Thai Green Curry with Chicken, Broccoli, and Mushrooms (CATKTV)

Green Curry Paste

• 1/3 cup water
• 12 fresh green Thai, serrano, or jalepeno chiles, seeds and ribs removed, chile chopped coarse [Finally using a significant amount of peppers off the jalapeno plant my parents gave to me.]
  
• 8 medium garlic cloves, peeled
• 3 medium shallots, peeled and quartered
• 2 stalks lemon grass, bottom 5 inches only, trimmed and sliced thin [Now, I realized I've gone too far with the peeling off of layers.]
• 2 tablespoons grated zest from 2 limes
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 2 tablespoons minced fresh cilantro stems
• 1 tablespoon minced or grated fresh ginger
• 2 teaspoons coriander
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1 teaspoon table salt
  

A large amount of prep went into all this this.


The paste was really blistering since I left all the seeds in ribs in. The recipe also left at least a cup of paste rather than a half cup the recipe calls for. I suspect that was due to my having used jalapeno pepper rather seeking out the more authentic and preferred Thai chiles.
Therefore half of it is sitting in my fridge.

Thai Green Curry with Chicken, Broccoli, and Mushrooms

• 2 (14-ounce) cans unsweetened coconut milk, not shaken
• 1/2 cup Green Curry Paste or 2 tablespoons store-bought green curry paste
• 2 tablespoons fish sauce
• 2 tablespoons brown sugar
• 1 1/2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken breasts, trimmed and sliced thin
• Table salt
• 8 ounces broccoli (1/2 small bunch), florets cut into 1-inch pieces
• 4 ounces white mushrooms, wiped clean and quartered
• 1 red bell pepper, stemmed, seeded, and cut into 1/4 inch strips
• 1 Thai, chile, stemmed, seeded, and quartered lengthwise (optional)
• 1/2 cup loosely packed fresh basil leaves
• 1/2 cup loosely packed fresh mint leaves
• 1 tablespoon juice from 1 lime
  

Mise en place.

Whisk curry paste and 1 cup cream from the top of the coconut milk (it's weird how I haven't used coconut milk with really solid tops recently). Boil until almost all the liquid evaporates.

Add remaining coconut milk, fish sauce and sugar. Cook to meld the flavors and thicken the sauce.

Wound up using the pork loin I had from the earlier stir-fry recipe.

Everything looked all fine and dandy and then I decided to cover the pot even though I wasn't instructed to do so by the recipe. I was scared the broccoli wouldn't cook through, but it just might have. While allowing some the liquid the mushrooms were releasing to decrease.
Oh well, I still have 1/2 the Curry Paste to play with.

Even though trying to the curry paste before cooking the dish was blistering, the dish was remarkably mild and rather similar to what one would get in an average Thai restaurant. The pork was tough; maybe chicken will be better next time.

Lost my stage at L'Espalier for a stupid mistake I made that I would rather not talk about. For the last month, I have been miserable for several reasons that include the influx of interns there to roommate drama at home.
Maybe restaurant work isn't for me; particularly if my options are to start off as a dishwasher like Jen Y or spend $40,000 at culinary school and make less money than I do right now. Perhaps I'll wait a full year before enrolling in pre-reqs for nursing school; after that, clearly I'm never going to hear back again from America's Test Kitchen.
I'll continue trolling craigslist for opportunities. I nearly went to an interview today, but the distance from the train seemed far.