Rouxbe

i made this little treat so fast it made my girlfriend's head spin! I have never made a prawn dish before and i felt so cool!

ALSO: i didnt have the Kaffir lime (substituted lime juice), couldnt find galangal (subsituted regular ginger), used white sugar not palm sugar and then finally and hastily forgot to add the Thai Basil...and STILL it ws delish...i loved it!

I love this dish. I've made it about six times now and every single time I've made it, it was fast and fabulous. I now stock everything that I need to make this recipe in the pantry.I also substituted the prawns for halibut and cod which was equally as good if not better than the prawns.

Mark and I made the Thai coconut prawns with the coconut infused basmati rice last night for friends of ours; it was a tremendous hit!

Beautifully done gang.

Going to try the Moroccan lamb tangine this evening.

Really enjoying your web site, very inspirational.

C & M

This dish really satisfied our taste buds.
This was the first time to try this recipe, so we kept it low key, but now, cannot wait to have friends/family over to show it off!

We made coconut infused basmati rice, too.
They were such a golden combo, but we'll try cooking rice without salt next time.

We biked all around the city to get ingredients, but it was worth while!
Lisa, try with South China Seas in Granville Island Market. They had galangal and lime leaves. We would be researching where would be the best place to fetch those oriental ingredients in the next while.

Thank you all for great production!
Will come back for more.

Lee & Madoka

Hi Madoka!

Glad you enjoyed using Rouxbe. I am sure Lee would love the Lemon Potatoes as well...after all we know how much Lee likes his potatoes!

G.

Tomato sauce in Thai curry?!?!?!
And galangal and ginger have nothing in common at all,smell and taste.

I totally agree with you that galangal and ginger are not the same thing - check out the drill down on galangal. Ginger is merely the best substitute as galangal can sometimes be hard to find.

This is a quick and easy Thai dish. Though generally Thai curries may not include tomato paste, it is a good way to add nice color without too much heat. If you wanted it to be more authentic and spicier you could substitute the tomatoe paste with panaeng or red curry paste.

Penzeys Spices offers ground galangal if you can't find the fresh stuff for your Thai dishes.

www.penzeys.com

This was the first time that I tasted home made thai food which tasted fabulous. I didn't know that mincing the lemongrass in such fine pieces would make such a difference. Thanks for the tip.

This was the very first Rouxbe recipe that I tried, and I enjoyed it for so many reasons. First, I found a great Asian market in North Portland (Oregon) where I was able to buy every single ingredient that I needed -- galangal, shrimp, kaffir lime...

Secondly, I couldn't believe how easy this was to make. After prepping everything, the cooking flew by! This Thai recipe was better than most that I purchase from the millions of Thai restaurants in Portland -- and I made it for $20!

This was awesome. Once you find all of the ingredients it is quick to make. We loved it!

I have substituted the prawns with chicken and tofu and they are both great. This dish is now a staple in our house. I can have it on the table in under 30 minutes. Yum...Yum!

One thing the excellent prawn drill down did not mention is to purchase wild, frozen, headless prawns whenever possible. After the prawn dies, digestive enzymes inside the head will begin to break down the meat. Wild prawns also taste better than farmed.

what about mincing everything up, then making a paste out of it, incorporating it with the tomoato paste?
Marshall

Hi Marshall,

You certainly could make a paste out of these ingredients but with our tests, we found that it was better to sweat the initial ingredients first to bring out thier flavor before adding the tomato paste.

Why on earth would you not use Thai Hom Mali Jasmine rice? I don't get it using Basmati rice with Thai food.

Jasmine rice is more traditional with Thai food for sure. Basmati rice is a great alternative though and it pairs well with this dish. If you want to try Jasmine rice, you can follow the same directions as the "Cocunut Infused Basmati Rice" but I find that Jasmine rice requires a bit less water. Try 1 cup rice to 1 and 1/3 cups water as your ratio instead of 1 and 1/2 cups water.

Good idea Mary-anne d.
Joe

I know Thai cuisine quite well, as I am the Thai food editor on bellaonline.com and have been to The kingdom 30+ times during the last 20 years. The amount of water required for Jasmine depends on if it is new crop or not. I usually use Thai Hom Mali Jasmine.

We also love Broken Jasmine Rice which is a special treat and also njoyed in Vietnam and Laos for special dishes.

I make a similiar type shrimp dish but fry the chile paste in the thick part of the coconut milk to develop the flavour and aroma, and I do not use tomatoes, but a touch of lime juice and of course fresh tender young Kaffir/bai magroot.

Try soaking the shrimp in an ice bath of water and 1 tsp of salt for 20 minutes refreshes their from the sea taste.

I grow 3 types of Thai basil, several Thai chiles, lemon grass, and have 7 Kaffir Lime trees in my yard here in California.

I love thai food but I've always been too intimidated by the ingredients to try. I'm extremely pleased with the result! It was easy and super tasty!

Thai cooking is not difficult. Just prep and some easy stir-fry techniques in most recipes. I love Thai cuisine, as it is sort of the Italian of Asia/SE Asia in that you use so many fresh ingredients-garlic-chiles-basil-seafood or chicken are very common plus some good quality fish sauce, kaffir lime, lemongrass, date palm sugar, lime juice, etc. Small ingredient list.

Thai is a balance of hot-sweet-salty-sour and sometimes bitter as in Isaan cuisine, so that not one element is over-powering the others.

Mary-Anne, Thai Food Editor
http://www.bellaonline.com/site/ThaiFood

This looks great and easy. I'm lucky because my dad grows kaffir lime, lemon grass, and thai chilis, which are all part of our culture as well. I'm looking forward to trying palm sugar. (Gotta say the narrator's pronunciation of the kaffir as "kaf-fire" is killing me.)

Also, I agree with everyone that ginger and galangal are very different. Galangal tastes very woody to me.

Monica, I chuckled as well, perhaps he should just call it properly bai Magroot/magrood Galangal has a perfumey fragrance and certainly nothing like ginger.

Then there Krachai (Chinese keys) love it with seafood dishes.

I am also in the SF Bay area and have 7 Bai Magroot trees, lemongrass, many phrik kee nu and phrik chee fa growing in my garden which I will pot up to over winter inside.

I too could not find some of the ingredients and substituted. The taste was great. I have since learned of an asian market, so will use authentic ingredients next time. It can only be better. Thanks for a simple and wonderful recipe.

Oh man, this was sooo good. But what's the deal with lemon grass. I just bought lemon grass at Whole Foods (followed the instructions BTW) and it took me forever to chop (with newly sharpened knives). Is it always so hard? Or did I get a bad batch?

Hi Lisa,

Even the bottom third of the lemongrass stalk is very tough. This is why it needs to be chopped finely so it's pleasant to eat. You picked the right bunch - it just takes time to chop finely.

Lemongrass can be found in a variety of Asian markets (if you live near any). It's usually much cheaper than at Whole Foods. Happy Cooking!