This is such an easy dish to make. There seem to be many ways to do it but the way I make it is thanks to instruction I received years ago from Aj. Khanchai, the husband of my friend and one-time colleague, Aj. Nipa in Uttaradit.

Step 1 – before you even get to the kitchen, visit a specialist Asian supermarket to buy green curry paste. I’ve tried the general supermarket varieties in the UK and they just don’t seem to have the same kind of kick to them at all.

Ingredients:

Green curry paste – 50g or about 2 dessert spoons

1 can of coconut milk

Large handful of whole raw cashew nuts

Vegetables – the wonderful thing about this dish is you can splash out on more authentic ingredients like oyster mushrooms, baby corn, galangal, etc. or toss in more local vegetables like button mushrooms, red or yellow pepper and courgette, and you’ll still end up with a great curry if you start with the right paste. It’s all in the paste. Even though I never eat them myself, I always add a few birds eye chillies – they look nice and menacing and they make the chilli fiend in my life happy.

In terms of how much of the above, I’d stick with equal proportions but a small handful of each – about six mushrooms, half a pepper, half a courgette. Don’t chop anything too small but not so big it wouldn’t fit onto a spoon when eating later.

Preparation:

Ideally you’d use a wok, but my stove top isn’t very good so I use a medium sized pot instead.

Heat up the ring to medium heat and toss the cashews into the pot to brown them (no oil needed). Keep them moving so they don’t burn. Once they look golden brown, remove from the pot and leave aside in a bowl.

Add the curry paste in the still-warm pot and keep it moving round the pan until it softens.

Start to slowly add the coconut milk. What you don’t want to do is add it all at once, as that could result in small clumps of paste floating around. Just gradually add it in, blending with the paste until it dissolves in the coconut milk.

Warm up til just below boiling and add in peppers, corn – any veg that takes longer to cook. Bring it back to almost boiling and add in mushroom, courgette, and any other quicker cooking veg. Also add the cashews at this point. This time bring it up to the boil and then immediately turn down the heat to simmer for a little while.

When I made it yesterday, I let it sit for a few hours so the flavour had lots of time to infuse but it’s also very tasty if eaten right away.

Serve with jasmine rice. A great dessert with this dish is fresh slices of mango drizzled with yoghurt.