Healthy Thai recipe for 4 people, takes only 35 mins; recipe has coriander seed, cumin seed, cardamom pod, clove, chilli, rapeseed oil, shallot, garlic clove, ginger, lemongrass, coconut milk, black pepper, peanut, rapeseed oil, shallot, cinnamon stick, coconut milk, chicken breast, sweet potato, green bean, fish sauce, tamarind, chicken stock, coriander and peanut.
Lighter massaman chicken curry
Course: Healthy Thai
Servings
4
servings
Prep time
35 mins
Ingredients
- Coriander: coriander or Thai basil leaves (or both), to garnish
- Garlic Clove: 3 garlic cloves, finely chopped
- Chicken Breast: 500g skinless, boneless chicken breast, cut into bite-sized pieces
- Green Bean: 175g green bean, stem ends trimmed
- Chilli: 1/2 tsp crushed dried chilli
- Sweet Potato: 200g sweet potato, cut into 2 1/2 cm chunks
- Shallot: 100g shallot, finely chopped
- Chicken Stock: 75ml chicken stock
- Rapeseed Oil: 2 tsp rapeseed oil
- Ginger: 2 1/2 cm piece ginger, finely grated
- Cumin Seed: 2 tsp cumin seed
- Fish Sauce: 1 tbsp fish sauce
- Coriander Seed: 1 tbsp coriander seed
- Coconut Milk: 4 tbsp light coconut milk (from the can, below)
- Black Pepper: 1/4 tsp ground black pepper
- Lemongrass: 1 plump lemongrass stalk, tough ends and outside layer removed, finely chopped
- Clove: 3 cloves
- Cardamom Pod: seeds from 5 cardamom pods
- Cinnamon Stick: 1 cinnamon stick, broken in half
- Peanut: 25g unsalted, unroasted peanut
- Tamarind: 2 tsp tamarind paste
Directions
- To make the curry paste, heat a small heavy-based frying pan and drop in all the seeds and the cloves. Dry-fry over a medium heat, shaking the pan often, for 1-2 mins to release their flavours - until they start popping in the pan. Mix in the chillies, then grind finely using a pestle and mortar or a spice grinder. Set aside.
- Heat the oil in the same pan. Tip in the shallots and garlic, and fry over a medium heat for 5-6 mins, stirring occasionally, until a deep, rich golden brown. Stir in the ground spices and stir-fry for 1 min. Spoon into a mini processor with the ginger, lemongrass and coconut milk. Blitz until it is as smooth as you can get it, then stir in the black pepper. Can be kept in the fridge for several days.
- To make the curry, dry-fry the peanuts in a small frying pan for about 2 mins to give them extra colour and flavour. Set aside. Heat the oil in a large saute pan, tip in the shallots and fry over a medium heat, turning occasionally, for 8-10 mins until they are well browned all over and softened. Remove and set aside. Put the cinnamon stick and curry paste in the saute pan and cook for 1 min. Pour in 100ml of the coconut milk. Let it bubble for 2 mins, stirring occasionally, until it's like a thick paste. Tip in the chicken and stir-fry in the paste over a high-ish heat for 6-8 mins or until cooked.
- Meanwhile, steam the sweet potato chunks for 8-10 mins and the beans for about 5 mins. Remove the pan of chicken from the heat and stir in the remaining coconut milk, the fish sauce, tamarind paste and stock. Lay the sweet potatoes and shallots in the curry and warm through gently over a very low heat - overheating or overcooking may cause the coconut milk to curdle and thicken. If you need to thin the sauce slightly, stir in 1-2 spoons of water. Remove the cinnamon.
- Lay a bunch of the beans to one side of each serving bowl or plate. Spoon the curry over one end of the beans and serve scattered with the coriander, Thai basil and peanuts.
