When you try to find a recipe for Thai green curry the instructions are often to first fry the curry paste in oil. Not this recipe from the backyard of Mark Wien’s mother in law. She dissolves the curry paste simply in water. I decided to test this recipe. I used prepackaged curry paste and didn’t make any photos. The result was very encouraging and I will make this recipe again with self made curry paste. In Thailand this dish is not called a curry but แกงเขียวหวานไก่.

Ingredients for the paste:

50 grams Thai green chilies (พริกขี้หนูเขียว)
1 head garlic (กระเทียม)
3 shallots - small shallots about 2 tbsp in total (หอมแดง)
1 thumb sized chunk of galangal (ข่า)
5 cilantro roots (รากผักชี) coriander
1 kaffir lime - just the peel (ผิวมะกรูด)
2 stalks lemongrass (ตะไคร้)
1 tbsp. white peppercorns (พริกไทยขาว)
1 tsp. coriander seed (ลูกผักชี)
1 tsp. cumin seed (ยี่หร่า)
1 tsp. salt (เกลือ)
1 tbsp. shrimp paste (กะปิ

In fact I tested this recipe twice. The second time I used tofu instead of chicken and the result was not good. You need the flavour of the chicken bones. If you want to make green curry tofu you need to find a different recipe.

You need to dissolve the curry paste in about half a liter of water (2 cups). Add the chicken. This should be chicken including the bones, so buy a whole chicken. You want flavour.

When the chicken is boiling add a generous amount of kaffir lime leaves.

The green curry also needs vegetables. Thai egg plant is a first choice. Wash and quarter the egg plants.

Add the egg plant to the chicken and mix. By now almost all the water has evaporated.

The trick apparently is to use coconut cream instead of coconut milk. She has a rather large bag of coconut cream. The coconut cream you buy in a package is more concentrated: add enough water. You want about 3 cups of liquid.

Simmer the chicken, egg plant and coconut cream until done. Add a big hand full of Thai sweet basil.

For some colour add sliced spur chilis. In The Netherlands you can buy this under the Indonesian name lombok. They are not spicy.

After adding the lombok and the sweet basil leaves the curry is done.