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I believe that salt is to food, what food is to life. In right proportions, it can heighten the taste of what you eat..and in the wrong - destroy! Even the most delicious sweets come added with some salt...to taste!

As for me, I've never enjoyed cooking. And as contrary to my owning a food-blog as it may sound, I always think about daily, routine cooking as a chore. But my tryst with the pots and pans began when I got a kitchen all to myself...I began experimenting and exploring new worlds in my own home. Some outcomes were excellent and some plain disasters. Then sprouted the need to keep track of all those good ones...and hence this blog!

Here, I share those experiments that pleased more than one palate!




June 22, 2010

Veggie Thai Curry - Customized!

Thai cuisine was as new to me as the country itself. Not that I have ever been there, but coming to the US sure did give me scope enough to hog on different types of cuisines. I heard that making Thai food at home was pretty easy. Besides, considering preparing our Indian food itself is so elaborate, I knew it could not get anything more detailed. So, I called up my friend Sathya who happens to love to explore new dishes and has loads of cook books and recipes (Sath, you really should start blogging!) and borrowed this recipe from her. Thai food, just like Indian, has many flavours working simultaneously - making eating a feast in itself!

Although the orginal version called for a lot of peanuts, I slightly customized this recipe as per my family's needs since my hubby is not too fond of these. I have mentioned where exactly you toss those nuts in, so that you wont be missing out on a single thing!
 

Ingredients
Choice of vegetables - Washed and chopped/julienned (I have used brocolli, carrots, cauliflower. You could add tofu as well. I did not have it on hand so I went ahead without it)
1/2 Onion (Medium sized) - Julienned
1 Cup/8 fl. oz - Coconut Milk
2-3 Whole dried red chillies (Use more if you want to increase the spice quotient)
1 tbsp Cumin seeds
1 tbsp Coriander seeds
1 inch stub of Ginger
6 Cloves of garlic
1 tbsp peanuts, skin-off (I have not used this)
1 tbsp lemon juice
2 tsp Oil
And, of course, some salt to taste!!

Method
- Steam your veggies until soft. I had to fully cook mine to make sure my little son was able to eat! You could even opt to microwaving or boiling the veggies depending on how well cooked you want them to be.
- Grind together, in a blender, the cumin seeds, coriander seeds, ginger, garlic, red chillies, onion and peanuts into a fine paste using minimum water
- With your blender running, slowly pour in coconut milk to make a smooth gravy like fluid
- In a non-stick sauce pan, heat oil and pour the gravy
- Allow it to reach a  rapid boil and then simmer for a few seconds
- Toss in the cooked veggies and salt. You could also add raw veggies at this point instead of cooking them beforehand and allow them to cook in the gravy itself
- Add the lemon juice
- Serve hot with a fresh tub of steamed white rice or try it along-side Asian Style Fried Rice, like I did.
Heaven on your plate!

SERVES 2-3

13 comments:

  1. ahhhhhhhhhhh....thai curry looks gorgeous dear....pics r so tempting...i love thai food and we njoy it once-twice a month...its my lunch time here ,feel like grabbing the bowl....yummmmm

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  2. Yummyilicious thai curry, looks delicious!!

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  3. Deepti, I love thai curries, but never tried them at home. Just few weeks back, bought the curry paste so will give something a try soon. Thanks for the inspiration. I like that you are making it from scratch.

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  4. Never tried my hand at this, but you bet I will be very soon...and like you say, Im so sure of the many flavours working simultaneously and Im also sure of what it will do to my taste buds ;)
    Thai curry, here I come!!

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  5. Sounds super Deepti!! I may sound like I live under a rock, but haven't tried much of Thai cuisine yet, will surely try this. When are u in Bangalore?? U welcome to gatecrash:-))

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  6. Hey Deepti,

    my hubby loves Thai curries but never actually tried it,this sure is pretty simple will definitely try this one ..;) Thankx babes for this one...!! Keep more delicious posts coming in..;)

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  7. hey deepti, ur Veggie Thai Curry - Customized version looks very delicious. I love that the ingredients are so common to our Indian cooking that I can recreate them in my kitchen. Easy and yet flavorsome unlike most other Thai curries which require dozens of ingredients!

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  8. hey deepti,

    yummy..:)..jus a thought wud coconut milk and peanuts (both) b necessary??? thought any one of them wud do the job well..isnt it?? and one more thing..can i substitute tis with a single cream instead???? i luv the cream taste than these 2..:)..wud tis change the authentic taste altoghether probably???

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  9. Firstly thanks all for hopping by! Thai cuisine is known for being spicy, so feel free to go up a couple notches with the ingredients that go in your blender!

    @ Archana - Most Thai preparations use peanuts, and coconut milk is what is used to make it a gravy. I have not used peanuts in this variation but it tasted just fine (we like it this way). In most Thai dishes they add peanuts either ground into the paste or crushed and added to noodles/rice etc. Check here for more info - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thai_cuisine

    I think if you are going to use cream instead, it would certainly change the authentic taste.

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  10. Hey Deepti, I love Thai cuisine and especially the masaman curry and the yellow curry. I can eat any vegetable in these curries even if I don't eat it otherwise.

    I do make these curries sometimes but always use thai curry paste. Never tried from scratch, so thanks for the recipe...I am going to try it soon, looks yummy! and very easy.

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  11. Hey deepti,

    Now thts news to me..tht they use peanuts in most of their dishes!!..:)..have not tried any thai dish till now...guess will start wid this recipe..:)

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  12. @ Neha - Sure do give it a try and let me know!

    @ Archana - I know! Pretty surprising right? I was like you when I got to know about it too! But it does taste great. Try it. I think you can even search for Thai curry pastes if you want to save yourself all the work of grinding etc. This recipe is from scratch, like you would've guessed by now.

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