Yesterday I came to the studio to discover that two out of three plates cracked. Sigh it had been a while since I worked with dark clay. I think I had put clay that was too wet into their molds. I resolved to compress more and get the obsidian clay as leather dry as possible. I also cast a tea bowl before I left and wish I had brought the mold home with me. And I was still feeling emotional and out of sorts by the news cycle of shootings and decided to go to the community garden and walk the dog.
Once home, because we harvested summer squash and basil, I cooked a Thai curry. Per usual, I set out all the ingredients I might need. I sautéed the Thai red curry paste, shallots, and garlic in coconut oil. I'll need to remember that for a whole can of coconut milk, I can use ALL of one of those little jars of curry paste.
I also realized that I had forgot the key ingredients of fish sauce and palm sugar in my mise en place. But that was okay as long as I remembered while cooking. I decided too to instead replace the palm sugar with sweetened coconut cream (Mai Tai or Pina colada cocktails the next night after my medical appointment;) in order to use it up. Next I added the cut-up chicken thighs and lime leaves (thanks to my friend, Bob) and Thai chilies to the curry paste.
I also started cooking the jasmine rice. I measured out a cup of rice and rinsed it a couple times to wash the excess starch off and then added 1 1/4 cups of water to the rinsed rice in a pot to boil.
Oops! Don't do what I did. I stepped out a couple minutes to remove recycling, and the pot boiled over in the meantime. Once your rice comes to a boil, immediately set the burner to low so it can simmer for 15 minutes. I removed the lid and stirred the rice to prevent rice from sticking too much to the bottom of the pot and then let it cook on low heat.
I then added the firmer vegetables like the broccoli and cauliflower to the chicken and curry paste. And then the baby corn.
There was too much fond I thought at the bottom of the pot, and so I added the coconut milk, sweetened coconut cream as well as a cooking spoon full of fish sauce to the pot.
And then I added the zucchini and yellow squash. I stirred the pot and then added the snow peas.
I then let the curry simmer without a lid because I wanted the moisture from the vegetables to escape.
When the vegetables looked tender, I added the spinach which only takes a minute to cook. Before serving, I added the Thai basil. Can I tell you how chuffed I was to find holy basil plants at the Grocery Outlet?
I overcooked my vegetables, but it was delicious anyway.
I used a curry paste as it already contains the chilies, lemongrass, shallots, garlic, galangal, kaffir lime leaf, cumin, coriander, and turmeric even though I added extra shallots and garlic (and wished I had thought to use more fresh ginger too). I wished my curry had had more spiciness, and so next time, use the whole little bottle. Also I read somewhere to add the coconut milk after frying the paste in oil and then the protein and vegetables. And I'll try different proteins next time like pork or tofu. I wished I had bought a red bell pepper because my curry needed that bright pop of red. Tomatoes would work too. And kabocha. I think that firmer Asian squash would be so delicious in a Thai curry. Bamboo shoots and straw mushrooms too. I'll have to pick some up the next time I'm at the Asian grocery store. But I've enough leftover curry to tide me over for the next 2 nights when the husband is out of town because unlike him, I don't mind eating a meal on repeat a couple nights in a row. And next time, green curry.
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