Thai Green Curry With Tofu

Thai Green Curry

Made this on a whim, because the aforementioned Most Wonderful Boy mentioned it and I instantly developed an insatiable craving. Had a lovely time shopping for the ingredients in Chelsea Market, which smells better than almost anywhere I've ever been and is home to a great Thai takeaway place that sells Thai cooking ingredients as well. I wish I lived closer and could afford to actually shop at the Market on a regular basis. I modified this recipe, which (I think) is the one I used the last time I made this about a year ago. I used a curry paste from the Thai store instead of making it myself, but I added a couple more ingredients because it was a bit bland. Overall, this turned out fantastically. I could eat it every day.

2 1/2 tablespoons green curry paste
2 teaspoons fish sauce (optional--the recipe is otherwise vegan)
1 tablespoon palm sugar (crumbled, if yours comes in blocks like mine)
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1 14 oz. can coconut milk
1 package firm tofu (not the gross silken type), cut into cubes
1 head fresh broccoli
1 small bell pepper
2 shallots
1 sweet potato
1/2 lb snow peas
6 tablespoons oil
2 rice cooker cups of rice

Add the tofu and four tablespoons of oil to your wok. Fry on medium-high until the cubes are golden brown on all sides, stirring occasionally. Now would be a good time to put the rice in the rice cooker/on the stove, as the rice takes about the same length of time as the tofu to cook. Chop up the bell pepper, broccoli, and shallots and stir-fry with the tofu (and maybe a little more oil) until they soften a bit.

Put the remaining 2 tablespoons of oil into the wok and turn heat to medium. Add the curry paste, then the fish sauce, palm sugar, and ginger. Stir for one minute (I try to keep it to one side of the tofu), then add the coconut milk.

Add the bell pepper, broccoli, and shallots, and simmer for another 10 minutes. Add the snow peas and cook for an additional 2-4 minutes.

Serve over the rice. I ended up with about three portions from this recipe. It was fairly vegetable-heavy, so if you like a more saucy curry I suggest increasing the curry paste and coconut milk by half or so.