Thai Green Curry (Veg) | Simple Thai Cooking

Thai Green Curry has been my favorite Thai dish for quite some time now. I think the first time I tasted it was in a Thai restaurant in Pune and fell in love with it, the very first time I had it. The essence of coconut milk along with the flavors of vegetables like Mushroom, Baby corn and Green Peas created such an amazing combination! The dish looked so simple, yet it tasted exotic!

I wanted to try this out at home and purchased Tarla Dalal's Thai Cooking book. The recipe was easy, but it called for Lemon Grass. I searched quite a bit for this ingredients, but failed to find it. After much searching and postponing to experiment this dish, I decided to go for it, minus the Lemon Grass. This is considered one of the most important element in Thai Cooking, but what to do if I cant find it... well, create the Thai dish, my way... hence I decided to do without the lemon grass and simply called my dish Pai's Thai Green Curry!! :) 

So, a couple of times I made it this way, though it lacked the complete flavour of the authentic Thai Green Curry I had eaten at the Thai restaurant, my preparation made me happy and I was satisfied with this version of the famous Thai delicacy :)

But it was only last week, when I finally managed to get myself some lemon grass!! Yay, so I made myself a batch of the Thai Green Curry Paste and then this yummilicous Thai Green Curry. Yes, the flavour of lemon grass comes through and gives it an extra punch. However, if you find it hard to find lemon grass, I would suggest you go ahead and make it anyway, as the taste is nearly 95% there even without this ingredient.

Makes: 1 large Bowl
Serves: 4
Prep Time: 30 minutes
Cooking Time: 15 minutes

Ingredients

Green Curry Paste - 4 tbsp

Coconut Milk - 1 cup 

(A 200ml tetra pack from Hommade would suffice)

Onion - 1 thinly sliced

Cauliflower - 1 cup florets

Button Mushrooms - 1 cup thinly sliced

Baby corn - 1 cup sliced into 1 inch strips

Green Peas - 1/2 cup

Capsicum - 1 cup diced
Paneer / Cottage Cheese - 10-12 cubes, deep fried

Oil - For frying

Sugar - 1 tsp
Lemongrass Stalks - 2 (optional)

Method:

• Par boil capsicum, cauliflower, mushroom, baby corn, green peas and the lemongrass stalks in a pot of water. Drain the excess water and keep the vegetables aside.
• Heat oil in a wok and add in sliced onions. 
• Once the onions turn a light brown, add in the green curry paste and fry for 2-3 mins.
• Add in the coconut milk and stir well.
• Now, add in the par boiled vegetables, paneer and mix in all the ingredients together.
• Serve hot with steamed rice!