Jamie Oliver's Thai Green Curry

Back in November in NYC I stood in line for an hour at Border's with Jamie Oliver's new cookbook, Food Revolution, under my arm eagerly awaiting his signature. Now that I've got the book and the autograph I'm finally trying out some of his simple, straightforward recipes.

For dinner the other night I made his Thai Green Curry. It was very good and tasted a lot like the wonderful green curry takeouts I love to order in the Big Apple, though there were some differences. For one, Jamie's version was not spicy which is what Thai is all about in my opinion-- next time I upping the red chile. Two, he threw in non-traditional asparagus and excluded some of the traditional vegetables like japanese eggplant. The asparagus was a good change and visually worked. However, next time I'd use a small handful to avoid overpowering the other simple veggies.

The only complaint I have with this recipe is that the lemongrass left spiky "splinters" in the curry paste which got all over the place. I had to pick them out each bite which got kind of annoying.

*Key Ingredient: coconut milk*
I have never used coconut milk before but it was almost magical how it transformed the dish. You know when you're making a pasta dish and you can't figure out what to add to mesh everything together to make it juicier/saucier? Coconut milk is the answer for that question when it comes to Thai food. I don't know what the answer is for pasta but I wish there was that one clutch ingredient you could always add to guarantee yummy pasta.

Recipe as follows:
bunch of asparagus
1/2 fresh red chile
1 tbsp. peanut or vegetable oil
1 tbsp. sesame oil
1 lb large shrimp, raw, peeled
1 x 14 oz can of coconut milk
handful of snow peas
1 lime
(For the green curry paste) 
2 stalks of lemongrass
4 scallions
3 green chiles
4 cloves of garlic
thumb-sized piece of root ginger
bunch of cilantro
1 tsp. coriander seeds
3 tbsp. soy sauce
1 tbsp. fish sauce

Puree all of the green curry paste ingredients in a food processor. While pulsing, add soy sauce and fish sauce. Set aside. Slice asparagus lengthwise. When the skillet/wok is hot, add the oils and shrimp. After 30 seconds, add the asparagus and green curry paste from the food processor. Stir for about 30 seconds. Add coconut milk and snow peas. Bring to a boil. Cook for another 5 minutes. Squeeze lime and serve with sticky rice.