Spicy Thai Red Curry Chicken Pie -Comfort in a Pot

With almost 300 sunny days in a year, for a change its been raining in Vegas for last 3-4 days.The temperatures have dropped considerably and I have still not taken the woollens out.P tells me that unless I catch cold n fever, I wont.I know he is right My enthusiasm for cooking has also dropped along with temperature.I m feeling lazy, my tea intake has increased exponentially, I m over sleeping and in general I don’t feel like doing anything.I just want to sip tea, and lie under the comforter with even my head covered.

But all of these heavenly things look impossible given the fact that no matter how lazy I feel, I do not like eating out much.Its so strange that I keep on complaining to P the whole day that I dun wanna cook but the when it comes to dinner or lunch, I wanna have home cooked food.And that is when I realize that if I have to…I will have to go and slog it out in the kitchen myself….given the fact that P knows how to cook assemble egg fried rice only,no matter how big a chef he thinks himself to be!!

These are the times when I miss my bachelorette days.There was no responsibility, no tension of house chores, no idea how the best meals appeared on the dinner table and absolutely no worries on the home front, pantry, cleaning, laundry grocery etc and etc and etc.

I was never a big fan of outside food even as a teenager.The only few things I liked were chaat,chowmein,momos and bengali style egg rolls…basically all street foods.The pity now is that 3 out of those 4 favorites are unavailable [I mean the authentic variety] in here.Back in India,it was months that I had a proper meal in restaurants…because I never felt the need to ..Mom used to make the best food at home and no restaurant taste could shell it out.At the most and only sometimes butter chicken & rumaali roti from nearby Kake Di Hatti made an appearance on Friday evenings at dinner table.

In complete contrast,here If I order the same meal from an Indian restaurant, the owner comes to deliver in a customized yellow Hummer, charges $10 delivery fees, expects a $10 tip for a $30 meal, throws attitude, and to top it all boasts that they are the only Indian restaurant in Vegas who home-deliver the food….phew!!! And leaves me with twisted eyebrows and raging tongue

Anways,now coming to the point, 2 days back I remembered seeing this Thai Green Curry Chicken Pies on Sue’s blog,instantly liking it and hence bookmarking it.Hers was such an innovative and new idea!And as soon as I remembered her post,a smile spread on my lips thinking that I wont have to cook rice or make chapatis or bhuno the masala for curry or temper the dal ….neither will I have to settle for a boring Khichdi for dinner .and I patted myself and thought ….babes…Thai is the escape to comfort today!!!!

With her basic idea in mind, instead of green, I settled in for Thai red curry variation coz P prefers it.For me Thai cuisine is an acquired taste.I did not like it much the first time I ate it but now I am more settled with lemongrass and kaffir lime flavors so much so that I sometimes choose Thai food over the good ol’ chinese favorites.This pot pie combines comfort of american with best flavors of thai cuisine.A one pot comfort meal indeed!And all the more comforting when I used store bought pie crust!!…its the comfort of cheating

I made a quick and spicy red curry paste.Authentic red curry paste calls for galangal which is blue ginger ..I cudnt find it anywhere so I used normal ginger and completely avoided the shrimp paste. Below goes the recipe:

What I need : For 2 servings

• 3 chicken thighs, 1″ cubed
• 3 tbsp canola oil
• 2 shallots , finely chopped
• 1/4 cup each diced red bell pepper, diced green beans, diced carrots, diced baby corn, sweet peas
• 2-3 leaves Thai basil , chopped
• 1/2 cup Thai red curry paste [recipe below]
• 1 1/2 cup thick coconut milk
• 1/4 cup chopped cilantro
• Salt to taste
• 2 nos store bought pie crusts

Thai Red Curry paste : (Recipe makes little more than 1/2 cup)

• 10-12 dry red chillies [adjust to taste]
• 3 tbsp fresh galangal [ I substituted with ginger]
• 2 stalks fresh lemon grass [or frozen]
• 2 tsp coriander seeds
• 1/4 cup finely chopped cilantro
• 2-3 kaffir lime leaves , preferably fresh
• 1 shallot , cubed
• 4 garlic cloves
• 1 tsp black pepper corns
• 1 tsp salt

How I did it:

Thai red curry paste :

• Soak the dry chilies in 1 cup warm water for about 30 minutes. After soaking discard the water.
• Dry roast the coriander seeds.Using a mortar & pestle coarsely grind the roasted coriander seeds and black pepper corns.
• Dump all the ingredients along with ground coriander seeds and peppercorns into a food processor and pulse to make a coarse & thick  paste somewhat like pesto. consistency.Use few tbsp of sesame oil if necessary.Don’t use water.
• Transfer the paste to a bowl and set aside.

Making Thai Red Curry

• In a medium sauce pan, heat the olive oil.
• Sprinkle some black pepper and salt over the chicken cubes.
• Once heated add the chopped shallots and cook for 3-4 minutes till softened.Add the cubed chicken and saute for 5 minutes till the chicken pieces start turning white on outside.
• Add the coconut milk , basil and Thai red curry paste and simmer for 2 minutes on medium heat.Thereafter remove from heat immediately.
• After cooling down for 10 minutes , add the chopped vegetables , salt and chopped cilantro leaves.

Making the pot pie:

• Preheat the oven to 400 F.
• Spread the pie crust on a floured surface and using the ramekins, outline a circle on the crust surface at least 1 ” bigger than the circumference of the ramekins.
• Ladle the red curry into 2 ramekins.Cover the ramekins with the crust and pinch on all sides using a fork. Using a sharp knife, make some cuts on the pie crust surface to let the steam escape while in oven.
• Brush the crust with melted butter.
• Bake in oven for 25-30 minutes till the crust is golden brown.
• Once baked,remove carefully from oven and let cool for at least 5 minutes and then serve.

Notes:

1. Since I had to bake curry in pots , I did not cook the chicken and vegetables in the pan.If only making the Thai red curry, follow the same procedure and cook the curry on stove top till chicken is 80% done, add the vegetables of choice and simmer untill completely cooked.
2. The above Thai curry paste is extremely spicy, you can reduce down the quantity of dry chillies & pepper corn as per your taste to mellow it down.

Enjoy!

This is my entry to Nupur’s Blog Bites # 8 : One Dish meals