Spicy red Thai curry

This red Thai curry is so quick and easy to make there really isn’t any point buying a jar of paste or ordering it from your local takeaway. Nigel Slater has a similar recipe to this with apricots and fish sauce but my family prefers it without those ingredients. So, next time you are tempted to pick up a jar of red Thai curry paste in the supermarket, why not go for this instead?

Ingredients

• 3 plump stalks lemongrass
• a thumb-sized piece of fresh ginger
• 3 hot red chillies
• 3 cloves garlic
• a bunch coriander
• 2 limes
• 2 tbsp groundnut oil
• 3 large tomatoes
• 2 tbsp dark soy sauce
• 6 skinless chicken thighs, cut into large chunks
• 400ml/14oz can coconut milk

Method

Preparation

Peel the lemongrass, throwing away the outer leaves and only using the softer, inner ones.

Peel the ginger and slice it into thin pieces.

Chop the chillies, throwing away the stems.

Grate the zest of the two limes.

Quarter the tomatoes.

Put the lemongrass, sliced ginger, chopped chillies, the grated lime zest and half the coriander leaves into a food processor.

Turn on the food processor and let it chop the ingredients into a smooth paste. Add a little oil as you go.

Then, add the quartered tomatoes and the dark soy sauce and continue processing the paste.

Cooking

Warm the groundnut oil in a deep saucepan over a moderate to high heat. Drop in the chicken chunks and lightly brown them by turning so they colour nicely on all sides.

Remove the chicken from the pan and pour away some of the oil, leaving around a tablespoon.

Reduce the heat to low to moderate.

Add half the spice paste from the food processor to the pan and let it fry for around two minutes until it gives off a fragrance.

Return the chicken to the pan.

Pour in the coconut milk and let it simmer on a low heat for around 20 minutes.

Check to see if the chicken is done, and when it is, add the juice of the two limes and the remaining coriander leaves, roughly chopped.

Add a little salt to taste if necessary.

Serve with rice or bread.

The remaining red Thai curry paste can be kept in a fridge for about a week if you cover it with a little oil and a lid.

TRY RICH PEANUT RAMEN