Recipes: Lime & Coconut 'Green' Curry

Starting as I mean to go on with adding recipes to my 'new-look' blog, this is a really delicious curry that I cooked up for dinner the other night, after spotting I had several tins of coconut milk in the cupboard and some green vegetables that needed using up!

Depending on how hot your chillies are, you can make this curry hotter with a pinch of extra red chilli powder too. But my red chilli was especially long and quite fiery, so it was enough (obviously, use less if you're not soo keen on hot, hot, hot!).

The sauce in this curry is fairly thin - the picture above is from a day after, when the sauce had thickened and dried a bit. But add more desiccated (shredded, dried coconut for US readers!) if you want it thicker.

And for the fullest flavour melding, you could also make the day before, though I ate my first dinner immediately after cooking!

Lime & Coconut 'Green' Curry

 

Serves 3-4 (with rice)

 

Coconut oil for frying
1 large onion, chopped
1 large courgette (zucchini), diced
1 head of broccoli, cut into florets and including stems
1 green pepper
400ml (1 can) coconut milk
1 red chilli, finely chopped with seeds included
2 inch stick of ginger, peeled and grated
3 garlic cloves, peeled and crushed
3 tbsp desiccated coconut
2 tbsp chopped coriander (cilantro) leaves
1 lime, zest and juice
½ tsp salt 

Spice mix:
2 tsp coriander seeds
2 tsp cumin seeds
1 tsp black mustard seeds
About 10-12 cardamom pods

1. In a frying pan, dry-fry the spices until they release their scent, then transfer and work to a fine powder with a pestle and mortar. Discard the cardamom skins.

2. In a large, heavy-based skillet, melt some coconut oil for frying and sauté the onion in the oil on a low to medium heat, for about 10-12 minutes, so it cooks until soft and caramelises slightly, without burning.

3. Add the chopped green vegetables, ground spices, ginger, garlic, chilli and fry for 1 or 2 minutes. Then add the coconut milk and the lime zest. Bring to a simmer, then cover the pan and cook for around 10 minutes, until the vegetables have softened. You may want to cook less if you prefer your veggies to be crunchier.

4. Uncover and add the desiccated coconut. The sauce should thicken with the coconut added though is not meant to be a very thick one. However, if necessary, reduce the sauce by simmering a few minutes longer with the pan uncovered.

5. Take off the heat and add the lime juice and most of the coriander, as well as the salt (add more if required). Leave to sit for around 10 minutes until the flavours have melded, then serve with basmati rice with the remaining coriander as garnish.

Enjoy!