Thai green curry (gaeng khiao waan) - แกงเขียวหวาง

I follow the authentic recipe to cook Thai green curry - gaeng khiao waan. It is so good it needs no improving.

It starts with lots of chopping and slicing:

• 2-3 stalks of lemons grass (chop off the dry tops and use them to make infusion), chopped;
• 4-5cm galangal root, sliced;
• 3-5 chillies, chopped;
  
• half a head of garlic, peeled and finely chopped;
• a few kaffir lime leaves, leave them whole or tear big ones in halves.
  

First in a medium-heated thick-bottomed pan goes a nice glub of odourless vegetable oil. When the oil is hot, there goes garlic. When it just becomes golden the rest of the herb mix follows to be shortly joined by 2-3 tablespoonfuls of fried chilli paste.
When all this goodness becomes fragrant, I give it a generous dash of fish sauce. Then I add half a pack (about 125 g) of creamed coconut milk and slowly whisk in two tins of coconut milk. The point is to infuse the milk with the flavours of the toasted herb mix.

At this stage I add green peppercorns, Thai basil and tiny Thai round aubergines that give the final product that unmistakeable flavour you can smell the moment you step out of the plane in Bangkok. I let it all simmer until a thin greenish film of oil appears on the surface and then add the rest of the ingredients:

• a skinned breast of chicken cut into bite-size pieces;
• white round aubergines cut in halves(also known as garden eggs in Africa);
• string beans;
• button mushrooms.
  

When the chicken is done you can serve it with boiled jasmine rice. You can supplement chicken with seafood but then add it at the very end.

Here is a theme song for this fragrant Thai meal: