By Tracey Ceurvels (http://thebusyhedonist.com)
Serves 2-4
Cooking dishes with such ingredients as coconut milk and curry pastes used to intimidate me, as I thought there was too much involved. But in reality it’s quite easy and I highly recommend it for the results you’ll achieve: simmering, often spicy and always very flavorful stews. For a dish like this you can experiment with different curries and add a variety of meat, seafood and vegetables. For me, coconut milk lends itself to seafood, but chicken would work just as well. Although I made this with salmon you could easily add shrimp or scallops or even small pieces of other fish—and finish cooking it on the stovetop. It’s the kind of dish you can make your own with ingredients you love. Serve as is or with Jasmine rice.
Ingredients
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 small onion, chopped
1 teaspoon fresh ginger, minced
1 cup chicken or fish stock
1 lb of small potatoes, quartered
1 can of coconut milk
1 tablespoon red curry paste
Juice of 2 limes
1 cup shitake mushrooms
1 cup fresh string beans, sliced into 1-inch pieces
2 salmon filets, about 8 oz each
2 tablespoons of Thai basil, slivered
1 tablespoon of scallions, sliced
Make the dish
Sauté onion and ginger over medium heat in olive oil in a cast iron pot until onion is translucent, about 5 minutes. Add stock and then potatoes. Add coconut milk and red curry, stirring so the curry blends in. Add lime juice and then mushrooms and string beans, cooking until potatoes are nearly cooked, about 15-20 minutes. Meanwhile, pre-heat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Remove from heat and add salmon filets to the broth. Cook covered in oven for about10 minutes. Serve over rice, if desire, and garnish with slivers of Thai basil and scallions.
