Wednesday, July 09, 2008

Green Bean Thai Curry

Last week we received a large butternut squash in our Abel and
Cole order (the organic fruit and veg company), and we were
wondering what to do with it. We had another the previous week,
which Mrs C made into a delicious soup with carrots and various
flavourings.

In the past we've made a salmon curry with a squash (one of
Nigella's recipes, which is very good but I found the squash
flavour too dominating (almost sickly). So we found a green bean
Thai curry recipe online, which I adapted as follows.

I used half a jar of Tesco's Green Thai curry paste (about 100g)
to make the curry sauce. Some of you might say that this is
cheating, but using the paste cuts the preparation time down to
about 7-8 minutes.

The squash was a large one - enough for 4 helpings, so I made
enough curry to last us 2 days.

So starting with the curry sauce ...

2 medium sized onions, finely chopped and gently fried in a tbsp of
sunflower oil (and a splash of water).
Half a jar of curry paste added and stirred in, and gently fried
with the onion for 1-2 mins.
One 400ml can of coconut milk, stirred in and simmered for a few mins.
A large canful of cooked chickpeas added (we pressure-cook and freeze
ours, and just use the chickpeas as and when)

Now for the beans & butternut squash. Chopping up the latter into
chunks (and removing the seeds and outer coating) is the most time-
consuming part of this recipe. (I have seen one of the TV chefs
cooking the squash without removing the tough outer coating).
So I then steam the squash and the green runner beans plus some
soya beans, in a steamer for about 8 minutes or so, until the
squash is almost al dente. (The beans are the finest frozen variety
from Tesco ... use as many as you like). All this is added to the
curry sauce and then mixed in well.

Meanwhile, cook some (pre-soaked) wholegrain brown rice (we use
about 50g per person) ... I simmer it at a low heat for about
25 mins, until al dente.

And while all this is cooking, I steam some extra green veg ...
courgette, brocolli, green cabbage ... plus carrots ... add
anything you fancy, to add to your plate/bowl when serving up.

Extras ... chopped fresh coriander, and a slice of lime, if you
remember to buy some ... I forgot.

The above curry is very mild by most people's standards ... you
could make it hotter with adding more paste, or a pinch of chilli
powder (or somw finely chopped fresh chilli).

The recipe is very easy ... the time-consuming part is chopping
up all that veg.

2 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

What a good idea with the peas. Can I do this with mushy peas and other pules?

9:52 am  
Blogger justin said...

I haven't tried this, LOM, but I think it's possible.

6:03 am  

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