Thai Prawn Red Curry

By Adrianne Jamieson

Image one: preparing the ingredients for the curry (rice made earlier in the day)

I am a passive fan of all different types of food. Thai food is so authentic and amazing in its flavours that it makes it so easy to love. These days I prefer to cook than to get take-out as I found in the past with take out there is such a rush to get home, serve the food and eat whilst it is still hot. Whereas I find cooking at home, I can have a glass of wine or a beer, really engage with the food in the kitchen, know exactly what is in the dish and make it with the vegetables I like as opposed to the ones on the menu.

This week, I realised I had not made Thai curry for ages, so I thought I would get some prawns and whip up a dish.

Normally I get fresh raw prawns and peel them, devein them and do all the work to get them ready for the dish. But working full time and only having the weekends off, I think it’s ok to sometimes make life a little easier. So to a degree, I cheated by buying frozen pre-peeled prawns and I didn’t regret this at all!

I also bought the curry paste and used that directly from the jar as opposed to making my own paste (which I have never done, but it is on my to do list).

So whilst this is an amazing tasting dish, its beauty is in its simplicity. By all means, I encourage you to buy fresh prawns and make your own curry paste, but for those days that life, family, kids and work get in the way, then this is a super quick, easy, healthy dish that I love and highly recommend.

I bought my curry paste, rice and coconut cream at Aldi and I was impressed!! Their prices are spot on and each product from there was great quality, I would buy these again without hesitation!

Curry Ingredients

200g prawns, either thawed from frozen, or fresh ones, peeled, de-veined but with tails kept on
1 x jar Thai red curry paste (Aldi’s is great!)
2 x long red sweet chilli’s (they are the size of a carrot, not the small hot ones)
3 x shallots
4 large button mushrooms

Rice Ingredients

2 cups jasmine rice
2 cups water
1 tin coconut cream
1 green chilli

Curry Method

Put a splash of olive oil in your frypan and then add 2 heaped tablespoons of the curry paste. Fry this for about 2 minutes.

Image two: My rice is cooked on the left and I am starting the curry on the right

Add the tin of coconut cream

Then add the prawns. Put the lid on the frypan and leave to cook for about 2 minutes.

Take the lid off, stir the mixture, then add the chopped chilli and shallots.

Image three: Yum! Adding the veggies and cooking getting the flavor going

Put the lid back on for about 2 minutes for the veggies to took.

Take the lid off and add the sliced mushrooms, stir to mix all of the ingredients together.

Keep an eye on the prawns so that they don’t over cook, (which can happy very quickly!).

If they are not fully cooked and have turned an orange colour, leave the mixture in the saucepan and simmer the dish for another couple of minutes.

Turn off stove and transfer into a bowl to serve.

Rice method (can be prepared ahead of time or earlier in the day)

Rinse 2 cups uncooked jasmine rice in a large saucepan

Drain water from rice, then place rice, 2 cups of water, can of coconut cream and teaspoon of ginger in the saucepan. Put the lid on and boil for approx. 10 minutes (stir occasionally).

Image four: cooking the coconut rice

Turn the heat down and simmer the rice for another 10 minutes (stir occasionally so the rice doesn’t stick to the bottom of the pan creating an annoying cleaning task later on!)

Once the rice is cooked, turn the heat off and leave it to stand for a bit (I change elements at this time too as I don’t want the left over heat to continue to cook the rice).

Image five: Rice cooked and ready to serve

Scoop rice into serving bowls and top with fresh raw green chilli.

The 2 things that could go wrong with this dish are 1) overcooking the prawns 2)burning the saucepan with the rice, these will make an easy dish turn frustrating.

Otherwise, this is a great go to, week night meal. The rice can be scooped into plastic sandwich bags and frozen so that if you are working during the day, you can have that ready to go and the curry will be the only thing you have to make with the reheated rice.

Image six: Ready to eat!!

Easy and delicious – Enjoy!! xx