I think this is one of my cooking milestones. I’ve never attempted to cook anything that requires making a paste as the base (curries, biryani and whatnots). But having just had a rough week where the ratio of studying to rest was 10:1, an exam on friday and an assigment due in the next day (today), I feel invincible. So this is Thai Green Curry Prawns; takes a little bit of patience and some work to make, but oh-so-worth-it at the end.

Preparing the prawns:

15 tiger or king prawns, shelled and de-veined

De-veining a prawn might be tricky (and gross) if you haven’t been doing it much by yourself. Just take a knife and make a shallow slit along the length of the “spine”. When you see the greenish-blueish cord, carefully take it out.

Give the prawns a rinse and set aside

Making the Green Curry Paste:

[15 fresh green chillies + 4 shallots + 9 cloves of garlic + 1 tsp sliced fresh lemongrass + 1 tsp sliced fresh galangal + 1 tbsp sliced kaffir lime leaves + 1 tbs white peppercorns + 1bsp coriander seeds + 1tsp cumin seed + 1tsp sea salt + 1tsp shrimp paste]

Hefty. That’s all I could think about while I was reading the ingredients list. But the trick with these “longlists” is to keep track of what you need by getting them out or preparing them one by one.

So get some shallots and garlic, give them a peel and rinse.

Grab some green chillies and take off the stems. You can always deseed the chillies if you don’t want it to be too spicy (but then you’ll lose half the fun when eating (and watch others eat) it!)

Slice some lemongrass and grate the galangal (which took me quite a while to find in this country. Had to ask relatives for its bahasa translation so I can look for it in the grocery store)

*Spice modifications:

- Didn’t have cumin and only realized this after I got back from the store. There was no way I’m going back, so I upped the coriander seeds.

- Didn’t have any kaffir lime leaves, so I grated the rind of one kaffir lime and used some regular lime leaves.

Grind the peppercorn and coriander. Now traditionally you should use a pestle and mortar to grind this paste. I used the good ol’ blender to save time and energy. But hey, if you want to use the good stuff, then more power to ya!

Set the ground cumin + white peppercorn aside

Put the chillies, shallot, garlic, galangal, lime rind, salt and shrimp paste inside the blender. Blitz until smooth

Chop the lime leaves finely

Add lime leaves and ground spices to green mixture

BLITZ

And this, my dear friends, is a pot of green gold. Keep in the fridge and it’ll be good for a week, freeze it and it’ll stay good for a whole year.

Making the Curry:

[2 teaspoons oil + 3 heaped tbsp of green curry paste + 2 cups (500ml) salt-reduced chicken stock + 270ml coconut milk + 1 small green capsicum, seeds removed, chopped coarsely + 1 punnet baby corn, halved lengthwise + 75g snow peas, trimmed + 15 uncooked king or tiger prawns, heads removed, peeled with tails left intact + 2 teaspoons lime juice]

Get a wok or a deep skillet. Heat the oil

Add the green curry paste. Stir fry for a minute or two

Add the stock

Add the coconut milk

Let simmer for 5 minutes

Prepare the vegetables. I chose green ones to complement the green curry. You can use any other vegetables (green or colourful ones). Broccoli florets go well with this recipe, as does bamboo shoots, red peppers yadayadayada

Add the corn and pepper

Add the snow peas

Add in the prawns

Leave to simmer for 5 minutes or until prawns are cooked through

Lastly add in the lime juice

This dish goes well with a plate of steaming fragrant jasmine rice and a glass of iced tea to counterract the (unbelievably good) burning sensation you’ll experience.

Enjoy!