Monday, August 2, 2010

Curry Chicken with Spinach



I have found a great Thai cooking book. I have tried four recipes so far, and so far, so good. It has great pictures as well. I was anxious to try out their curry recipes as the ingredients seemed like it would taste good. I was right! This was the best curry I've made at home so far. I was trying to make the same chicken curry from Taste of Thailand. I love that dish. They serve the curry with spinach. Spinach?? Yes, spinach. It's actually quite tasty with the spinach. I actually could just eat the curry with the spinach and skip the chicken, but it probably won't fill me up as much. So, I adapted this recipe I found and tried to make it similar to the one at Taste of Thailand's. I think it's pretty good. When I have more time, I am going to try to make my own curry paste from scratch. I have made this dish twice now with red and green curry. Both are good. I know the picture doesn't look good, but the dish was good IMO. My husband loved it and licked the bowl. He wants me to make curry everyday for him, but coconut milk is very fatty. The original recipe called for only one tablespoon of palm sugar, but my husband likes his curry sweet so I added 2 or 3 more tablespoon. You can start out with one and then adjust, but I liked it at 3 or 4 tablespoons. Sorry, I didn't write down what I did exactly since I made this two weeks ago.

Ingredients:
1/4 cup of coconut cream
2 tbsp red curry paste (Maesri brand)
12 oz skinless chicken thigh fillets, sliced
1 3/4 cups of coconut milk
2 1/2 tbsp fish sauce
3 tbsp of palm sugar

1 bag of baby spinach (can't remember what mine was...4-9 oz?)

Chopped Roasted Peanuts


Method
1. Put the coconut cream in a wok or saucepan and simmer over a medium heat for about 5 minutes or until the cream separates and a layer of oil forms on the surface. Stir the cream if it starts to brown around the edges. Add the curry paste, stir well to combine and cook until fragrant.

2. Add the chicken and stir for a few minutes. Add nearly all of the coconut milk, the fish sauce and palm sugar and simmer over medium heat for 5 minutes. Reduce the heat to medium low and continue to cook the chicken for an additional 10 minutes.

3. Meanwhile, boil a pot of water on high heat to blanch the spinach. Prepare a large bowl of ice cold water on the side. When the water is boiling, pour the baby spinach in pot and boil for about 30 seconds. Immediately pour the spinach into a colander to drain the water, then transfer the spinach into the ice cold water to stop it from cooking. Transfer the spinach into a colander to drain the remaining water and set aside until ready to eat.

4. The spinach is put into the curry chicken when it is ready to eat. Serve on a plate with some rice. Top the curry dish with the chopped roasted peanuts.

10 comments:

  1. Thanks for the recipe. I'm excited to try it out soon. I just made some curry last night with what I had at home and it was ok. I've been looking for a good curry recipe for the longest. Hopefully this is the ONE. thanks.

    -Pa Dao Thao

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  2. Interesting. I've never tried--or even thought of--using spinach in my curries. I don't like sweet curries so I never add any sugar into mines.

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  3. Thanks for the post, I'm excited to try it out. I went to buy all the ingredients last night and hoping I can try it for the weekend. O and for the palm sugar, I only got it in form of a solid sugar, do I just have to grated and measure it into 3 tablespoons?

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  4. Pa Dao,

    I hope this recipe is the one for you as well. I think this is the one; at least it's a good base recipe. Yes, you would have to grate the palm sugar. I press or pack the sugar in the tablespoon. Let me know how you like it!

    adoseofmee, most of the Thai curries I've tasted are sweet. The only curry I've tasted that has a salty base to it is actually the Hmong ka poon or however u spell it.

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  5. I agree, I've noticed that most authentic Thai curries are sweet but personally, I'm not a big fan of sweet and savory dishes, except for a few dishes (sweet pork). Thanks for sharing your recipe.

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  6. By the way, I'm really enjoying your blog and am adding it to my blogroll so everyone else can enjoy it, too.

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  7. - THANKS. i loved the recipe. I made it last week and just totally fell in love with it. =). I made it a bit sweet the first time, but for the second time i used the same recipe for my ka poon noodles and it was delicious. thanks again. I totally enjoy reading your blog, and hoping to try your other recipes.

    -Padao

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  8. I'm glad you liked it! :) I'm also going to try to make some kapoon making it sweet instead of salty since the hubbie likes it that way. Not sure if you have tried the ka poon at Cheng Heng restaurant, but theirs is sweet and my hubbie likes their ka poon.

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  9. Oops, I shouldn't assume you live in MN. Don't know why I did. Cheng Heng is a Cambodian restaurant in St. Paul.

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  10. LOl really, I guess I'll have to come try it when I visit MN, I'm from Milwaukee, so it's not that far of a drive! - Thanks

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