One dish 'Dinner'-Thai yellow curry baptized in Kerala style

I have a habit of trying to make some of the dishes I liked from the restaurants by myself. For that I search all the Internet and add my on expertise and imagination to it. So far most of them came out really good and very few of them turned out be tragic too (tragic because I make everybody at home so excited even before I start cutting the ingredients by telling them about the new dish to be coming out of my kitchen and then if that goes wrong they have to compromise with some dal and rice).

This is a one dish dinner inspired from Thai yellow curry. There is a very good Thai restaurant called White Elephant near my office. I think Thai curries have a close resemblance to Kerala curries (coconut milk wala) except we don't put Basil (Rama Thulsi) and lemon grass (Enji pullu) in our dishes. In is a quick menu for dinner, at the same time it has meat , fish and enough veggies (bad ingredient is the coconut milk if you are really counting on your cholesterol and saturated fat intake).

The recipe follows:

get these items ready :-

jumbo shrimp cleaned - 1 lb (the weight before cleaning)
(if you are allergic to shrimp, substitute with cod fish or you can make the yellow curry with only chicken)
boneless chicken thigh - ½ lb
fresh ginger - ½ inch piece
carrots long one - 1 no
snow snap peas - 10 no
red bell pepper(small) - 1no
green bell pepper(small) - 1no
baby corn - ¼ pound
bean sprouts - ¼ lb
mushrooms -¼ lb
bamboo shoots - ¼ pound (a must ingredient, you will get in cans in the Asian section of the famous grocery chains. I here used fresh ones since I have an Asian market nearby)
basil leaves (fresh) - 4-5 leaves
(if you don't like the strong taste of it use the dry leaves. I used dry leaves, because Mr. R doesn't like the strong taste)
dried red chilies - 3no. (optional
yellow onion - 1 small
(easiest way to get a chili paste is to save some from your recent Chinese take-out)
Turmeric powder (divided) - ½ Tsp
Coriander powder - 1 Tsp
black pepper powder - ¼ tsp
lemon juice - ½ Tsp
Coconut Milk - 1¼ cup (1 cup light coconut milk and ¼ cup thick milk)
oil -¼ cup

In my last seven years in US I never been successful getting good fresh ready made coconut milk from grocery stores. In between I was squeezing fresh coconut to get milk . Now I use coconut milk powder as a safe option. Because it cannot go wrong. We get two brands in Asian and Kerala grocery stores - Maggie and Renu. Today I used Renu brand.

Before you heat the pan:-

• Soak red chillies in ¼ cup water for 30min . If you are using red chili paste you can omit this step.
• Clean shrimp.
• Clean chicken and cut it into thin long strips. Marinate cut chicken with ¼ tsp back pepper, lemon juice and some salt.
• Cut red, green bell peppers and yellow onions into 1 inch square pieces
• clean all other vegetables
• Make 1 cup light and ¼ cup thick coconut milk following the instructions on the package
• Make a fine paste of ginger

Method :-

• Heat half of the oil on a thick bottom skillet.
• Add shrimp and saute it very fast occasionally sprinkling salt and a a pinch of turmeric. Keep it aside
• Heat rest of the oil in the pan and saute chicken until it is well done inside.
• Add kept aside shrimp and all vegetables (except the bean sprout) to the chicken. Keep moving everything very fast in high flame for 5 min. Add red chili paste, coriander powder, turmeric and black pepper to it. Saute all the ingrediants in the pan for another 2-3 minutes.
• Add ginger paste. this will give a good ginger flavour to the curry
• Add light coconut milk and cover the pan with a tight lid. Keep it medium flam for 10-15 min.
• open the lid, add basil leaves and bean sprouts to it. Allow to boil in high heat for 5min. more.
• Add thick coconut milk.
• Allow the curry to simmer for just 1min.

Serve hot with steamed jasmine rice. If you already have all the items, then it is an easy one dish dinner.