Thai Cooking: Shrimp w/ Green Curry

I really love Thai food, and this is really where I got a lot of inspiration for changing my eating habits. If you've not had Thai food, it tends to  generally involve seafood or white meat (chicken or pork) with fresh vegetables, rice and a light but flavorful sauce.

I would also encourage you to check out an Asian market if you have them near you. Not only is it just great to try, but I found most ingredients cheaper there by a significant margin.

My first foray into cooking Thai was Shrimp With Green Curry, which is super easy to make, as long as you plan ahead. Here's what it looks like:

Here's what it consists of:

Meat: I used shrimp here, but feel free to use chicken or pork if you prefer. I just used some olive oil and a skillet, but feel free to play around with soy, ginger, garlic, or whatever you like.

Curry sauce: I use one can of coconut milk and 4 teaspoons of green curry paste.

Veggies/herbs: I used carrots, zucchini, onions, peppers, chinese eggplant, cilantro, baby bok choy, basil. Feel free to play around here as well so it suits your taste. (Eyeball the measurements, depending upon how many you are serving) I usually use 1 carrot, 1 zucchini, 1 Chinese eggplant (all thinly sliced), 1 head of baby bok choy chopped, one onion cut into sections lengthwise, and one bell pepper diced into about half nch squares.

Rice: I put jasmine rice in a rice cooker, but do what you like here.

Toppings: Chopped cilantro, chopped scallions, crushed peanuts, bean sprouts, lime wedge.

The important thing here to remember is to get all of your prep work done early. Make sure your veggies are chopped. nce you start going, it will move quickly.

Curries are a bit of an acquired taste, but I would say that Indian Curry doesn't really work for me, as I find the smell overbearing, but with Thai curry, I think it is a different story. I'm not as well versed in all the differences between Thai curries (green, red, yellow, massaman, panang, etc.), but I found that I have liked green curry the best so far.

Before you start cooking:
* Make sure all your vegetables are cooked
* Decide what meat you are going to use. I'm using shrimp here, but if you want chicken or pork, you may want to start cooking that in the over before you start with the rest.
* Have a large skillet (or wok), a small skillet, and a pot ready.


Cooking Instructions
1. Heat coconut milk and green curry paste in a pot until mixed and simmering. While waiting for the sauce to heat, start preheating a large skillet. Reduce the heat on the sauce so that it simply stays warm, stirring occasionally.

2. Start a batch of rice in the rice cooker. I usually make about a cup and a half if serving myself.

3. Put the carrots and about a cup of the curry sauce into the preheated skillet. Add the rest of the vegetables to the skillet, making sure to stir pretty regularly so that all of the vegetables are heated.

4. Start preheating olive oil in a small skillet. You may also want to add garlic to the olive oil so that the oils from the garlic mix in with the olive oil. Once heated, add the shrimp for a couple minutes on each side until pink all the way through.

5. Put the shrimp on a plate covered with paper towels to absorb any excess oil. Then add to the curried vegetables. Cook for a few more minutes.

Fill a bowl with rice from the rice cooker, top with the curried shrimp and vegetables, and then add the various toppings (cilantro, scallions bean sprouts, crushed peanuts, and lime wedge) as you like, depending on your taste.