Curry in a hurry

I am a fan of curries. All kinds of curries. Indian to Thai. I love 'em.

Thai is possibly the easiest to make. I usually make a simply red coconut curry on rice. Simple and tasty. Today I made a slow cooker beef curry from the William-Sonoma Essentials of slow Cooking. It was the third thing I've made out of the book and I'm giving the book two thumbs up for sure. Tasty recipes with simple natural ingrediates and none of that "can of mushroom soup" business... but I digress.

Curry. Thai Curry to be precise. Out of respect for copy right and all that I won't repost the recipe I made to day but it builds on the basic principles of my Red Coconut Curry. Which I will share.

The key to a good curry is finding a good curry paste. I am a fan of the plastic container of Namjai brand. Can't usually find it in your local Safeway but a good asian market will have it. I'm not a fan of the oily paste in the envelop that you get at the plain jane grocery store asian aisle. So invest in some good paste. If you are in Vancouver you can get it at South China Seas in Granville market.

Now the recipe:

Red Coconut Curry with Prawns or chicken or tofu...

- enough of your meat (or tofudabeast) for 2 or 3 people (i.e. 2 chicken breasts) cut into cubes, strips, or shelled as needed
- 1 tbsp canola oil
- 1 clove garlic
- 2 tsp of grated ginger
- 2 tbsp of curry paste
- 1 tsp of fish sauce (it's the Thai equivalent of soy sauce or salt)
- 1 can of coconut milk (shake it well before opening in case it separated)
- 1 teaspoon of brown sugar
- 1 red pepper chopped into bite sizes pieces

If you are dealing with chicken you'll want to saute the meat quickly before you start not cooking it through but lightly browning it.

Saute the garlic and ginger for 30 secs add the curry paste saute 30 more secs breaking up any chunkies.
Pour in coconut milk, add sugar. Stir well to combine and incorporate curry paste.
Add meat and the red peppers chunks.
Simmer for 20 minutes or so. If it's chicken check to see if it's done.

Yes it's supposed to be soupy.
Spoon in over basmati or jasmine race in a bowl.

Simple and fast and tasty.

For a beef curry you can add some finely chopped onion and let the whole thing cook in the slow cooker for a few hours adding large potato chunks about an hour before the end and red peppers 15 minutes out if desired.