Red Curry packed with chicken and vegetables.

I have developed a small obsession with this curry since we had it so often in Australia and it was so heavenly! I knew it wouldn't be long before I started a trend of making it on a regular basis for ourselves.  If you are lucky enough to have access to a well stocked shop you will be able to find red curry paste which will make you job very easy. For those who aren't in such a position you can make it yourself if you can get your hands on the ingredients, a Google search will tell you what goes into it. 

It really is quite simple, just prepare the vegetables that you want to use and the meat and then get to it. You want to cut the veg fine so that it cooks quickly. I finely sliced 2 carrots on the diagonal, tailed a handful of snow peas then halved them, cut up half a box of brown mushrooms, 1/4 of a cabbage maybe less, finely chopped 4 or 5 cloves of garlic and an inch cube of ginger. You could grate these if you like. 

To make the sauce fry some paste in a little oil, I used about 3 heaped spoons but use it according to how strong you like it, I like it full of flavour. I added the garlic and ginger to this and let it fry then poured over a can of coconut milk and stirred it. Into this went the juice of half a lime, a small spoon of dark sugar, 2 chillies (whole so that they could be removed afterwards) and a few shakes of fish sauce. Avoid the sugar if you don't like it sweet and the chillies if you don't want it hot, or less paste will help on the heat front. Experiment by adding a little of them and adjusting it if you think it needs tweaking.

Once the sauce is to your liking add the chicken, in cubes, and let it gently poach in the sauce, this will keep it really moist. Keep checking on the meat if you don't know how long it will take, it doesn't take long. Add the carrots part way through and then the rest of the veg according to how long they take to cook. At the end add the bean sprouts because you don't want them to overcook and dress with fresh coriander. 

We had some brown rice to go with this but I was just as happy having it on it's own, like a flavour packed soup teaming with vegetable goodness! Yay for Red Curry, and a tasty new trend.