Thai Green Prawn Curry w/ Yellow Rice & Carrot Slaw

I had a couple of friends over for supper yesterday. We've always been talking about doing a girl's night out and having dinner and drinks somewhere but we're all too busy we just can't seem to find the perfect time for it. So I decided I'll make the food myself and just throw in an open invitation and ask them to let me know when they'd like to come over. Well, last night, Wednesday (middle of the week yikes!!) they decided to take my offer. I was a little pressed for time so I had to figure out something really quick but really yummy so I thought I'd make my Thai prawn curry, some rice and toss a quick salad of some sort. It was really fast and easy to put together. It cooked in less than an hour so it gave me enough time to relax and enjoy the company. I had a real good time, I really enjoyed their visit.

Here's my recipe for the Thai green prawn curry. I'm not sure how authentic it is but it's good. Too bad I didn't get a chance to take a picture of it. Because I was pressed for time, I just used instant curry paste (I like the Maesri brand) and canned coconut milk (I prefer to use Aroy-D).

1 lb deveined and peeled medium-sized prawns

1 can of sliced bamboo shoots, drained & rinsed well with hot water

1 large red bell pepper, cut into strips

600 ml. coconut milk (1 1/2 cans)

3 tbsp. fish sauce

1 tbsp brown sugar

1 tbsp oyster sauce

2 fresh or dried kaffir lime leaves

chopped cilantro for garnish & added flavour

2 tbsp Maesri brand Thai green curry paste (or to taste)

1 tbsp oil

In a heavy bottomed pot, warm the oil and saute curry paste in medium high heat until fragrant. Pour the coconut milk, stir to evenly distribute the curry paste then add the fish sauce, oyster sauce, kaffir lime leaves and sugar, stir and bring to a boil. Add the bamboo shoots and cook for 5 minutes, add the red bell pepper, cook for 5 minutes and then add the prawns and cook for 5 - 7 minutes. Sprinkle lightly with chopped cilantro before serving.

Yellow Rice - I love yellow rice. It looks very festive and it smells heavenly. This is popular in many Southeast Asian countries. They have different names for it and the recipe may vary from country to country but I love it just the same. I just make mine in the rice cooker.

2 cups of Thai Jasmine rice, rinsed & drained

3 cups of water or more if needed

1/2 can of Aroy-D coconut milk (I use the left over from my curry)

1 stalk of lemongrass, lightly pounded and cut in 3 pieces

1 garlic clove, minced

1 medium onion, chopped

2 fresh or dried kaffir lime leaves

1 generous tsp of turmeric powder

pinch of salt

1 tsp of oil

In a pan, sautee onion, garlic, lemongrass and kaffir lime leaves in oil until fragrant. Add jasmine rice, coconut milk, salt and turmeric powder, toss to coat. Transfer to rice cooker, add water and cook like you would make regular rice until cooked. Remove lemongrass and kaffir lime leaves, they've already done their job. Fluff with a fork before serving.

Carrot Slaw - The trick to this is finely julienning the carrots. If you have a mandoline that would really do the trick. If not you'll have to do it the hard way like I did. Use your vegetable peeler and shave the carrots then slice very very finely in long strands.

5 medium-sized carrots, peeled and julienned

1 granny smith apple, julienned

1/4 cup of toasted peanuts, pounded

3 tbsp raisins

Toss carrots, apples and raisins with some of the dressing (recipe is below) and top with ground peanuts before serving.

Dressing:

3 tbsp fish sauce

2 generous tbsp of brown sugar

1 thai bird's eye chili, minced (remove the seeds and white pith if you don't want it hot)

1 tbsp of water

juice and zest of 1 lime

1 tbsp of chopped cilantro

In a non-reactive bowl, pour in fish sauce, lime juice, water and sugar. Stir to dissolve the sugar and add birds eye chili, lime zest and chopped cilantro. Adjust seasoning to taste. Use this as dressing to the carrot slaw.