I love thai curries, and with the canned pastes that are available in most of the supermarkets around me, it means it's a pretty decent weeknight dinner option which requires no more than what's available in my pantry and freezer.
Tonight I have a jar of Thai Kitchen - Red Curry Paste. Now the back of the jar has instructions, which basically boils down to heating coconut milk and mixing paste in it, then adding meat. The result is meh curry and boiled meat, and if you accidentally boil the coconut milk for too long, you might end up curdling it instead.
Here's what you should do instead:
Preparing the meat:
First, cut the meat into one inch cubes and toss them with a mix of salt and pepper. This brine helps keep the meat tender when we cook it later. If you have the time, add corn flour and some soy sauce and rice wine to the raw meat for about 30 minutes. This is known as velveting the meat and is the secret to the silky tender meat in chinese stir-frys.
Frying the curry:
To really make the spices in the paste mix pop, you have to fry it in hot oil first. Then brown the meat in the spices.
Adding the vegetables:
Then we add vegetables, I used a frozen stir fry blend of vegetables from Kroger as well as a can of bamboo shoots that was kicking around at the back of my pantry. If the curry is too watery at this point due to the moisture from the vegetables, leave it uncovered so some of the moisture evaporates.
Simmer with coconut milk:
Add half a can of coconut milk, mix w...