Why greens are relaxing to see but not to eat? Let’s make a Green Curry Paste and see what it does to our dishes and senses!
Green is a healthy color or at least we think so, based of thousands of years of evolutionary conditioning. We calm down in a green environment and feel relaxed. It shouldn’t really be the case if we think about that we had to leave the wilderness to be actually safe.
Once our primitive brain gets something in, it clinches to it harder than we do to bags of chips when going shopping hungry. According to behavioral observations, we buy up all sort of high carbs junk food when our Ghrelin hormones hitting the ceiling.
Ghrelin hormones are the ones responsible to signal hunger for our brain. Now we can probably understand where the movie Gremlins came from.
What do shops know about green?
Unfortunately for shops though, it seems that not everybody goes there hungry and buy all sort of cheap, yet in reality highly overpriced products, like all the snacks out there. Despite many of us don’t look like, we all try to care about our well-being, hence sticking words with little meaning like organic, healthy, fit, vita, have great power over our shopping decisions.
Such words and other marketing tactics have even more influence over us if we aren’t on a planned shopping trip but solely pop into a shop for some reason (like a petrol station) and only there decide to buy something too.
To play with our healthy conscious-self, shops figured that promoting green produce -that we associate with healthy food- at the entrance of the shop, we are soothed into buying more -generally low nutrition or processed- food later.
What can we do with green?
Regrettably, it seems that leafy greens lose their mesmerizing effect when placed on a plate though. Or so it seems by the mere fact that salads served as a garnish on many plates and even then, simply left to be thrown out.
Not so though when we make a sauce from them. Soaking carbs or protein into a dip is much more appetizing for many than munching on their original form.
Although making pastes from vegetables and herbs won’t help us get rid of countless iceberg salads that we only bought to be able to buy more chips, but gives us the possibility of choice next time we are passing the vegetable isles.
What does Thailand do with green?
There are countless sauces and pastes that we can make to live up our good old but sometimes boring roasts. Some of them, like Thai curries, introduce a completely new world to our kitchen.
Thai curry refers not only to the paste that is made of various herbs and spices but to the dish that is made from this paste. So much like everything is a pizza that has pizza sauce on it, everything is a Thai curry once it has Thai curry paste in it.
As much as Thai boxing softened, due to Western influence (they now wear gloves and groin protectors) so did the curry. Or at least it did so where tourists are abundant, but what happens behind closed doors, stays behind closed doors.
If we are after a more traditional experience and not afraid of hot situations, sneak some bird’s eye chili in there that will not only spice up our curry but despite green being a relaxing color our senses too.
Ingredients
- 1 stalk Lemon grass (or 1/2 lemon juice)
- 1 Green chilies (or whatever green and hot)
- 1 shallot (or 1/4 red onion)
- 5 cloves Garlic
- 2″ / 5cm Galangal (or ginger)
- ½ cup Cilantro
- ½ cup Basil
- ½ teaspoon Cumin (ground)
- ½ teaspoon White pepper (ground)
- ½ teaspoon Coriander
- 3 tablespoon Fish sauce
- 1 teaspoon Shrimp paste
- ¼ Lime juice
- 2-5 tablespoon Coconut milk
How to make Green thai curry
- Sourcing the ingredients may going to be a challenge but luckily some of them can be substituted, others left out completely if desired.
- Before throwing everything into a food processor, we need to do some preparation apart from rinsing everything with some water. Peel the ginger if desired then slice it up. Don’t forget to grind the cumin and white pepper. Otherwise just chop up the ginger, chilly, coriander, onion, lemongrass, basil and don’t forget to peel the garlic.
- Put all the ingredients except the lemon, lime and coconut milk into a food processor and give it a whirl.
- Pour the lemon and lime juice in with a a tablespoon of coconut milk and give it another whirl for about a minute or two. Mind not to add too much coconut milk as it can cause the paste to be too thin.
- Taste the Thai curry and adjust the flavors if necessary.
- Pour it into a jar and keep it in the fridge.
Enjoy!
Star this recipe!
Green Thai Curry Paste Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 stalk Lemon grass or 1/2 lemon juice
- 1 Green chilies or whatever green and hot
- 1 shallot or 1/4 red onion
- 5 cloves Garlic
- 2 " / 5cm Galangal or ginger
- ½ cup Cilantro
- ½ cup Basil
- ½ teaspoon Cumin ground
- ½ teaspoon White pepper ground
- ½ teaspoon Coriander
- 3 tablespoon Fish sauce
- 1 teaspoon Shrimp paste
- ¼ Lime juice
- 2-5 tablespoon Coconut milk
Instructions
- Sourcing the ingredients may going to be a challenge but luckily some of them can be substituted, others left out completely if desired.
- Before throwing everything into a food processor, we need to do some preparation apart from rinsing everything with some water. Peel the ginger if desired then slice it up. Don't forget to grind the cumin and white pepper. Otherwise just chop up the ginger, chilly, coriander, onion, lemongrass, basil and don't forget to peel the garlic.
- Put all the ingredients except the lemon, lime and coconut milk into a food processor and give it a whirl.
- Pour the lemon and lime juice in with a a tablespoon of coconut milk and give it another whirl for about a minute or two. Mind not to add too much coconut milk as it can cause the paste to be too thin.
- Taste the Thai curry and adjust the flavors if necessary.
- Pour it into a jar and keep it in the fridge.
Notes
Pin now, Enjoy later!