If there is one type of food the Fish Fam loves it's curry.
Whether it be Thai, Indian, or Japanese.
It's all so amazingly good.
I worked at a Thai restaurant while in college. The family was from Bangkok and they made the best Thai food in town. Seriously, Thai Ruby is the best! If you live in Provo, Utah area check them out! Here's their menu.They used lots and lots of fresh ingredients. Their mom was very traditional and I loved that she grew her own basil plants out back. They would go to different grocery stores to get the best quality fruits and veggies. Again the mom was very very particular about only picking the best mangoes for their Thai Mango with Coconut Sticky Rice dessert. Oh my, so incredibly good! That being said, it was only a seasonal dessert, so you better believe my husband and I went all the time when it was in season. Which, actually, when my husband and I were first married we ended up living right below this restaurant. I forgot about that!
The family would make yearly trips back home to Thailand during Christmas Break, which we were always sad to see them closed because we loved going there. They would bring back plenty of their specials ingredients and spices. I specifically remember always picking Thai Ruby to go out for my birthday dinner in January because can you tell I really love Thai food?! Plus when you get a bigger group to go you can do family style and share lots of incredibly good Thai dishes.
Well, onto the curry, I remember for the most part Thai Ruby used Mae Ploy curry paste, "O" the son who manages the place, said it's the best kind. He also said for Americans they had to make it sweeter and add more sugar. Lol!! But of course, Americans can't really enjoy other cultural foods without adding lots of sugar. Smh.
Anyways, while shopping I always read the ingredient labels and Mae Ploy has the shortest list and best ingredients. Being that we live on a military base in Japan, my options are slim. So I was happy they have this brand of curry paste. Really though, I ought to make it from scratch, but I have yet to try that!!
Check out the awesome ingredients with NO msg, preservatives, or artificial color added. Looks great to me compared to the super cheap and awful ingredients in the other curry pastes with things like, ya know...MSG, Sodium metabisulfites, #40 yellow yaddah yaddah #5,6 and 7 coloring, etc.! You'll want to stay away from these and other ingredients like them.
Okay, onto the recipe. I use this recipe on the carton as a guide.....
Directions:
- I first start off infusing up to 3 minced garlic cloves in the pan. Infuse means to cook on med.-low heat garlic in oil. This will bring out the flavor of the garlic in a very good way. Then I add some chopped onions and sprinkle some salt on top and cook for a few mins.
- Then I stir-fry 50g about 3.5 Tbsp of Yellow Curry Paste with 1Tbsp oil, then add 1 cup coconut milk. This is also letting the curry paste infuse in the oil to bring out the flavor of the curry. Yum, it's starting to smell sooo good!
-Add 200g of cubed or shredded chicken, which is about 1.5cups and add another 1/2cup coconut milk (which should be the rest of the can) and heat until boiling.
-Add about 1 cup of cubed potatoes, 1/2 of diced onion, and I add carrots too, then add 1/2 cup water and cook until the vegetables soften. You may want to add the potatoes a little bit later because they cook faster than the onions and carrots.
-Lastly, add 2tsp sugar or to taste.
*I use this recipe as a guide and always double it and add as much curry paste, potatoes, onions, and carrots as I think best. Also, something that makes a huge difference is NOT using water. I use my homemade bone broth or the broth left over from cooking my frozen chicken breast in my instant pot. I also add fresh basil in the end and let it simmer. For more flavor I'll add some Red Boat Fish Sauce.
*I am also very choosy about the coconut milk I use. Cheap coconut milk brands have some pretty bad additives and preservatives as well. Thai Kitchen is good, but Native Forest Organic Coconut is better. I order mine from Vitacost here. I also love that the can inside is BPA-free. Did you know canned foods are lined with BPA? Fresh is always best.
*Also, if want more flavor in your meat I would recommend using chicken thighs. Chicken thighs are dark meat and fattier and hold more flavor.
*So because of my Instant Pot or rather Incredible Pot or now formally named Mr. Incredible...
I can take out my organic frozen chicken breast from the freezer and have it cooked in 30ish mins! I'm tellin' ya this thing is incredible. It has made things so much easier. All you do is put 1.5 cups of water in the pot with 1lb of frozen chicken breast and put it to a manual time of 10mins. After about 10mins it reaches high presses, cooks for 10mins, and then with a natural release pressure of 10mins the chicken is mostly cooked, depending on its thickness. Which I use thicker chicken breast and don't want it cooked all the way through because I'm going to continue cooking it on the stove. So there you have it Mr. Incredible comes to the rescue!
Ok, now go enjoy that curry!!
But wait, don't forget to serve it over white rice or even better Jasmine rice.
Yum. Yum.
