Unofficial But Generic Thai-ish Curry

Trying very hard to be Thai and nearly making it

I won't win points on authenticity here, but when I wanted something delicious for dinner the other night, I reached towards lemon grass, chillie, lots of garlic and salty salty fish sauce for a taste sensation that did the job. This is a really easy curry but so fresh and delicious. A more authentic version would have you searching for galangal instead of ginger and pounding for hours in a pestle and mortar but it was a week night and I needed something tasty pronto. This is much much better than using ready made pastes (even though they can be pretty good).

Feeds 2 (with a tiny bit leftover but apparently not enough for proper seconds). Take two lemon grass stalks and discard the really woody outer layer. Chop into one inch pieces. Chop a couple of red chillies. Peel a biggish knob of ginger and chop roughly, also chop most of a small bunch of coriander, stalks and leaves (save the rest for later). Shove all these ingredients into a whizzer, topping with the zest of a lime. Whiz into a coarse paste (you might need to push it down with a spatula a couple of times and add a splash of groundnut oil if it's too dry). Add a decent splash of fish sauce, dark soy sauce and two small/one large tomatoes and whizz again until quite smooth. De-vein a couple of handfuls of raw prawns, any type, the bigger the better (this job is gross but better than eating prawn poo surely?). Fry the paste in a splash of groundnut oil, in a deep frying pan or wok, stirring constantly and dribble a little at the gorgeous aroma released. Add a tin of coconut milk, stir well and let it bubble away for about 10 minutes until reduced slightly. Prepare any veg you want to use, I used pak choy and broccoli and add them to the pan. When just about cooked, add the prawns, stir well, when they are pink they are done. no-one likes hard little curled up prawns so be careful not to over-do them. Make sure it tastes how you like it, is it salty and sour enough? Squeeze some lime juice over the curry, top with chopped coriander leaves and serve with rice. 

This is good for boys with man-flu and girls who somehow never get girl-flu but just want something delicious for supper.