Vegetarian Thai Green Curry

In southern California, where I go to college, there is plenty of access to all types of Asian food and I eat it all the time.  Back home, however, we seemed to only eat the occasional Thai take out.  When ordering Thai, the green curry was always my favorite.  I had never had much success making it though.  I remember once following a recipe out of a Curry cookbook and ending up with green curry that seemed weirdly sweet.  I am always a bit weary of making most Asian food as it is never something that was made in my house growing up.  I don't have experience to fall back on when a dish doesn't taste quite right.  And with so much around, I have easy access to the dish.  My friends that I cook for, however, suggested this so I thought I would give it a try.  Luckily it turned out pretty well.

When looking online at green curry recipes, most seem to call for green curry paste.  None of the three grocery stores within walking distance carried it though.  Trader Joe's had a green curry simmering sauce and so I picked up a jar of that just in case, but, since I had an extra jalapeño lying around from the tacos I made a few days ago and some fresh ginger in the fridge, I decided to try my hand a making my own approximation.  It turned out pretty well though I did end up adding a bit of the simmering sauce to the curry, since I didn't quite have enough paste for the amount of curry I ended up making.  I reduced the amounts of everything else though so this should be fine.  If you don't want the vegetarian option, you can always switch out chicken for the tofu and add it in with the rest of the vegetables.

Vegetarian Green Curry

Green Curry Paste

• 1/4 cup of minced red onion
• vegetable oil
• 1 jalapeño
• 2 cloves of minced garlic
• 1 inch of fresh ginger, grated
• 1 teaspoon ground coriander
• 1/2 teaspoon cumin
• zest of 1 lime
• salt
• pepper
• 2 tablespoons of fresh cilantro, finely chopped

(Everything I read for green curry paste calls for lemongrass.  Unfortunately I didn't have any, but I would recommend adding some.)

Curry

• 2 small Chinese eggplants, chopped
• 1 green bell pepper, chopped
• 1/2 cup of red onion, finely sliced
• 1 small can of bamboo shoots
• 1 package of firm tofu
• 1 can of coconut milk
• Green curry paste
• juice of 1/2 of a lime
• 2 tablespoons of chopped cilantro
• 2 tablespoons of chopped basil, preferably Thai basil

Directions:

For the paste, sauté the red onion in vegetable oil.  When the onion is softened, add in the rest of the ingredients, except for the cilantro.  Cook until the garlic is softened, take off the heat, and mix in cilantro.  (At this point, mashing this in to a paste is a possibility but it doesn't need it)  I made my paste ahead of time and stored it in the fridge for a day.

To make the curry, heat oil in a pan and stir in the paste.  Add the vegetables and cook until the onions begin to soften. Add coconut milk and cook for 15 minutes.  Add tofu and water to cover, and cook until the vegetables are done.  Remove from heat and stir in lime juice, cilantro, and basil.  Serve over white rice.

- Sophie