I am a big fan of Thai cuisine, especially their curries! It has a delicate balance of flavors – tangy, spicy, creamy and sweet all at the same time. It is subtle yet packed with a punch. My favorites are Massaman curry and Red curry.

Atlanta is full of great Thai restaurants and we used eat out or do a carry out once a week – spicy basil fried rice and Massaman curry chicken with spring rolls as a side!! I miss that here and try to make it at home when possible. Today, I have made my favorite – Shrimp in red curry sauce.

You can use store bought Thai curry paste and I do that too when I am busy but I can assure you that nothing compares to the flavors of the home made paste using fresh ingredients! It creates profoundly robust layers of flavors…oh so YUM!!

Recipe                                             Servings: 2                             Time: 30 minutes

Ingredients

• 8 oz. or ½ lb. shrimp, peeled and deveined
• ½ onion, sliced
• 1 Red bell pepper, cut lengthwise
• ½ of 13.5 oz. can of unsweetened coconut milk
• 2 Tbsp. red Thai curry paste
• 1 stalk of lemon grass, finely chopped
• 2 stalks of scallion, chopped
• 1 Tbsp. ginger-garlic paste
• Juice of ½ lime
• 1 tsp. coconut palm sugar
• 1 tsp. fish sauce (you can add up to a Tbsp. if you like it more fishy)
• 1 Tbsp. oil
• 1 Tbsp. cilantro, chopped
• 1 Tbsp. basil, chopped
• 1 cup of water or as desired
• Salt to taste

Method

1. Heat oil in a wok or pan.
2. Add onions, white part of the scallions, chopped lemon grass and stir-fry until soft, 2 to 3 minutes.
3. Add bell peppers, ginger garlic paste, red curry paste, stirring, for about a minute or two.
4. Add the fish sauce, sugar, coconut milk, and water and bring to a boil.
5. Simmer until thickened slightly, about 2 minutes.
6. Add the shrimp and cook, until shrimp turns opaque and just cooked through, about 5-10 minutes depending on the size of the shrimp.
7. Stir in the lime juice, basil and cilantro.
8. Serve with white jasmine or basmati rice.

Ingredients for red curry paste

**This makes about 6-8 Tbsp. of curry paste.

• 6-8 dry red chilies
• 10 – 12 cloves garlic
• 5-6 cilantro stems, chopped
• 1 Tbsp. lemongrass, chopped
• 2-3 shallots
• 1 tsp. white pepper corn powder
• 1/2 tsp. cumin powder
• 1 tsp. coriander powder
• 1 Tbsp. galangal, chopped
• 1/2 the peel of a kaffir lime or 5-6 lime leaves
• 1/2 tsp. shrimp paste (you can leave this out for vegetarian dishes)

Thai curry paste: Soak red chilies in water to make them soft. Then grind them together with other ingredients to make a paste. Store it in a glass jar.

Notes

• You can substitute shrimp with tofu or vegetables of your choice.
• Add more red curry paste to make it extra spicy.
• Make sure not to overcook the veggies, they taste better crunchy!
• Make a big batch of red curry paste and freeze in smaller portions.
• You can make this curry without fish sauce or shrimp paste.