Thai Red Chicken Curry with Steamed Noodles

It all started with a sale at HyperCity.

On my way back home from college, I noticed that HyperCity had an ‘Upto 70% off’. I started hyperventilating. (‘ Upto 70% off on everything?! Even the Gourmet Section?! Oh my God!’) I cursed my luck for not being an earning individual at that very moment, I could’ve walked in with my card and walked out with the store. But instead, I would now had to go home and beg my mother to accompany me to Hypercity with her card, like a lowly non-earning individual. (Is this how normal people feel when there is a Happiness Sale at Shoppers Stop?)

 

Thankfully, my mother being the crockery loving creature that she is duly agreed, and then paid very little attention to the gazillion bottles and jars I snuck into the cart. This gorgeous Thai Red Curry Paste was one of them. Even then I had known, that this paste would be used to create extra-ordinary things.

I could forsee the caramelized protein, I could sense the sweetness of the peppers, I could imagine the subtle hint of coconut and the fiery flavours of the paste itself. It was a meal made in heaven.

And last week, when I finally got around to making this Thai Red Curry, I realised that it truly was.

 

Make some respectful space for, the Thai Red Chicken Curry.

 

 

 

Thai Red Chicken Curry

 

Serves : 2 hungry people.

Difficulty : A tad bit tricky. But if you can boil Pasta and don’t cut yourself while chopping vegetables, go ahead please.

Preparation Time : 5-10 minutes.

Cook Time : 20-25 minutes

 

Ingredients

• 150 gms of Chicken (Vegetarian Substitue – Paneer/Tofu. Else just leave this out)
• 1 medium sized onion
• 1 Capsicum/Green Bell Pepper
• 1 Red Bell Pepper (If you are feeling fancing, half yellow and half red bell pepper)
• 1 lemongrass stalk
• 3-4 Mushrooms
• 2 tbsp Thai Red Curry Paste
• 100 ml Coconut Milk
• 2 tsp Cornflour
• 3 tsp Oil (I used Olive oil)
• 2 tsp sugar
• Pinch of Salt
• A packet of Noodles

 

We start off by working on the Thai Red Curry.

Prepping the vegetables.

We slice the bell peppers.

 

Slicing the onions.

 

Slicing the mushrooms.

 

And slicing off some inches of the lemongrass till we get this wonderful bunch of vegetables.

There is something very refreshing about fresh vegetables. So gorgeous.

 

Now, add the oil to a frying pan. Let it warm up a bit. DO NOT let it get to smoking point. Else, be prepared to be covered in hot oil.

Once the oil feels warm-ish(run hand over pan), drop in the chicken.

 

 

Fry them for 3-4 minutes on each side till the chicken becomes opaque, and gets this golden brown tinge.

 

The chicken is mostly cooked at this stage, it’ll get completely cooked when it simmers in the sauce later.

(Vegetarian friends, just do the same thing with your substitutions, won’t you? Thanks.)

Now, drop in the sliced onions.

Stir them around in the oil. (Yum. To be caramelized onions)

 

Drop in the Lemongrass stalk bits. You can totally skip this if you can’t locate any.

(Though you should get them at any Nature’s Basket outlet, or Hypercity)

 

After stirring them around for a minute or so, in go the veggies.

 

Stir, stir, stir you go. Till the mushrooms shrink up, and the peppers have wilted a bit.  Say about 2 minutes?

 

Then, drop in 2 spoons of the thai curry paste.

Thai Curry Paste, what a lovely strong aroma you have.

(Please please *please* do invest in a bottle of good Thai Curry Paste. Its lovely, ubiquitous and  once you make this, believe me, a weekly dinner is set.)

(Oh, you’ll get these almost anywhere these days. I got this Thai Red Curry paste from HyperCity. I’ve also seen this paste available at Nature’s Basket as well. Quite cheap, so highly sustainable.)

Coat everything in the paste. Till all you see, is red.

 

Now, for the coconut water.

Well, I had this coconut milk powder lying around. So I used this. You need about a 100 ml of coconut water. So I used 2 heaped tsp of coconut water.

And added the required amount of warm water in it. (As per instructions)

You can easily use the Homemade Coconut Milk tetrapack, or be a good child and make some coconut milk at home.

Now, add in the coconut milk.

 

 

You’ll notice a sudden separation of oil from the paste. Worry not.

Just put the lid on, and let this sauce come to a boil. Let it be for 5 minutes.

If you think the amount of liquid is too less, splash in some extra water. No issues there.

 

Take the lid off, and appreciate the smell which hits you right about now. Oh so good.

 

Now, I like my sauce thick. So the sauce can very peacefully coat the noodles.

So I added in a bit of water to drown my cornflour in. And added this water into the sauce.

At this stage, also throw in a pinch of salt (not too much as the paste has quite an amount in it as well), and the sugar.

Lid it. Let it simmer on low heat for 10-12 minutes.

Unlid.

*Inhale*

 

WOW.

 

Cook your noodles according to the packet instructions.

And fork them out into a pretty purple bowl.

 

Spoon in some thick delicious sauce.

 

And be kind in placing some of the chunks of chicken, some green and red peppers and some lovely mushrooms.

 

Inhale once again.

Dig in your fork.

And eat.

Exhale.

 

 

Within 30 seconds, your delicate bowl will look like this.

 

And within another few seconds, the bowl will look like this.

*burp*

That is all.