- In this video I'm gonna share with you
a Thai green curry recipe.
We've got all the ingredients to pound up the paste.
And got a free range chicken, my mother-in-law
is actually gonna do the cooking.
And I'm gonna do the pounding.
Stay tuned for an authentic Thai family green curry recipe.
(upbeat music)
Hey everyone it's Mark Wiens.
I'm in Bangkok, Thailand.
And today my mother-in-law and I are gonna be making
Thai green curry with chicken.
The first step in making this recipe is to pound up
the curry paste.
And so we got all the ingredients laying out here.
I think it's mainly gonna be these Thai green chilies
that we're gonna use to make it green.
And then we're also gonna use a lot of spices.
My mother-in-law doesn't write down any recipes
but somehow she just knows all of the ingredients
and the amounts in her head.
And by taste testing.
So I'm actually, we're gonna watch her and then
I'm gonna write down all the ingredients
and I'll include them in this recipe.
And then also I will write them over on Eatingthaifood.com.
You can find the full recipe and all the details
and all the ingredients there as well.
For this recipe, we're gonna be making a full chicken
and it's not a huge chicken.
It's a free range chicken, she said it was 1.4 kilos.
The first step is just to prepare
all of the ingredients to pound.
So the first step is to peel your garlic.
Next up for shallots and the same thing.
She's just gonna peel the shallots,
kinda like garlic actually.
Just get that skin off.
Next step is Galangal.
That's about a thumb sized chunk.
And she's just chopping this up in order to pound it
so it's easier to pound.
And it's young Galangal.
And next up lemongrass and these are only the bottoms
of the stalks of the lemongrass
and then again she's just slicing it finely
to be able to pound it.
And then next up this is a Kaffir lime
And we're not gonna be using the juice of the lime
but only the peel.
And that's going to provide so much citrus flavor
in the curry paste. (upbeat music)
And next up these are cilantro roots. (upbeat music)
I can already really smell that Kaffir lime peel.
It's so fragrant.
All of the pre-preparation is done,
we got all the ingredients ready.
It's now time to start pounding.
You can kind of just throw everything,
we're gonna eventually be putting everything
and pounding it altogether.
But she's first putting in the Galangal.
And then lemongrass.
And one thing I want to mention, this is coriander seeds
and cumin, which she just toasted and dry roasted in a pan
just to make it fragrant just for about 30 seconds
over a medium heat and dry roasted it.
Make it extra fragrant and that's gonna go
into the curry paste as well.
It actually doesn't work so well to pound on a surface
that bounces like a table so it's actually best
to take the mortar down to the ground
and pound on the ground.
Now in goes the cilantro roots. (upbeat music)
And the lime peel.
This is white peppercorns, all go in.
And also the cumin and coriander seeds.
I got the okay to just toss in everything
so next the garlic and the shallots.
We're gonna pound all of these ingredients first
and then after that we'll be adding the green chilies.
Okay, in goes some salt.
I'm gonna start pounding up everything.
This is gonna, it's gonna take awhile
but I'm gonna tell you that it is so worth it
to make your own curry paste.
You could buy green curry paste at the store
that's already pre-pounded and oftentimes in Thailand
actually we go to the market and buy green curry paste
that's already pre-made.
But when you make it yourself
and you control the ingredients and the flavor
and the freshness, it's absolutely incredible.
And one more thing I'd like to mention is that
you can make a big batch of green curry paste
and you can store it in the fridge or the freezer
and then you can use it in small amounts
when you make green curry.
So feel free to pound up
a whole big batch of green curry paste
and keep on eating it.
Also if you don't already have a stone mortar and pestle,
you should invest in one because you need it
for almost every Thai recipe.
It's one of the ultimate tools of Thai cooking.
I've just been pounding for about five minutes
and already you can see how the oils of the lemongrass,
the shallots, the garlic and the Kaffir lime peel,
all of the oils are coming out,
it's already smelling incredibly fragrant.
It's gonna be delicious.
My mouth is already watering for the final product.
Next up we're gonna add the chilies
and these are Thai Bird's Eye chilies
but they are green in color so if you can get green in color
that's what's gonna give your green curry the green color.
