
Until 20-30 years ago, Thai cuisine was almost unknown in the UK. Now, it's everywhere, and Thai green chicken curry is especially popular.
If you are using shop-bought Thai green curry paste, you can skip this step. But if you don't like over-salted and over-chillied sauce, you can make your own.
Pound the cumin, pepper and coriander seeds to a powder in a spice mill or mortar and pestle. Peel the onion, garlic and ginger. Chop all the vegetables and place in a blender (purists would say you should only use a mortar and pestle for this, and you can if you want. Me, I want my dinner today) and whizz to a smooth paste with the powdered seeds, oil and fish sauce.
You will end up with more curry paste than you need, but the remainder will keep in a jar in the fridge for 2-3 weeks.
Chop your chicken (or other protein) into cubes. Pour the coconut milk into a saucepan and bring it to the boil. Add the chicken stock and two tablespoons of Thai green curry paste and cook for a few minutes. Add the chicken breast and cook for 10 minutes. Chop the red bell pepper into small pieces, about 1cm (half an inch) square and add it to the pan. Finely chop the basil and lime leaves and add them to the curry (lime leaves can be a bit tough to cut, but if you roll them up into a cylinder, it's easy to slice them into thin strips). Let it all cook for a few more minutes.
Serve with steamed jasmine rice. Delicious!