I love Thai cuisine that everybody knows by now. My hubby too started asking me to make Thai curries. Last week he had lunch with one of his friends Patricia and her hubbyat a Thai restaurant. And for a change he ordered Thai yellow curry with some sides and rice from the menu. He fell in love with it and come home and told me, do you know yellow curry. You should make it is really tasty. I told him will you take me to Hong Kong Market. He immediately nodded his head and asked me what you want. I told him I need lemon grass and galangal, we get it fresh there.
After reaching there, I bought lot of stuffs, shallots, lemon grass, galangal, watercress, bok choy, Gai lan(Chinese broccoli), Jackfruit, lychee. Then soy sauce, curry pastes, agar flakes etc. Finally hubby told me you came to the store to buy only lemon grass and galangal, but ended up buying lot of stuff. I don’t know I am like a lost child in toy store when reach that store. You say something and do other. I smiled at him. Yesterday I made soup with bok choy, but didn’t get to take photographs though; I will make it once again and click it.
Today hubby is coming for lunch; I thought I will surprise him with his favorite yellow curry. I wanted to make the curry paste from the scratch. Even after buying lot of stuff from Hong Kong Market, I forgot to buy fresh turmeric, so used turmeric powder. I also need to find cilantro root, which is indispensible in Thai cooking, along with galangal, lemongrass, shallots, garlic, coriander roots, Kaffir lime rind/leaves and shrimp paste. I read this blog and if you want a veggie or vegan option you can use Vegemite and Marmite. As usual I looked around internet to find the curry paste recipes. I liked this one and this one. So my sauce is adapted from both. However I didn’t add shrimp paste or fish sauce. Please add it if you want to replicate extract restaurant version otherwise, it is pretty close.
This yellow curry and Massaman curry (which is named as king of curries) is originated as part of Thai –Muslim culture, it also has strong influence of Indian cooking. Interestingly I found lot of similarities with my home town cooking. People in Kerala heavily use coconut oil, coconut and coconut milk.
| Kerala curry | Thai Yellow curry |
| Spices like, Red chili, Coriander seeds, cumin seeds, Fennel seeds, Cardamom Mace, Cinnamon Ginger, garlic. Shallots, coriander leaves/ cilantro leaves. Black pepper, turmeric and coconut milk | All the species, coconut milk. Except ginger, it uses galangal, lemon grass, kaffir lime rind, shrimp paste, coriander root and white pepper |
I made the curry like this: first made the paste, while making the paste I cooked the vegetables to shorten the time. Then in a pan sautéed the paste with coconut oil, and once the raw smell was gone, I added veggies along with cooked water (I didn’t add vegetable stock). I added coconut milk, salt, sugar and top of lemon grass that I had kept aside while cutting it to enhance the flavor. If you want you can added shrimp paste/ or vegemite at this time. Just bring to boil and switch off. Enjoy with rice you want. You can even enjoy with your Appam, dosa or any flat bread. It is Yummy.
If you want you can add chicken, shrimp or any other protein of your choices to this curry. 
Thai Yellow Curry with vegetables/kaeng kari (Vegetarian Version)
Prep Time 25 minutes
Cook time: 20 minutes
Serves 4
Ingredients
Yellow Curry Paste (This recipes makes about 6 tablespoon paste, you need only 3 tablespoons for making a curry of 4 serving)
- 3 dried long red chili pods
- 1 tablespoon coriander seeds
- 1 teaspoon cumin seeds
- ½ teaspoon fennel seeds
- ½ teaspoon white peppercorns
- ¼ teaspoon mace
- 2 cardamom pods
- 3 one inch sticks of cinnamon
- 1 /4 teaspoon salt
- 3 tablespoons red shallots, minced ( around 2 shallots)
- 1 tablespoons garlic, minced ( around 2 garlic cloves)
- 1 tablespoon galangal
- 2 tablespoons lemongrass (discards the hard part and use only soft fleshy part, Keep the shoot aside and you can add it into curry it will give more flavor)
- 2 cilantro/coriander roots (you find it is frozen section of Asian market, or fresh from farmers market)* I used shoot of cilantro/coriander leaves as I couldn’t find the roots.
- 11/2 teaspoon turmeric powder
- ¼ cup water
For curry
- 1 cup coconut milk ( I used Thai Kitchen brand)
- 1-3 cups vegetable stock (recipe here) or you can use vegetables cooked water
- 1 tablespoon shaved palm sugar or brown sugar
- 1 potato (chopped into cubes)
- 1 tablespoon Coconut oil
- 3 tablespoons Shrimp paste
- 1 onion (chopped into cubes)
- 6 Yard long beans cut into 2 inch pieces
- 2 Carrot cut into 2 inch pieces
- 1 tablespoon Fresh cilantro leaves, minced (optional)( I didn’t add)
- 1 Bay leaf
- 1 teaspoon of salt or to taste
- 3 cup water
Directions:
- Prepare Curry Paste Ingredients
Chili Pods: Soak in hot water for 15 minutes or until soft. Drain (reserve a few tablespoons of water) and chop.
Coriander Seed, Cumin Seed, Fennel, Mace, Cardamom and Cinnamon Stick: Dry roast until fragrant.
Galangal & Turmeric: Peel (sometimes the edge of a spoon works well for this) and chop.
Lemongrass: Remove the outer, very fibrous layers. Strike with a meat tenderizer or heave pan. Chop.
Cilantro/Coriander Roots: If using clean well water and add baking soda in the final washing step and chop into small pieces.