One more detail she just mentioned is that
green chilies aren't that spicy so she's gonna add in
a few red chilies as well because the red chilies
are a little more spicy but mainly
Thai green chilies for this.
So in go all of the chilies and I'm gonna probably
just add one handful first.
Pound them up a bit.
So they don't go flying and then add some more.
But we'll be using all of those chilies.
Alright I can add in another handful. (upbeat music)
At this point you're gonna just keep on pounding
and pounding so I have a cup of coffee.
You might wanna grab some coffee like me.
And then keep on pounding.
And you can really see the green color coming out
of the chilies, still have a whole lot more pounding to do
but it's coming along nicely.
This is definitely the most time consuming part
of this entire Thai green curry recipe.
So once we have this, it will be relatively
not too difficult and pretty fast
to put everything together.
But I understand that you are very busy and so
if you have the time to pound it by hand like this,
the green curry paste, that's the best case scenario
because you'll get all the oils that will come out
of the ingredients.
It will taste the best.
But I understand if you don't have the time,
still better than buying store bought curry paste
in a can or something.
You can take the same ingredients and you can process them.
Food process them, blend them up maybe with a little bit
of water to get them going.
And then that will be the second best case scenario,
that will save a lot of time.
But if you have the time and the energy, pound and plus.
You don't need to go, this is better than going to the gym.
You can get your workout in and have something delicious
to eat at the end.
I just got the approval.
The curry paste is good to go, the next step,
we got a nice puree, the next step is to add,
the final step is to add the shrimp paste.
Kinda smoosh it all together with that shrimp paste.
It should be a nice puree paste.
I love that sound at the end of making your curry paste.
It's kind of like a squishy sound. (laughs)
For this Thai green curry chicken recipe,
you can definitely buy chicken pieces or chicken thighs
or chicken breasts or whatever type of chicken you want.
But we're gonna be using a whole chicken
and it's a free range chicken so our next step
is to wash and clean the chicken.
(upbeat music)
She first chopped off the feet and the head of the chicken.
And now she chopped it in half and gonna clean it up.
Also it is good with all the organs
so you can include the organs in your curry as well.
Rather than cutting up the chicken into like thigh
and drumsticks pieces, the Thai style
for lots of chicken curry dishes and soups in Thailand
is to chop up the entire chicken into bite sized pieces.
(upbeat music)
(laughs)
I definitely just got splattered by some chicken juice.
The chicken is clean and I have just set up
the street food cart.
We're gonna assemble all of the entire green curry
with the coconut milk and the curry paste.
So the first thing she's doing. (speaking foreign language)
She's just putting a pot on the stove first.
The street food stove.
(speaking foreign language)
I'll write all the ingredients
but that's about a half a liter or so, maybe two cups.
So first she's gonna boil that water.
And then she said she's gonna put in the curry paste,
the chicken and boil that for a while while stirring.
(speaking foreign language) (laughs)
Mom said the curry paste smells really good.
(speaking foreign language)
(laughs)
She said it smells really good, the curry paste.
So you put that curry paste.
She'll use use most of what we pounded into the water
and dissolve that in the water first.
(speaking foreign language)
That green curry paste is boiling away
and it smells incredible.
Okay.
And now she's adding in all the chicken pieces.
(upbeat music)
It smells citrusy and you can also really smell
those green chilies.
That is called green curry steam on the lens.
And she's moving over to the chopping board now
to slice up some Kaffir lime leaves.
And toss those Kaffir lime leaves in there
to brew as well.
That's gonna add more fragrance to your green curry.
In addition to the chicken, it's common to add
a certain type of vegetable to your green curry.
And sometimes you can use like winter melon
or you can use an assortment of different kind
of tubular vegetables.
We're gonna be using Thai eggplant
which is a traditional additive to green curry as well
and then also she's gonna add in some sweet basil
right there too.
Take the sweet basil and take it off of the stems.
(speaking foreign language)
I think in English they are Spur chilies.
These chilies are not spicy but they're sort of
more for looks to add some red to your green curry.
And then next step is for the Thai eggplant.
She's cutting them into quarters.
She's dropping the eggplant into the water
so that they don't turn black.
Oh, I wish you could smell that steam.
- [Mark] It's been simmering for about 10 minutes or so,
she said the chicken is soft now.
