Simple Thai Green Shrimp Curry

“In Thailand we use a fork and spoon to eat our food, holding the fork in our left hand to push the food onto the spoon held in the right hand. Dishes are served all at once, enabling us to enjoy a vast array of different tastes and flavours. Soup is served alongside the main dishes and is used as a palette cleanser, although they are delicious in their own right! Along with the soup the meal usually consists of a curry dish (such as gang kiao wan gai/Thai green chicken curry), a fish dish, salad (usually with a sour/salty taste called ‘yam’) and steamed rice. Stuffing ones mouth is considered impolite and, therefore, each spoonful should be moderately filled to correspond with accepted custom. There shouldn’t be any sound of utensils scraping the plate nor should there be grains of rice on the lips. The food has balanced flavours of sweet, sour, salt and hot, although diners are encouraged to adjust these flavours with condiments from a tray especially for noodle dishes. These include sugar (sweet), vinegar with fresh chillies (sour), fish sauce (salt) and dried flaked red chilli (hot). The basic characteristic of Thai food comes from a mixture of chilli, fish sauce, palm sugar and lime juice. The aromatic qualities of Thai dishes are derived form a large number of herbs, spices, leaves, roots, fruits and even flowers. These include lemon grass, lime leaves and all kinds of chilli.” Puwadol Sukamalanan Try adding other vegetables such as eggplant and garden peas. For a one dish meal simply add fine rice noodle.