Thai Red Curry Soup

Back in November I made Pad Prig King (to accompany some Thai fish cakes.  I bought some red curry paste for the recipe but it only required a tablespoon.  The small pot of paste claimed to be enough for ten to twelve servings of curry. It also had a short shelf life once opened, so I needed to use it up fast. We had a good curry a few days later*, but that still left me with over half a tub.

One of my favourite tricks for the use and storage of leftovers is to turn them into soup and freeze them.  That is exactly what I did but not before seeking the advice of The Soup Witch**.  I was unsure about what to use as the base for the soup.  I didn't want to use traditional stocks as they are all very western in flavour.  Jo suggested using tins of tomatoes and coconut milk and that is exactly what I did.

After defrosting the soup for tonight, I added sliced peppers, carrots, spring onions, a handful of corriander and some rice noodles to make a meal out of a snack.  I'm not actually a fan of soup as a main meal.  To me it's a starter or lunch dish but the flavours of this rich, sweet and hot soup made all the difference.  There is still a portion left in the freezer.  I think that it will be receiving just a little bit more chilli and possibly some prawns.  I'll let you know.

*missing blog post.
** Jo from Thistlemist Farm

Smoked Mackerel Thai Fishcakes

Yesterday I found myself looking into the fridge seeking inspiration for our evening meal.  I was faced with a motley crew of ageing vegetables and very little else.  There was one shining light, a packet of smoked mackerel that had been bought for Z's lunches.  For reasons that I might come to another day, Z hasn't been taking lunch with her to work this week, so the mackerel was in danger of being wasted.

Z regularly makes fish cakes for her and R's lunches at home.  I never get a look in so I decided to knock up a batch myself.  It was then I noticed that amongst the sorry looking salad in the fridge, sat the beginnings of a Thai curry.  There is nothing unusual about a Thai fish cake but I was unsure about the combination of Thai aromatics and smoked fish.

I decided to make a Western, potato based, fish cake and add the Thai flavours to the mix in the hope that the smoked fish wouldn't be too over powering.  To the smoked mackerel and mashed potato I added spring onions, garlic, ginger, chilli and coriander.  I didn't bother with fish sauce as I presumed that the mackerel would be fishy enough.

Standard British fish cakes are usually served with peas and I wanted something along those lines to have with mine tonight.  Having searched the internet I came across Pad Prig King or Green Beans and shrimp.  Steamed green beans fried in red curry paste, is without a doubt the easiest side dish I have ever cooked.  I left out the shrimp but I can see how their sweetness would work in the dish.

I served the fish cakes and green beans with jasmine rice.  I was nervous when I took my first bite of the fish cakes, they smelled superb but I was still unsure about the clash of flavours.  I needn't have worried.  The fish cakes were great and the aromatics worked really well with the smoked fish with no individual flavour dominating.  I know that the meal wasn't authentic but I'd rather make good tasting food than let it go to waste.  With that in mind, Tonight's meal was a huge success.

Friday Night Take-away - Chicken Thai Green Curry

Whenever possible, which isn't often at the moment, we try to cook a take-away style meal on a Friday.  South Leeds is awash with take-aways that offer curry, pizza, pasta and any combination of kebabs.  Some of them even allow you to have your kebab on the pizza, which just sounds wrong to me.  A couple of the Chinese take-aways have started branching out and now feature a couple of Thai dishes at their bottom of the tri-fold glossy menus.  I haven't tried any of them, but it is nice to know they are there.

With Z's mum staying for the weekend we decided to push the boat out and have a couple of courses for our evening meals.  Tonight we went for a starter and mains.  The starter came courtesy of a vegetarian week sample from Z's workplace.  It was received in the same bag that contained the disappointing risotto from earlier in the week.

This was a Simon Rimmer branded Thai Potato-cake mix.  After the disaster that was the risotto I was dubious about serving these to a guest* but they weren't half bad.  The flavour and heat that they provided were spot on, fragrant and fiery.  My only complaint would be the texture, they were too soft and pulpy, but they are a great idea and I'll happily make something similar from scratch in the future.

Our main course was a standard Thai Green Curry.  The last time we cooked a green curry we used prawns as the protien, tonight we had chicken.  We made the same paste as that meal; ginger, garlic, lemon grass, lime zest, spring onions and coriander ground up in a food processor.  The chicken was fried in batches and set aside.  Onions, green peppers and broccoli were stir-fried with some of the paste, before a tin of coconut cream was added along with the cooked chicken.  The dish was finished by stirring through the rest of the paste so that the flavours were fresh and served with jasmine rice.

*even if it was the mother-in-law.

Thai Green Prawn Curry

I've been looking back over the Tonight's Menu archive.  Not to see what we haven't eaten recently but to check how often we eat certain food types.  In my head we eat Thai curries quite regularly.  The reality is far from the truth.

The last time we cooked Thai it was a red curry and I noted at the time that we normally cook green curries.  Two months later and this is the first time we've eaten green curry since Tonight's Menu began.  We used to buy ready made curry pastes but they were always disappointing, neither hot or sour enough.  These days we make our own from scratch.

We make a paste by grinding together garlic, ginger, chillies, lime juice and zest, spring onions, coriander and a little oil.  We then add this to fried onions and green peppers to cook out the raw ingredients.  After a couple of minutes we add a tin of coconut milk and let everything simmer together with some soy and fish sauce.  The final ingredient is the prawns, which take no time to cook.