I was part of Roxby Downs 2018 World Food and Music Festival organisers and one of the activities for the event was to cook traditional food from your country. We all cooked together in the community kitchen and served our food to the crowd at the multicultural event.... It was a fun event, but it required lots of energy and good planning to be able to feed the crowd - Parita Nobthai of @thecrafthumpy
Green Curry is one of the most popular Thai dishes around the world and there are plenty of easy recipes you can follow online. However, cooking this dish in the middle of the desert, with limited supplies and to be shared among the wider community was for me, a challenging experience.
I live in the community of Roxby Downs which is a small mining town in South Australia. To find the nearest Thai restaurant or Asian grocer, residents need to travel approximately 6 hours south to the capital city, Adelaide.
Cooking Thai food in Australia and for community.
I was part of Roxby Downs 2018 World Food and Music Festival organisers and one of the activities for the event was to cook traditional food from your country. We all cooked together in the community kitchen and served our food to the crowd at the multicultural event. The event was a success and the food was a hit among the festival revellers. It was a fun event, but it required lots of energy and good planning to be able to feed the crowd. My choice to represent my country was Green Curry with Chicken or in Thai, Kaeng Khiao Wan Gai; Kaeng is curry, Khiao is green, Wan is sweet and Gai is chicken. It is one of the very well-known Thai dishes and served in almost every Thai restaurant across Australia and around the world. I’ve made Green Curry for my family before but making it for a large crowd was hectic. Having to increase all the ingredients and retaining an authentic flavour while toning down the spiciness that we Thai’s love was what took the most effort.
Why Green curry is green?
The curry paste itself is made from fresh ingredients including lemongrass, galangal, garlic, red onion, kaffir lime skin, turmeric, and green chillies. This is what makes the curry paste unique from others. When pounding the ingredients in a mortar, the green chilli will turn black but, the turmeric which is naturally yellow helps bring back the curries vibrant green colour. You can make green curry paste from the scratch but in this recipe, I will use Maeploy and Maesri Green curry paste as it is more convenient for larger portions and easier than trying to find fresh ingredients. Vegetables that were used in the curry were limited and not what is normally use in traditional Green curry, but it was what I could find from the only supermarket in town. If you live in the city or close to an Asian grocer, go ahead and get Thai eggplants, snake beans and turkey berries to make your Kaeng Khiao Wan more authentic.
How to prepare all ingredients for Green Curry?
If you cook for a big group of diners, it’s better to prepare all ingredients a day earlier so meat and vegetables can be prepared with care and there will be less stress on preparation and cooking the next day. The total process took two days, the first day for preparation and the second day for cooking. For green beans, peel the stringy fibre from both sides and chop into lengths of about 1-inch. For bamboo slices, after you open the can, rinse them with hot water or boil them first. Let the bamboo slices dry a bit and keep in separate container. For eggplant and zucchini, chop and wash with salt water and keep in separate container. This process will stop the eggplant from turning black.
Day 1 Making Green Curry Paste
Day 2 Combining Chicken and Vegetables
And this is the recipe for 25 serves
I can’t thank enough my friend and mentor P’Pao who taught me how to nail this dish. For those of you who don’t believe that you can cook this dish for yourself, friends or family, I suggest give it a go and try this recipe, it’s easier than you think. If you have problems with spiciness don’ t worry, the recipe is already adjusted to tone down the heat. Give it a go and let me know how it went in the comments below.
Tip: if you choose to cook with beef, it’s better to use Jerret, shank or short rib. The traditional way of making green curry is to slowly cook beef shank with low heat in coconut milk for 3 - 4 hours. This process will make the beef soft and tender. The leftover broth is then used in the green curry as well. It will add a lot of flavour to the dish.
Parita Nobthai runs The Craft Humpy
"a homely place where you can get beautiful handcrafted gifts directly from the maker"
Check out her amazing work here!
WEB https://thecrafthumpy.com IG @thecrafthumpy FB @thecrafthumpy Don't miss out on her other posts! Phuang Malai: A Visual Symbol of Honouring, Love and Generosity of Thais Loy Krathong, The Hidden Spirit of Thais Saa Mulberry Paper - Paper That Lasts a Lifetime
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