Thai curry and chocolate heaven

Tonight’s dinner was a thai green curry, followed by chocolate and chestnut mousse with brandy snaps, and accompanied by a mid-priced bottle of sauvignon blanc (as opposed to the low-end stuff you’ll catch me glugging in the middle of the week when I’ve had a bad day at work). I spent about four hours in the kitchen preparing this meal, not to mention the time I spent traipsing around town picking up the ingredients - my feet are killing me!

This is the first time I’ve made a thai curry, and I really set myself a challenge by making the paste from scratch using a pestle and mortar. A lot of recipes for curry paste call for the use of a food processor, which would have definitely saved time, but I don’t own one of these and I read somewhere that by pounding the paste in the traditional way, more of the oils are released from the raw ingredients, giving a much deeper flavour.

I’m not going to lie to you - it was a lot of work making up the curry paste (I think about 45min of chopping and grinding), but it was completely worth it.

I prepared the dessert first so I wouldn’t have to worry about it once we’d sat down to eat the curry.

Brandy snaps - makes 8

Ingredients

30g butter
30g caster sugar
30g golden syrup
30g plain flour
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp lemon juice
1/2 tsp brandy

Method

Pre-heat the oven to 180°C. Lightly grease a baking sheet. Melt the butter, sugar and golden syrup in a saucepan on a gentle heat until the sugar dissolves.

Remove from the heat and stir in the lemon juice. Add the flour and ginger and mix until smooth. Stir in the brandy.

Spoon the mixture onto the baking sheet, divided to make 8 biscuits and spaced apart as much as possible as they will expand when baking.

Cook the biscuits until they reach a golden colour (this should only take a few minutes so keep an eye on them). Remove from the oven, leave them on the baking sheet for a minute, then lift with a spatula and roll them over the handle of a wooden spoon to form a rough cigar shape. This bit was slightly fiddly - they’re too hot to handle with bare fingers, but allow them to cool too much and they become too brittle to fold (although 20 seconds back in the warm oven will help soften them again if you’ve been working too slowly).

Let these cool on a wire rack and store in an airtight container, ready to serve alongside the chocolate mousse.

Chocolate and chestnut mousse - makes 4-6 generous portions

Ingredients

200g dark chocolate
200g sweetened chestnut purée (or mix 120g unsweetened purée with 80g caster sugar)
5 eggs
4 tbsp brandy
150ml whipping cream

Method

Start by separating the egg yolks from the whites. The quickest method (and I love the sensation of this on my fingertips - maybe I’m a bit crazy) is to carefully crack the egg open over a bowl, tip it into your hand taking care not to break the yolk, and let the albumen run through your fingers; you should be left holding just the yolk which you can then drop into a separate bowl.

Take a small piece of the chocolate - about 20g - and shave it into flakes over a bowl using a potato peeler. Put this in the fridge for later. Melt the remaining chocolate (usual method: break it into little pieces and tip into a heatproof bowl, bring half a saucepan of water to the boil, remove from the heat and sit the bowl of chocolate on top - the bottom of the bowl shouldn’t be in contact with the water - stir occasionally until the chocolate is completely melted).

Stir the chestnut purée into the chocolate until the mixture is smooth, then mix in the egg yolks and brandy.

In a large bowl, whisk the egg whites until they form stiff peaks. Add a quarter of the chocolate/chestnut mix to the egg whites and fold together (don’t over-mix it as you don’t want to burst too many bubbles). Carefully fold in the remaining chocolate/chestnut mix until it’s evenly combined. Spoon the mousse into bowls/glasses/teacups/whatever and put them in the fridge for a few hours to set.

Just before the main course is ready to serve (I did this bit while the rice was cooking), whip the cream to very soft peaks and spoon it on top of the mousse, sprinkle with the chocolate flakes you made earlier, and return the mousses to the fridge.

Thai green curry - serves 2-4 people

Ingredients - curry paste

4 lemongrass stalks
5 medium-hot green chillies
3 cloves garlic
5cm piece of ginger
1 very small onion
A bunch of fresh coriander
Zest of 1 lime
1 tsp cumin
1 tbsp nam pla
½ tsp black peppercorns

Other ingredients

750g boneless chicken (I’m using a mix of breast and thigh fillets)
Groundnut oil
200g chestnut mushrooms
400ml coconut milk
400ml chicken stock
8 lime leaves
1 tbsp nam pla
A bunch of basil (leaves only)
The remaining coriander (leaves and stalks)

Method

First, make the curry paste. Remove the tough outer leaves from the lemongrass. De-seed the chillis. Peel the garlic cloves, the ginger and the onion. Pick the leaves from about three quarters of the coriander. Chop all these ingredients as finely as possible, and grate the zest from the lime (you won’t need the remaining fruit). Lightly toast the cumin and peppercorns in a dry pan, then grind up in a pestle and mortar. Set the spices aside, and use the pestle and mortar to crush the rest of the curry paste ingredients (except the nam pla) into a fine paste. If you have a small pestle and mortar it will be easier to do this part in two or three batches. Once the wet ingredients are crushed down to a fairly smooth paste, stir in the nam pla and the ground spices, then seal the mixture in an airtight container and pop it in the fridge.

Slice the chicken into bite-size strips. Chop the mushrooms into quarters. Heat a few tablespoons of groundnut oil in a wok or a casserole, and fry the chicken in small batches until it’s browned all over. Set the meat aside, and fry the mushrooms in the same pan until they start to soften.

Remove the pan from the heat and add the coconut milk, chicken stock, lime leaves, nam pla and the curry paste. Roughly chop the coriander and shred the basil (easiest way to do this is to roll small handfuls of basil leaves into ‘cigars’ and slice with a sharp knife), and add half of the herbs to the pan. Bring to the boil and simmer for about 10 minutes. Return the chicken to the pan, and continue to simmer until the meat is cooked (which will be about the same amount of time as it takes to cook some rice to serve alongside the curry - unsalted boiled rice would be fine; I used jasmine rice). Stir in the remaining coriander and basil just before serving.