Thai Green Chicken Curry

After a full day of watching kids athletics on Saturday, most sane people would go easy on themselves and open a jar of curry paste. This is what I did...

Thai Green Chicken Curry
paste adapted from Neil Perry's Simply Asian
Serves 4

For the Green Curry Paste:
5 coriander seeds
5 cumin seeds
5 white pepper corns
8 green chillies, chopped (I used the chillies I've been growing in my garden as pictured above. Use whichever ones you like, to give you the amount of heat you want.)
2 lemon grass stalks, inner white part only, chopped
2 tablespoons chopped galangal
5 Asian shallots, chopped
5 garlic cloves, chopped
3 coriander roots, scraped and chopped
1 tablespoon chopped turmeric
grated zest of 1 lime
1 teaspoon Thai shrimp paste, wrapped in foil and grilled until fragrant

*NOTE: This will make more curry paste than you need for this recipe. You will only need a third of it for this dish. Split the remaining paste into two and store in the freezer for when you want to make this again, or another dish that requires Green Curry Paste:

For the Curry:
250ml coconut cream
600g chicken thigh fillets, cut into 2cm dice
Handful of snake beans
150g baby corn, cut in half
2 Japanese eggplant, cut into 2cm dice
1 1/2 cup almond milk
4 kaffir lime leaves
fish sauce, to taste
lime juice, to taste
Handful coriander leaves, for garnish
Handful basil leaves, for garnish

4 spring onions, finely sliced, for garnish

1 red chilli, finely sliced for garnish

Make the Green Curry Paste:
Put the dry spices in a dry frying pan and toast over a medium flame until they become fragrant. Pop them in a mortar and pound them into a fine power with the pestle.

Put the ground spices and all of the other ingredients into a blender (or use a stick blender), and blend until smooth, adding a little water if necessary.

Make the Curry:
Pour the coconut cream into a wok and fry over medium heat until the cream splits (the oils separate from the solids). Keep stirring so that is doesn't catch. Once it's split, add a third of the green curry paste (*see note above). Crush the lime leaves in your hand and add them to the wok. Fry until the paste is sizzling. It will take about 7-10 minutes.

Add the almond milk and bring to a simmer. Add the eggplant and then the chicken. Simmer for about 10 minutes. Add the snake beans and simmer again for about 4 minutes, then add the baby corn. Simmer again for about 2 minutes, or until the eggplant is tender and the chicken is cooked through. Remove it from the heat and add fish sauce and lime juice to taste. I would normally adjust the seasoning with palm sugar at this point when I'm using all coconut milk, but the almond milk is quite sweet so I didn't use any extra sugar. If you like you curries sweeter than I do, then add a little palm sugar.

Pour the curry into a large serving bowl and garnish with basil leaves, coriander leaves, spring onions and red chilli.