← Nouns Cooking · Thai

Ingredients

• 400 g white fish fillets (tilapia, cod or pollock)
• 300 ml Water
• 2 Lemongrass, bruised
• 4 Makrut (kaffir) lime leaves, torn
• 800 ml coconut milk (2 tins)
• 3 tbsp Thai red curry paste
• 2 tbsp Fingerroot (krachai), fresh or frozen, finely chopped
• 2 Shallot, chopped
• 2 cloves Garlic
• 2 tbsp Fish sauce
• 1 tsp Palm sugar
• 400 g khanom jeen or thin rice vermicelli, cooked and rinsed
• 150 g Bean sprouts, blanched
• 100 g long beans, blanched and cut
• 1 Cucumber, sliced
• 1 handful lemon basil or Thai basil
• 4 Eggs, hard-boiled and halved (optional)
• 50 g Pickled mustard greens, chopped (optional)

Method

1. Bring the water, lemongrass and lime leaves to a simmer, add the fish and poach for 6–8 min until it flakes easily. Lift out the fish and keep the poaching water.
2. Blend or pound the cooked fish with the shallots, garlic and krachai into a coarse paste, adding a little poaching water to help it along.
3. In a large pot, simmer 200 ml of the coconut milk for 3 min until it thickens, then fry the curry paste in it for 2 min until fragrant.
4. Stir in the fish paste, the rest of the coconut milk and the strained poaching water. Simmer gently for 15 min, stirring often, until it is thick enough to coat a spoon.
5. Season with fish sauce and sugar. Twist portions of noodles into bowls, ladle over the curry, and serve with the vegetables, herbs and eggs on the side.

Tips

• Krachai (fingerroot) gives the curry its signature earthy perfume; find it frozen or in jars in Thai shops.
• Check that your curry paste is gluten-free. Contains fish and shrimp paste.

Sources

Written in our own words after cross-checking these recipes:

Hungry in Thailand Rachel Cooks Thai ThaiTable