Make the Curry Paste
Combine all the ingredients in a food processor /blender/mortar and pestle and pulse until a smooth paste. Add reserved chili soaking water if necessary. - Curry
- Cook vegetables with 2 cups of water until it becomes soft, don’t drain the water.
- In a pan heat the coconut oil and add 3 tablespoon of curry paste , fry for few minutes or until raw smell goes. Then add, remaining coconut milk, cooked vegetables with water, palm sugar, shrimp paste( if using) and bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer. Add extra water or seasoning if necessary.
This is Swathi ( Dr. Ambujom Saraswathy Ph.D) from Zesty South Indian Kitchen who loves to explore cuisines from all over the world. Whenever possible I try to to give an Indian touch to several of the world cuisine, and has weakness for freshly baked bread. All the recipes you see here are created by me and approved after taste-test by my family.
Nagashree says
I love Thai food and we have some real good Thai restaurants here. Very informative post and the curry looks gorgeous. Bookmarking it right away 🙂
Gujarati Zaika says
Looks awesome...i love Thai food..
Uma says
looks so delicious.
Reni says
Curry looks very delicious ! I'm a big fan of Thai food,thanks for sharing so much of information on thai cuisine...will try this soon 🙂 Awesome clicks !
Shree Rao says
I love Thai food and this looks soo yumm.. shall try out soon 🙂
mjskit says
WOW! A recipe for yellow curry paste! I'm so excited because I love yellow, red and green curry pastes but haven't even seen a recipe. This looks wonderful! In fact, the whole dish looks wonderful!
Reeni Pisano says
I love Thai food too! Your Thai curry looks incredibly delicious Swathi! Bet your husband loved it! I am the same way in the market! I go for a few things and come home with a car full of stuff.
Rafeeda AR says
looks really yumm... very similar to our thenga based curries... thank u for so much of information... 🙂
Premas Culinary says
wow yummy curry,love it...too tempting.
Guru Uru says
What a beautiful curry full of delicious ingredients 😀
Cheers
CCU
Chitz says
I have always felt that Thai cuisine is very similar to Kerala cuisine 🙂 An awesome looking curry.. Can I omit lemongrass since I don't get that here??
Nilu A says
Great recipe.. Perfect with hot rice.. Will try this for sure Swathi 🙂
Divya Shivaraman says
am not a that big of thai food...though it is very much similar to kerala food like more of coconut...
Asha Shivakumar says
Fresh curry paste is perfect. I agree, it's so much like keralite dish. I'm sure your husband enjoyed his lunch with home made fresh Thai food.
Amrita Vishal says
Wow I never knew about the yellow curry, so much to learn from your posts!!
Elisabeth Foodandthrift says
Hi Swathi, that's a beautiful yellow Thai curry paste you made there. A lot of ingredients and work put into it, but so well worth it. I'm sure you made your hubby very happy.
I'm back in the states now; but I did spend my last one week together with Lora and family, along with her hubby's family who lives there!
Manjula Bharath says
tempting thai curry 🙂
Arthy shama says
Delecious yellow thai curry, yet to try!
kitchen queen says
awesome lip smacking thai yellow curry with wonderful clicks.
Gajus kitchen says
I have never tasted thai food and this curry looks tempting and flavourful with interesting ingredients
Gajus kitchen says
I have never tasted thai food and the curry looks tempting and flavourful with interesting ingredients
Navaneetham Krishnan says
We just Thai food which is in fact similar to our Malaysian dishes. All of those herbs are grown in my garden and certainly these will come in handy for such a amazing Thai flavored curry.
Ramya Krishnamurthy says
yummy and flavorful curry:)nice snaps sis
Rani's gourmet says
tempting curry... my first thought after seeing the pic was the similarity of kerala veg curry and thai curry..and that you have mentioned clearly in the table,leaving no confusing thoughts at all:)
Swathi Iyer says
yes similarity between both are quite a lot.
Gayathri Ramanan says
tasty and tempting curry..
Babitha costa says
I always wonder ur writing,clear explanation with pics dear,great jib
Amrita Roy says
I have never tasted thai food, it looks delicious
Pavithra R says
I have heard of Thai yellow curry! Looks authentic, fresh and colorful!!
More like sodhi! I'm sure your hubby had a gala time having this curry for lunch.
But we do not get a lot of ingredients out here!
Either-ways it looks perfect, the clicks are great too!
Swathi Iyer says
Yes Pavithra, he liked very much.
Veena Theagarajan says
Looks so yummy nice curry
spusht says
It's great you made it from scratch. Last year when I went to Thailand, I bought all ready-made vegetarian pastes for Red Curry, Green Curry, etc!
Mahi says
I too love thai yellow curry with white rice. This is my staple order with my hubby's order of spicy basil fried rice or pineapple fried rice. You should try those fried rices also, they are yummy!
I love the big chunks of half cooked veggies in the curry! by the way, why you didn't add color capsicums, which are the more attractive veggie in the curry?! 🙂 and...I think, you should not cook the onion, Sauté them with the curry paste because the onions will be crunchy in the curry!
P.s. Sorry about the lengthy comment..lil excited to see your post and tried to match the curry here we have at thai restaurants! 🙂
Swathi Iyer says
Mahi, try it and let me know. I seen Thai recipe blog they are not sauteing the onion just adding along with other veggie. I will try you idea too.
I tried thai pineapple rice, I blogged about it, yes you are right, delicious.
Eric Pepple says
I don't think I have ever cooked with curry, but this definitely makes me want to try. Thanks for sharing and the inspiration!
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Happy Valley Chow