Serves 2 | 10 mins cooking | 10 mins preparation

This is probably the worlds most popular Thai dish and probably the one most people start with when first trying Thai food. Its ingredients are not exactly fixed and often found with chicken, pork and fish. The curry is not necessarily sweeter than other Thai curries but, although the spiciness varies, it tends to be more pungent than the milder red curries.

Ingredients

• 2 Chicken breasts – cut into bitesize pieces
• 2 tbsp green curry paste
• 400ml can Coconut milk
• 1tbsp palm sugar
• 2 tbsp fish sauce
• Pinch of salt
• 3 Kaffir lime leaves – torn up
• 75g Pea aubergines
• 4 Thai aubergines – cut into quarters (or regular purple aubergine cut into bitesize pieces)
• 100g cooked bamboo shoots – cut into bitesize pieces
• 1 Handful Thai basil – regular Italian basil if you can’t get Thai
• 1 Lime – half for juice, half to cut into 2 wedges for serving
• 1 piece of lemon grass – finely chopped
• 1 Thai chilli – finely chopped
• 2 garlic cloves – finely chopped

Method

1. In a hot wok heat 2tbsp of the coconut milk and add he curry paste, garlic, Thai chilli and lemon grass and fry for 15 seconds until it is fragrant
2. Reduce the heat to medium and add half the coconut milk, cook for two minutes until it starts to split and the green oil floats to the surface.
3. Add the remaining coconut milk. and stir in the palm sugar, fish sauce and a pinch of salt
4. Stir in the lime leaves then add the chicken and pea aubergines to the pan and simmer for two minutes
5. Add the Thai aubergine and bamboo shoots to the pan and leave to simmer for another 5-7 minutes until the chicken is cooked through
6. Stir in the basil leaves and juice from half a lime
7. Ladle into a serving bowl and garnish the the chilli and coriander leaves

Notes

I am not a fan off bamboo shoots and instead I added some baby sweetcorn chopped up for a bit of crunch, or you could put in beansprouts at the very end of cooking so they are warmed but keep their crunch.

Previously I have avoided the Chef’s Choice coconut milk, and their other products, as I mistook it with a similarly named brand in the UK which is a cheap product, but just days before going to the Chinese supermarket I learnt that this is a proper Thai brand that carries the “T” mark on the can which means it is a certified Thai product that passes lots of quality and authenticity controls to qualify for the mark. I highly recommend this brand with it’s “T” mark now if you ever see it available.

You can make your own green curry paste, but who has time for that when we get home from work? Instead I use a shop bought paste, Mae Ploy is my favourite and has been available in regular supermarkets for the past few years as well as in Asian shops. I like to pep this up a little by adding extra lemongrass, chili and garlic along with the paste at the beginning.