And we're gonna assemble everything.
Micah has come to take a whiff, take a smell
of that green curry.
Hello Micah! (speaking foreign language)
He just woke up from a nap.
Micah I'm not gonna touch you because my hands
probably have some curry paste still on them.
And some chilies.
But I love you little boy.
I love you little boy.
- I love you too Dad.
- [Mark] And you can see a lot of the water has,
a lot of the liquid has evaporated
so we've got a nice looking, like thick curry paste
down below there.
Now in go the eggplant first.
(speaking foreign language)
- [Mark] And give that a nice stir.
You can see how almost all the water has boiled out.
Next up for the coconut cream.
And yeah that's the coconut cream, the thick, buttery,
rich, good stuff.
Oh and you can just see how creamy that is.
That's full of delicious fat.
And she's adding about a spoonful of salt.
But it's important, you wanna taste test
the curry because there's a lot of salt
and also the shrimp paste in the curry paste
that we pounded, so you wanna actually taste
that liquid first before you add any salt.
And then you can add salt to your taste.
- [Mark] Okay we're gonna bring this to a boil
and since the chicken is already cooked,
we're just gonna make sure that the eggplant is cooked.
So it doesn't really need to boil for very long.
And then the final step once the curry has come to a boil,
the coconut milk has come to a boil,
you add in the sweet basil.
Give it kind of a little stir and then she added in
the sliced red Spur chilies that she chopped up earlier.
And then you don't really wanna boil it too much longer
because you don't want the sweet basil to lose its flavor
so you just boil for another minute or so.
And we are just about ready to eat.
(speaking foreign language)
Okay the green curry recipe is done and Uni is gonna
dish out a bowl now.
At this point, so you have a whole pot of curry,
you can dish it into a bowl, you can save some for later.
But you should start a pot of rice, about well,
when you start to make the curry,
maybe after you pound the curry paste.
Before you start to assemble the curry
so that you have fresh rice as soon as the curry is ready.
I'm sitting down to immediately eat some of the
Thai green curry chicken.
You gotta come, come just take a really close up look
at this green curry.
Just look at how thick that is.
From both the coconut cream as well as the curry paste.
In Thai you call that kam kom wap.
Meaning it's very thick and rich. (laughs)
Yes, so I've also got a plate of rice.
This is brown rice.
I'm gonna go in.
Chicken, bite sized pieces of chicken.
Basil, put some of this onto my rice.
Put this on there, get some of that basil as well.
Oh yes. (laughs)
Oh you can smell that green, like sweet green,
sweet basil aroma to this as well.
Alright.
And so you do have to be careful of bones
due to our using of a whole chicken like that.
But I love the free range chicken and the texture.
Oh that chili as well.
That is the way you want green curry to taste.
Oh it's so good.
It has such a like, well you can taste all of those herbs
and spices that we pounded up in the curry paste.
Every one of them.
You can taste that little bit of citrusiness
from the Kaffir lime peel.
And also the leaves.
You can taste those green chilies, the lemongrass.
A hint of the cumin in there.
And then with the sweet basil, the richness
of that coconut cream.
Oh it's so good.
It's so flavorful and one thing I want to point out is that
Gaeng Khiao Wan, Thai green curry chicken is quite a popular
street food dish in Bangkok or throughout Thailand.
But due to cost limitations as well
but they often reduce the creaminess of the coconut milk
and add more water and they also tend to use
less curry paste to reduce cost.
So that's not a bad thing.
But oftentimes, green curry, if you eat green curry
on the streets of Thailand, it's kind of sweet
and bland actually and it's not very good.
So I think the best way to have green curry
is to actually make it yourself.
So I hope that you have enjoyed this Thai green curry recipe
and I hope that you'll try it out from scratch
using all the ingredients you get.
I wanna say a big thank you to my mother-in-law, May
for showing us all how to make Gaeng Khiao Wan.
And it's delicious, I'm gonna finish off the food here
and again all of the ingredients and the steps
will be over on Eatingthaifood.com, check that out.
Thank you very much for watching this recipe
and let me know if you try it out and how it goes.
I would love to hear from you.
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And Thai recipes.
Thank you for watching and I will see you on the next video.
(upbeat music)