Thai Red Chicken Curry

Today's been a busy day, with eating a hog roast barm and buying ox cheeks at the Southsea Food Festival to watching the Olympic torch go past my flat. The hog roast was run by the same people that do the farmers' market... I get one every time and the lads recognise me now. I'm hoping that means I'm now a regular and get extra crackling.

Was funny to hear the Olympic Torch spectators sarcastically cheer anyone that happened to drive, cycle or run past. And it was also funny to see some of them blocking the roundabout... the roads were still open. 

Amongst all the excitement I found time to make a Thai red curry paste. Though it all started out as a bit of mess.

All was good in the end though. No accidents. Even managed to remember not to rub my eyes after handling the chillies (which is so painful). I may have gone a little overboard with the quantities with this one... 1.4 litres of curry paste is quite a lot, even for me. I've worked out that I can make about 45 portions of curry. So, I'm in the process of freezing it in an ice cube tray.

First Thai curry up was a chicken on. For 4 chicken breasts I used 8 tablespoons of paste, which seemed to be about right.

Oh, and I found out last week that my parents have subscribed to this blog. Without me at home to do their cooking anymore, they've started to do some. I sort of noticed this when I started to get a series of texts asking about capers, dill and salmon. This led on to a barrage of emails showing me pictures of quiches, fishcakes, and various puddings. Glad to hear from home and that they're eating well.

Thai Red Curry

I know that 1.4 litres is a large quantity to make, so I've put in the number of teaspoons to make it easier to scale down - though it does freeze well.

I first tried to make this in a food processor but the didn't do that great a job. The blender dealt with it much better. 

Makes about 1.4L

4tbsp (12tsp) coriander seeds, toasted

2tbsp (6tsp) cumin seeds, toasted

7 red chillies, deseeded

12 stalks of lemongrass

1 thumb of ginger

8 kaffir lime leaves

3 onions

400ml coconut milk

Toss all the ingredients into a food processor or blender and process until you get a smooth paste. 

Use about 2tbsp per person.