Thai green curry with or without Richard Armitage

Recently, we of course had the privilege of seeing Richard Armitage on ITV's Lorraine (on the show, not on the lady :P - although, if she's anything like the rest of us, I'm sure she wouldn't mind), where he was interviewed and then partook in looking at another Richard making a Thai green curry.

Well, as it happened, the Sunday following that interview, we actually went to a Thai restaurant (not even my suggestion!) - and we picked a couple of dishes each. The Squeeze even picked a green curry, to my delight. ;)

So let's get cookin'!

Thai green curry with Richard Armitage

Courtesy of Heathra on YouTube:




Thai green curry without Richard Armitage

You'll have to do your own coriander-chopping, but on the plus side, you actually get to eat the final result. Courtesy of the ITV website, where you can find the original and rather more to-the-point recipe. The one posted here is the jazzed up version because I couldn't just copy and curry paste it (aah. ha. ha.), because that would be boring.

This recipe serves up to four people. Allegedly.

• 500g skinless chicken, diced in nice bite-sized chunks
• 1 tablespoon of some sort of vegetable oil
• 2 tablespoons of yummy Thai green curry paste
• 1-2 stalks of lemongrass, crushed slightly to release the flavours, because it's a very woody type of grass
• 400ml (or 1 can, if you like) of coconut milk
• 2 tablespoons of Thai fish sauce (Nam Pla, I believe it's called)
• A small handful of coriander, roughly chopped or roughly IGNORED!!
• Some green chillies (you don't have to, but you should - Thai is supposed to be spicy! Plus, Mr. Armitage said "bring it on"!)
• The juice of a lime (the fruit, not the tree)
• 12 stems of sprouting broccoli, or however many you want
• 1 green pepper, or more
• 12 sugar snap peas, or a packet or half a packet, who's really counting?

Before you start ...

It would be a good thing to start preparing some stuff in advance, such as dicing chicken or tofu or whatever you want, slicing the peppers, chopping chillies and stuff, and then put things in the pan. Not the coriander, though, because that should be thrown away in disgust be chopped at the last minute, says the chef. Also, this doesn't take long to cook, and rice does, so I'd say to get the pan with the jasmine rice on before you start. Unless you're cheating with microwave rice. I'm sure Mr. Armitage wouldn't object, given what we've recently learned.

Let's get cooking!

Heat the oil in a wok or large pan until it's hot, but perhaps not as hot as the man himself, because you don't want to burn your house down. Add the scrummy green curry paste (not advisable to eat with a spoon as it is) and the woody but oh so nice lemongrass.

Let it cook, but only for a minute. That's one (1) minute only. Better time it! Then again, unless it's pastry, it's fairly relative and I'm sure the food won't be crossed with you if you leave it for a few seconds more.

Now, you should add the coconut milk. The normal one has more flavour, I find, but the lighter one has less fat, so either one you prefer, really. Let the concoction stir in its own juices until the oil starts to appear on top.

Then, unless you're a vegetarian, you add the diced chicken and the other ingredients so far left out (i.e. the pepper and green chilli peppers), but hold on to the sugar snap peas, broccoli and non-Richard chopped coriander for a while. Now cook until the chicken begins to change colour from pink to white, which should probably take around 3-4 minutes. If you're not into meat, then I'd probably substitute the chicken with button mushrooms, diced tofu, Quorn pieces or assorted veg that might work and let that cook for those 3-4 minutes as well to heat it up and start cooking it through and such.

After these minutes, you add the sugar snaps and broccoli and cook it all for another couple of minutes. Now you chop the coriander, careful not to chop your fingers off in the process, squeeze some lime to get the juice out and then add it to the pot (or squeeze it straight in, whatever floats your boat). To top it all off, garnish with the coriander. Or just chuck it in the compost bin or never buy it to begin with, because it's a foul herb that would just spoil an otherwise delicious flavour with its horrid taste. (There are very few things I can't stand the flavour of. Fresh coriander is one of them. Horseradish is another, but luckily, not in this recipe!)

Serve it up with the jasmine rice whenever that's done - or just normal, long-grained stuff if jasmine rice isn't to your liking. Then devour it with gusto because Thai green curries are absolutely gorgeous. And get your partner to do the dishes, as you've just cooked up a most wonderful meal.

... Or you could just go to a restaurant and have someone cook it for you. You can always pretend Richard Armitage's in the kitchen in the back, chopping merrily away.

... Or get a takeaway. Y'know, whatever floats your boat.