Thai Red Curry

How to Make Thai Red Curry

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1. Open the coconut milk tins without shaking them. Spoon 150 ml of the thick cream from the top into a wok.

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2. Heat over medium-high until it bubbles vigorously and splits, with clear oil visible at the edges, about 5 minutes.

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3. Add the curry paste and fry in that oil for 3 to 4 minutes, pressing and stirring, until it darkens and smells intensely fragrant.

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4. Add the chicken and turn it in the paste for 3 minutes until coated and sealed.

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5. Pour in the remaining coconut milk and bring to a gentle simmer — never a rolling boil, which splits the sauce.

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6. Add the kaffir lime leaves, fish sauce and palm sugar and simmer 8 minutes.

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7. Add the bamboo shoots, pepper and green beans and cook 5 minutes more until just tender.

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8. Taste and balance: more fish sauce for salt, more sugar for roundness, lime juice for lift.

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9. Kill the heat, fold through the Thai basil and sliced chilli, and serve immediately with jasmine rice.

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Related guide: Choosing rice.

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A Few Pointers

• Do not shake the tin. Cracking the cream is the step that separates a real Thai curry from coconut milk with paste stirred in.
• Thai basil, not Italian. The aniseed note is central and sweet basil is not a substitute.
• Taste and adjust at the end, every time. Curry pastes vary enormously in salt and heat.

Changing the Recipe

• If coconut is a problem, a cooking cream (dairy or plant-based) can stand in for the coconut milk in a sauce; the dish will lose the coconut flavour and taste noticeably different.
• Dried chilli flakes can stand in for the red chillies. Heat varies a great deal between chillies and between jars, so start with a small pinch and add more to taste.
• Lemon is the everyday swap for lime in this kind of dish — the acidity plays the same role even though the flavour is not identical.

Pairs Well With

Jasmine rice · A cold lager or an off-dry Riesling · A cucumber relish to cool things down

Leftovers and Storage

Refrigerate up to 3 days and freeze 2 months. Reheat gently without boiling and add fresh basil.

The Numbers per Serving

Per serving, an approximate calculation from the ingredient list. Treat it as a rough guide: an ingredient listed without an amount is not counted, so the figures run low; part of the energy comes from foods, or weights per item, with no recorded source. How the figures are worked out.