Back when we were backpacking around the globe in our twenties in 1998, Rob and I completed an awesome 3 day cooking school at the infamous Chiang Mai Thai Cookery School and, as part of this, made the best Thai Green Curry ever. This was the city’s original cooking school and had been running since 1993. It was the first cooking school we tried and, since then, across our many travels, a cooking class is always high on the list of things to do, early after we arrive, to learn about the local food and also just to have a fun day creating delicious treats. We love to cook, and more importantly, eat, and after we get back home we love recreating the new dishes we tried too. An amazing lasting memory of the trip and something that stays with you forever.
At that first cooking class, we made the best Thai Green Curry and it’s a recipe we’ve gone back to time and time again, so I thought I would share it with you. We carried the cook book we were given during our course throughout the rest of our backpacking trip and back to the UK, and it came with us when we moved to New Zealand too. Since then, we’ve had many a Thai green curry and tried other recipes, but I’m convinced our original one is the best one.
The Cooking Class
Our day involved a warm welcome from our chef and then a trip to the local market for the fresh ingredients we’d need. We watched the demonstration of how to make the paste and then sat in the beautiful gardens smashing up our own curry paste with a pestle and mortar – the lemongrass, garlic, ginger, coriander root, shrimp paste and spices.
With the paste done, after much vigorous pounding, it was back to the kitchen to fry up our freshly made paste with some chicken and veggies, and then add coconut milk, fish sauce, palm sugar and lime juice to create the perfect balance between spicy, sweet, salty, and sour.
The finishing touches were some torn kaffir lime leaves and fresh sweet basil from their garden. Delicious!
After making a few other dishes – a pad thai, some spring rolls and some thai style fish cakes, we got to eat our amazing feast in the garden. It was such a great day that we extended our course out for two further days to learn more about the cuisine and have more dishes to make when we were back at home.
To this day, I’m convinced that it was the best Thai Green Curry I’d ever had—because it was my own. So, here’s the ingredients for you to recreate it yourself.
The Thai Green Curry Paste Ingredients
1 teaspoon fresh Ginger – skin removed and chopped
3 tablespoons Lemongrass – white, more tinder part only, chopped
1 teaspoon Kaffir Lime Peel – chopped
2 tablespoons Coriander root – chopped
1 teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon black pepper
2 tablespoons Shallots – chopped
1 tablespoon Garlic – chopped or crushed
1 teaspoon Shrimp Paste
1 teaspoon fresh Turmeric – skin removed and chopped, if you can find it. I just use a teaspoon of ground turmeric.
½ teaspoon – coriander powder, slightly toasted
½ teaspoon – cumin powder, slightly toasted
4 small red chillies
20 small green chillies
½ cup Thai basil leaves.
The Curry Ingredients
1-2 tablespoons of Peanut or Rice Bran Oil
500g Chicken Breast – thinly sliced
800mls or 2 tins of Coconut Milk
Some Veggies – Thai Eggplants, capsicum, broccoli or whatever you have.
Roughly 2 tablespoons Fish Sauce
Roughly 2 tablespoons Sugar
Roughly 2 tablespoons Lime Juice
Sliced Basil leaves, Fresh Coriander and Kaffir Lime Leaves for decoration, as well as a few fresh chilli slices and maybe a wedge of lime
Recipe
1 – Put all the above Thai Green Curry Paste ingredients into a blender, or pound with a pestle and mortar. I use my Nutribullet for this.
2 – Add a tablespoon or two of peanut oil or rice bran oil into your wok and fry up the curry paste for a minute or so, until fragrant.
3 – Add the chicken and fry for another minute or two, without burning the paste.
4 – Add the tins of coconut milk, stir and bring to the boil.
5 – Add your vegetables and cook for a few minutes until tender.
6 – Add the fish sauce, lime juice and sugar. This is to taste so add a tablespoon of each, taste and then maybe add a little more until the curry sauce is nicely balanced. You want a nice balance of sweet, sour, spicy and salty with not one overpowering the others.
7 – Serve up and add your fresh herbs and lime wedge for garnish.
This can easily be made with pork, beef, tofu or fish instead of the chicken. Or just lots of veggies as well. For more of Thailand’s best foods to try, check out our blog post here.
We’re looking forward to our next cooking experience, wherever that might be. I hope you enjoy the Thai Green Curry and happy cooking!
