that now.  We often cut them into small strips so there is a lot of surface area, but cut it however it makes you happy.  I don't know how to cook meat, but if you use meat, prep it however necessary. 
   
5. Add the tofu as soon as you can to the flavored coconut milk mixture.  The tofu needs some time to absorb the flavor.  This is also where we add the cooked diced potatoes if we are using them.  (Potatoes are especially good with the Masaman flavoring.)  The only thing you reserve at this point is the basil.  Don't add it yet.
   
6. Let the mixture hang out a little.  Maybe 3-4 minutes?  You don't want to cook it so long that the coconut mixture reduces, but long enough to get the flavors into everything.  You don't need to stir constantly, but again, try to keep it moving so it doesn't stick to the side of the wok. 
   
7. When you're about finished, add the fresh basil.  It goes in just long enough to wilt.  Once it has wilted and is mixed throughout your slurry, take everything off the heat.  (If you use dry basil, just sprinkle some in here and give it a stir.) 
   
8. Eat!  We usually just slop some jasmine rice into a bowl, glop the mixture on top of it, and scarf it down!  The whole process takes no more than a half hour (most of it in the rice cooking, actual assembly maybe 10?) and it is always good.  We eat this once or twice a week.

Thanks to John-Patrick's uncle, Chai Intarachot, for teaching us this method!