Saturday, January 2, 2016

Thai Green Curry Seafood Soup


Happy New Year! For some reason my family really wanted a Thai soup for the new year, so that is what I made to celebrate the start of 2016.

I wanted to do something I have never done before: make curry paste from scratch. It sounded daunting. Lots of obscure ingredients and a food processor are required. But it was surprisingly simple to do and it tasted so good! I will never open the jar of green curry I have sitting in my fridge. I will always make it from scratch from now on. I started by making a simple pork ball and bean noodle soup with the curry, so that I would have an idea of how much to use in the Seafood soup. The pork ball soup turned out great and I will share that recipe another day.

Green Curry Paste

In a food processor, put the following ingredients:

1 tsp roasted cumin seeds (I just roasted them in a pan on the stove for about 5 mins- super easy!)
1 tsp roasted coriander seeds (Also roasted on the stove)
1 tbs chopped ginger
1 tbs chopped lemongrass
1 tbs fish sauce (Red Boat if you can find it)
4 Kaffir lime leaves chopped
4 Mexican or Key limes juiced
4-6 cloves of garlic chopped
1 Serrano chile chopped
1 small shallot chopped
1/2 C cilantro chopped
1/2 C basil chopped (I used frozen from my garden as I could not find good fresh and it worked just fine)
1/4-1/2 C coconut cream (Kara if you can get it)

Process until smooth. It will probably be a little "chunkier" than the paste you get in the store, but that does not matter. You are going purely for taste. Adjust any ingredients that you might need. I ended up adding more cilantro and more pepper. Mine still has bits of cilantro and basil but I liked it that way.

Thai Seafood Soup

8 C of chicken broth or clam/vegetable (whatever soup base you like)
4 C of chopped vegetables (I used eggplant, snap peas, red pepper, zucchini & green onion)

Add the curry paste.
Cook until the vegetables are tender then add the seafood.

Add the seafood; I used clams, shrimp, fish and crab
(Clams first, as they need a hotter pot, then fish followed by the shrimp and the crab last. I cook the crab separately and then clean and add to the pot)

Add the coconut cream to the pot. I also served limes, red pepper flakes, and cilantro on the table to let everyone individualize the taste. I also added some of the fresh curry paste to the bowl.

Enjoy making green curry paste from scratch and a big pot of Thai Seafood Soup!



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