Animals and curry.

The Big Guy and I went to Thailand for our honeymoon and for part of the time we stayed in Kanchanaburi at the Rainbow Lodge. Great little backpackers on the River Kwai, a scooter's ride down the ride from the-Bridge-Over-the-River-Kwai-rebuilt.

That's the view from our little balcony over the river.









I petted tigers, rode an elephant...




















... and fell in love with a little gibbon named Joy.












But one night we went and did a cooking course with a ladyboy named Mickey who taught us how to make Pad Thai, Tom Yum and the best Yellow curry in the universe. Seriously it is the absolute best and so simple too. I scribbled down the recipe as we went, promptly lost it and then found it again last week.








Yellow Curry Chicken (serves 2)
1 large potato
1 large carrot
1.5 tbsp tumeric powder
1.5 tsp red curry paste
3 cups coconut milk
2 tbsp sugar
2 tbsp fish sauce
1 chicken breast sliced (about 1.5cm thick)

1. Cube and boil potato and carrot until just cooked.

2. Put curry paste and tumeric into hot wok and add 1 cup of coconut milk. Bring to boil and cook, stirring constantly, until the milk is reduced and the mix is thick. (It'll be a nice yellow colour too.)

3. Add meat, carrot and potato, coconut milk, fish sauce and sugar. Stir. You can taste the sauce now and if you'd like it more salty then add more fish sauce, if you want it sweeter then add more sugar. (If you decide you want it hotter, then put in more red curry paste next time you cook it.)

4. Cook on medium heat until it is as thick as you'd like. Try not to stir it too much to keep the potato intact. Just keep it from sticking.

5. Enjoy with coconut rice or plain rice.

I tripled the spice and paste part of the recipe, doubled the coconut milk and chicken breast, and added red capsicum, sweet potato, sugar snap peas and zucchini as well and it kept all 5 of us happy. Our kids loved it!

Mickey was adamant that part of the joys of Thai cooking was playing around with the flavours to suit yourself, so I recommend you take her advice too and fool around with this.