Our curry/stir fry noodle was a bit more in the pan-Asian vein.
For this dish, you will need:
- 4 tsps sesame oil
- 3 large tsp Massaman curry paste
- 12 tablespoons coconut milk
- 4-5 dried galangal
- 3-4 Kaffir lime leaves
- 2 stalks lemon grass or 2-3 tsp lemongrass paste
- 2 Tbls soy sauce
- 1 tablespoon palm sugar
- ½ onion, chopped into thin strips
- 1 medium carrot peeled, halved and chopped into thin strips
- 1 small crown of broccoli florets shopped up in bite sized pieces – broccollini is another good option
- 3 balls/nests angel hair pasta
- 180-200g of king prawns or large shrimp
- 3-4 large tsps of peanut sauce
1. Start a separate pot of water boiling. You then start the process in a similar manner to the Tom Yum soup: add 3-4tsp of oil (again, preferably sesame, but vegetable oil is okay too. Just not olive oil, it smokes at a really low temperature) into your wok (or large, deep frying pan) and allow the oil to heat until you can smell the sesames.
2. At this point, add in a couple of teaspoons of massaman curry paste. Again, it depends on how many people and how spicy you like it. For four of us who quite like spicy, I added three large-ish teaspoons. You can also a use green, red or yellow curry paste, whichever you fancy.
3. Mix the paste with the oil into a thick paste/ball. [Note: be sure to turn on the ventilation fan before this stage, otherwise the curry spices will because your eyes to tear up and you to sneeze, especially the spicier you make the dish!]
Once it is pretty thick , add 2-3 tablespoons of coconut milk and mix in the curry paste until you have a thick sauce base.
4. Stir some galangal pieces, ripped up Kaffir lime leaves, lemon grass (or lemon grass paste). Add another 2-3 tablespoons of coconut milk and mix again. Turn down the heat so that the sauce is not at a rapid boil and stops thickening so quickly. Add 2 tablespoons of soy sauce and 1 tablespoon of palm sugar. Mix and adjust according to taste.
5. Add in your onions, carrots and broccoli. Stir these into the sauce so that they start to cook.
6. At this stage, the water that you began set to boil before beginning to stir-fry should be at a boil; add the pasta to this water. We used some angel hair pasta (really going for the pan-Asian style) but really any kind of noodles will do. You want them al dente, so watch the pot because these thin noodles will cook within 2-3 minutes. Once they are cooked drain and rinse in cold water and keep them handy.
7. Keep stirring the veggies into the sauce so that they start to cook. If the sauce appears to be thickening, add some more coconut milk (never more than 3-4 tablespoons at a time) and keep stirring.
8. Throw in the shrimp and allow them to cook through until they’re a nice pink color. I like my veggies with a crunch, so my cooking time in the sauce is minimal before I throw in the pasta and 3-4 large teaspoons of peanut cause. Mix it all together and serve immediately. You can garnish with some chopped up peanuts if you have them handy.
– L
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