Real-Deal Thai Green Curry From Scratch

To make the paste, place coriander seeds in a dry pan over medium-high heat and cook, shaking the pan frequently so they don’t burn, for 1–2 minutes or until fragrant. Transfer to a mortar. Repeat with cumin seeds. Use a pestle to grind both spices to a fine powder. Transfer the spice mixture to a small bowl and set aside.

Place green chillies into a mortar along with a good pinch of sea salt and use a pestle to pound to a smooth-ish paste. Add each of the following ingredients separately, pounding well after addition: lemongrass, galangal, makrut lime peel, shallots and garlic.

Place the shrimp paste in the centre of a small square of aluminum foil and wrap up into a small parcel. Place the parcel into a dry frying pan and place over medium-high heat. Toast for 4-5 minutes or until you can smell the toasty shrimp paste. Carefully open up the foil parcel and empty the roasted shrimp paste into your mortar. Add the dried spices from earlier, then give everything a stir until all the ingredients are combined.

To cook the curry, heat the vegetable oil in a wok over a medium heat. Add the curry paste and cook, stirring, for 8–10 minutes to cook out the raw aromatics or until you can no longer smell rawn aromatics and the spices are prominent.

Add the dried red chillies to the wok (a lot of the time in Thailand, people will add a small amount of red curry paste to their green curry for balance, so this is my own take!). Next, drizzle in a quarter of the coconut milk and stir to combine with the paste until it’s all mixed through. Now add in the rest of the coconut milk and ½ cup of water.

Scrunch up the makrut lime leaves in your hands to help release all their flavour, then add those to the curry. Add the chicken, palm sugar and fish sauce and bring the liquid to a simmer. Reduce the heat to low. Now take your apple eggplants that have been soaked (see Notes) and transfer them to your wok as well. Gently cook for around 15 minutes until the eggplants are tender and the curry has turned a deep shade of green.

Add the pea eggplants and bamboo shoots and stir to combine. Simmer gently for another 10-15 or until the apple eggplant is lovely and soft and the sauce has turned a lovely deep green colour.

Stir through the Thai basil. Serve your Thai green curry with steamed rice.

– Apple eggplant, also known as Thai eggplant, is a small, round bitter eggplant (aubergine). It gets its name for its similarity in appearance to a Granny Smith apple. You can often find them at Asian grocery stores. Once trimmed and quartered, pop them in a bowl of salt water and leave to soak for 15 minutes – this will hep draw out some of the bitterness.

– Pea eggplants are very small eggplants that are commonly added to Thai curries. Find them at a Thai grocery store. If unavailable, leave them out.