Chicken Red Curry – Cooking Class in Phuket

To learn the basics of Thai cooking we booked a cooking class with VJ (I will link her page at the bottom of this post). Depending on the day she offers a variety of recipes that tourists can learn how to cook. We picked Saturday, which meant we were able to make Thai Red Curry from scratch. The other dishes we made were Pad Thai and Cashew Chicken (recipes to follow).

VJ picked us up from our hotel and drove us to her kitchen in Karon, which is a place just 15min drive from Patong where we stayed. The kitchen was incredibly clean, and – similar to the cooking class we took in Siem Reap – most of the veg was pre-sliced for us.

To make a Red Thai Curry first of all a Red Curry Paste needs to be made. This takes quite a while, but once finished the paste can be stored in the freezer for up to two months.

All ingredients need to be chopped very finely, that makes it easier in the end when using the mortar.

This is what you’ll need for 6 servings:

1/2 tsp salt
1 tbsp roasted coriander seeds (even if you don’t like coriander – like me – take at least a few seeds, it really adds to the flavor and doesn’t taste like fresh coriander)
1/2 tsp black peppercorns
1/2 tsp cumin seeds
10 big dried red chilies, seeds removed and soaked in water until they are re-hydrated again, finely chopped (if you can’t find dried chilies, dry them yourself by putting them in the oven)
2 tsp lemongrass, chopped
1 tsp (5g) galangal, chopped (this is a kind of ginger but should not be replaced with ginger since the flavour would be too strong)
1 tsp (5g) kaffir lime rind, chopped (if you can’t find the kaffir, then take a kaffir leave instead)
5 shallots, chopped
10 cloves of garlic, crushed
if you like it spicy, add 5 small fresh bird eye chilies)

Once everything is mixed together as a paste, we can start cooking the Thai Red Curry.

For 6 servings of the curry, we need the following ingredients:

125 ml (1/2 cup) coconut cream
3 tbsp red curry paste (as mixed above)
350g (12 oz) boneless chicken breast, thinly sliced
375ml (1.5 cups) coconut milk
2 kaffir lime leaves
1 1/2 tbsp fish sauce
1 tsp sugar
150g (5 oz) aubergine/eggplant, cut into bite size pieces
10g (1/4 cup) Thai basil leaves
2-3 red chilies de-seeded and cut in strips

This is how you make it:

Place the coconut cream in a wok (or sauce pan) and heat over low to medium heat until bubbles form and an oily sheen appears.
Add the red curry paste and stir well. Add the chicken and cook it until it turns white.
Add the aubergine/eggplant.

Add the coconut milk, fish sauce and sugar. Bring the mixture to a boil.

Simmer over low heat for about 5 min until the chicken is cooked all the way through.

Add the basil leaves, kaffir lime leaves and chilies.
Remove from the heat and serve with rice.

We had so much fun making this dish and it was so simple. To be fair, the red curry paste takes a while to make, but if you prepare it in advance and freeze the paste then you can prepare the dish within 10 minutes.