thai chicken dinner

I have been anticipating to prepare a thai dinner for almost a month and gathered ingredients like lemon grass, coconut milk, fish sauce.... true thai staples...
I decided to make Thai green chicken curry and sticky rice.

For curry:
I got 2 chicken breasts from fridge... good thing I had time to clean and keep all the chicken in ziplock bags over the weekend... saved me lots of time....
Now the ingredients - 1 can coconut milk (use the "lite" kind to save on fat)
1 lemon grass ( its a long light green stick , very flavorful)
fish sauce
3 tsp thai red chillie paste (they call it Nam prik Pao.... rhymes with pao bhaji but has nothing to do with it)
Kaffir lime leaves (apparently a thai speciality) I could find it so I replaced it with some lemon zest.
and while I was gathering ingredients my little one has opened one kitchen cabinet and has all tupperware out, I am not interrupting him as I want to get dinner one my way and keep him busy somehow....
back to ingredients....
1 cup fresh coriander (Dhania yaar in case you got confused)
3 green chillies (spicy indian hari mirch or thai green peppers if you can find)
3 green onions with stalks
garlic cloves ( 3)
Ginger (1 inch piece) if you don't have garlic you can omit it but ginger is important

Let's start cooking now.....
Strip the coarse, dry outer leaves from the lemon grass. Cut off the base where the root begins and discard. Cut the bulb into rings about 1/4 thick. Only go up about 4 or 5 inches, where the bulb stays white and tender. Lemongrass is so important in thai cooking that many thai restaurants are named "Lemongrass"...
Now take a blender and put washed green dhania, green chillies, green onions, ginger and garlic and grind it to a paste. add a little water if needed.
Now the actual cooking, but wait my little one is bored so he goes and opens the drawer full of serving spoons, grater and what not.... all of it is slowly taken out and being banged on the floor... okay I think I better hurry up now.... in like 5 minutes my little guy will need attention from mommy....
So I put the pot on gas burner.... once heated I put 2 tsp oil and add the green paste I just made.... cook for about 2-3 minutes and then add chicken and cook for 2 more minutes.... Now add 1/2 cup water and 1 can coconut milk..... then take a lemon and grate the top green part...not the white pitt just green in the curry.... add 2 tablespoons of fish sauce and 2 tsp of red chillie sauce....stir well and cover the pot... cook for about 10 minutes on medium heat ... taste for seasonings... if not salty enough, add some fish sauce and for more spice add more chillie sauce...and voila the dish is ready.....

Now I pick up my little guy in my arms and yes, while I was cooking the chicken curry I prepared sticky rice in parallel.. forgot to tell you about that.

Here is how to make Sticky Rice:
Take 1 cup of thai sticky rice (its sold in regular grocery stores in international section. These are also called Thai sweet rice. )
1 3/4 cup water . Not double, a little less..
wash the rice in cold water and add the water to it... Bring it to boil and simmer for about 15 minutes covered on low heat... keep covered for aothe 5 minutes and rice is ready...

Serve with green curry.....

My little one loved the sticky rice and some pieces of chicken..... The dish turned out very tasty.. especially for first time thai cook....
and yes my hubby comes from gym and says... roti shoti tayyar hai? and I said oh yes the roti shoti is ready but no real "roti" some sticky rice instead : )