Thai red curry and sichuan green beans

We mixed up our Asian cuisines tonight, going for a Thai red curry and Sichuan green beans. Both would be great vehicles for some of this week's veggies, so why not have them together?

When P and I were in Thailand, our most favorite day of the entire month was a hands-on cooking class in Chiang Mai, in northern Thailand. We still have the cookbook from that day - it's fallen apart, but we keep jamming the pages back in and hoping we can find our favorite recipes the next time we pull it out. Two of our favorites? Pad thai - definitely not the ketchup-flavored garbage you see in most restaurants in Canada - and curry. But while we've made the pad thai and curry recipes again and again, I believe we tried to make actual green curry paste only once, and red curry paste not at all - it's very involved, and requires many, many ingredients. Instead, we've found a high-quality curry and skip the most laborious step.

Not all Thai curry pastes found in the grocery store are of equal tastiness, however. The best we found is Namjai brand, which is made in Thailand. A nice dollop of curry paste is sauteed in a small amount of oil; then add your meat (or shrimp, or tofu), then the veggies, and then stir in some coconut milk. Add brown sugar, fish sauce, and basil to taste. Tonight, we put in some chicken, a sliced zucchini and white onion. One thing to remember, which we forgot tonight, is that it's necessary to stir constantly and not cover the pan. Otherwise, the fat can separate from the liquid in the coconut milk, and cause the curry to appear somewhat curdled. The taste, however, is still delicious - but you can see some of the curdling in the photo.

My recommendation? Find some of this curry paste (red or green) and keep it in your fridge. We got ours on our last trip to Vancouver, but it must be able to be found in Toronto, too. It keeps for a very long time, and makes a delicious weeknight dinner that you can throw nearly any assortment of veggies into.

Now, these green beans are probably a little less authentic than we'd wanted - but after a day at work, finding a Asian grocery store wasn't on the agenda. This recipe includes things that you're likely to have in your pantry. It approximates it well enough, and maintains the freshness of the green beans while giving them a background of salty (soy sauce) and sweet (the green onions just melt, and the small bit of sugar helps, too). Like the fried rice, bok choy, and green onion pancakes, I'd have these any day of the week as a substitute for lackluster Chinese takeout.