Red Curry Curious

Rich with coconut milk and intense spices, the adaptable Thai curry makes it easy to eat your vegetables

The rich fatty coconut milk balances the intense spices in this red curry. homelesscuisine/Shutterstock

He didn’t like curry, and to this day purports to hate coconut, but my son Remy would walk on molten lava for a bowl of red chicken curry. I don’t need to solve this paradox to benefit from the fact that curry offers great leverage to get kids and grownups alike to eat their vegetables. A good curry allows you to work with whatever is fresh, and there are almost as many curry recipes around the world as there are vegetables at the farmers market. I like Thai curry because it is the easiest to make and most delicious to taste.

Green curry is more pungent and bitter, and often the most challenging of the Thai curries. Yellow is sweeter and mellower but no less complex, and reminiscent of Indian curry thanks to the turmeric. Red curry has lots of red chile and coriander and shrimp paste. Remy has no interest in green or yellow. It seems that some ingredient or combination of ingredients specific to red curry must cancel the element of coconut that so offends him.

Remy can detect the smallest of quantities of coconut, in drinks, candy, and other processed foods, yet is somehow OK with the fact that red chicken curry has so much coconut milk. This paradox demonstrates the power of a Thai coconut curry. The flavor is built on the interaction between two powerful and opposing forces: insane concentrations of spices that would be too intense to handle, were they not neutralized by the equally off-the-charts opposing force of rich, creamy, fatty coconut.

Thanks to the availability of spice paste and canned coconut milk, we can plug in our local veggies and proteins and make homemade curry on the level of what you might eat in Bangkok, an extraordinarily high bar. You could argue it’s more “authentic” to grate and squeeze out the coconut milk, or to grind your own spices. But in Thailand, it’s totally normal to use canned coconut milk, unless it’s for a special occasion, or if you’re living on the beach, and they purchase their curry paste at the market from their preferred curry paste vendor.

Pre-made curry paste can be found at local Asian markets.k_jiena/Shutterstock

The curry paste you can find stateside at your local Asian supermarket is just as authentic, if more mass-produced. While you’re at the Asian store, get a sack of high-end jasmine rice, some boxes of unrefrigerated silken tofu for use as a thickener, and a bag of shrimp shumai dumplings—I dump dumplings in my curry for extra fun.

Although there are three colors of Thai curry, and countless veggies and proteins available to incorporate, you only need one recipe. Here it is, in the form of chicken red curry, with seasonal veggies such as potatoes, carrots, and onions from last year’s harvest, and some fresh herbs and greens of spring, supplemented with Mexican zucchini and bell pepper from my local supermarket.

Red Curry

As with a stir-fry, you should add the ingredients in order of how long they take to cook. Tomatoes, potatoes, and winter squash can go in early, while broccoli, zucchini, and dumplings go later.

Serves 4

• 2 tablespoons cooking oil
• 2 chicken breasts or the equivalent amount of chicken, cut into inch-cubes
• 1 box firm silken tofu, cut into inch-cubes
• 2 cups jasmine rice
• 1 medium onion, minced
• 1 can full-fat coconut milk
• 2 medium potatoes, chopped into 3/4-inch chunks
• 2 to 4 tablespoons Thai red curry paste
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1 large carrot, cut into 1/2-inch rounds
• 1 medium-sized zucchini, cut into 1/2-inch rounds
• Other vegetables, as available (broccoli, peas, beans, tomatoes, winter squash—nothing is ruled out)
• 1 package shumai dumplings, optional
• 1 red bell pepper, sliced
• 1 to 2 tablespoons fish sauce
• Fresh basil or cilantro

Add the oil to a deep pan over medium heat. Add and fry the chicken pieces, skin down, and tofu. You don’t need to stir it; if they all have a single browned side, it’s fine.

While that is happening, add the rice to another pot and fill it with water, stirring the rice with your hand to get the starch off, which will make the water cloudy. Change the water and repeat, as often as it takes until the water comes out clear.

Then add 2 cups of water, so that the rice is covered by about 3/4-inch. With a tight-fitting lid, cook over high heat until it boils, then turn down to medium and simmer for about 10 minutes, until the water is gone and the rice is puffy.

When the chicken and tofu are starting to brown, add the onions. After about 10 minutes, add a cup of water to loosen the fond, and give the whole pan a stir. Add the coconut milk and potatoes. Bring to a boil. Simmer for 5 minutes.

Add the curry paste, sugar, and carrots. Simmer for 30 minutes, adding water as necessary to keep it thin and soupy.

Add the zucchini, dumplings, bell pepper, and fish sauce. Simmer for 10 more minutes. Taste. Adjust seasonings with fish sauce, soy sauce or salt, and serve with rice, garnished with fresh herbs.