Step 1 of 8
Open the coconut cream tin carefully without shaking. Spoon the thick white cream from the top into a wok or wide pan. Place over medium-high heat. Cook 4–6 minutes, stirring, until the cream visibly splits — small pools of clear oil separate from the white fat. This is *cracking the coconut cream* — the foundation of a real Thai curry.
Step 2 of 8
Add the curry paste to the cracked cream. Fry hard for 3 minutes — the paste should turn a deeper green and become intensely fragrant. The oil colours green; this is what you want.
Step 3 of 8
Add the chicken. Stir 2 minutes until coated and just starting to colour.
Step 4 of 8
Pour in the coconut milk and bring to a simmer. Add eggplant, bamboo shoots, half the kaffir lime leaves, and the chiles.
Step 5 of 8
Simmer gently for 12 minutes until eggplant is tender and chicken cooked through. Do not boil hard — the coconut milk will split unattractively.
Step 6 of 8
Stir in fish sauce and palm sugar. Taste — should read as salty, slightly sweet, with chili heat in the back and curry-paste aroma in the front.
Step 7 of 8
Off heat. Throw in the Thai basil and the remaining kaffir lime leaves. Scatter sliced red chile for colour.
Step 8 of 8
Serve immediately over jasmine rice.
Ingredients 12
the base
- 200 ml coconut cream (the thick top layer of a tin of unshaken coconut milk)
- 400 ml coconut milk
- 4–5 tbsp green curry paste
the protein
- 500 g boneless skinless chicken thigh, sliced 1 cm thick
the vegetables
- 200 g Thai apple eggplants (or pea eggplants), quartered
- 100 g bamboo shoots, sliced
the aromatics
- 8 kaffir lime leaves, torn
- 4 bird's eye chiles, halved lengthwise
the seasoning
- 3 tbsp fish sauce
- 2 tbsp palm sugar
the finish
- Large handful Thai basil leaves
- 1 large red chile, sliced (for colour, not heat)