The main course for my second World Spices Cooking Class was Thai Yellow Chicken Curry with Cashews and Pineapple, served on Jasmine Rice.

This recipe was super complex — in fact Chef Eric must have spent ages measuring out all of the many spices in order for us to finish the class in the allotted three hours. I counted 22 herbs, spices, speciality ingredients plus a bouquet garni going into the curry sauce along with the coconut milk!

we used spiced Indian whole wheat ‘rotis’ to scoop up our Thai yellow curry

Although it was delicious I would never attempt such a feat on my own, and therefore refer you to my ‘Thai Masaman yellow coconut curry recipe with pork and lychee‘ recipe which starts with a can of yellow curry paste. It is really delicious, plus with my limited kitchen storage space I can’t afford to fill it up with masses of ingredients that I never get around to using!

Here are a few shots of the process if you do decide you want to make a Thai curry from scratch.

• To make the yellow curry paste, start by grating the tender lemongrass bulbs.

lemongrass is an essential ingredient in much of  South-East Asian cuisine. Here is one cut in half to show the ‘bulb’ portion which can be grated.

grating the lemongrass

• Now blend together with nine other ingredients, some of them dry-roasted, and you will have the basic ‘yellow curry paste’.
  

  dry roasting spices

  

  shrimp paste and more spices

  

  dried yellow chile

  

  the basic ‘yellow curry paste’

• Take three tablespoons of the basic ‘yellow curry paste’ and add 12 more ingredients, chopped, smashed, toasted and/or otherwise processed, and then you will have the basic ‘yellow curry sauce’.

sliced lemongrass and 3 Tbsp yellow curry paste in the blender

kaffir lime leaves

cashews, spices and fish sauce with sugar already added

• Toss it all into the pot along with coconut milk and a bouquet garni.

the bouquet garni is made up of cilantro stems, lime leaves, 1 red Thai chile and the tough leftover tops of lemongrass

Thai yellow curry sauce with the bouquet garni

• Once it is simmering, prepare the remainder of the ingredients, in this case chicken, pineapple, peas, bamboo shoots, carrots and cilantro, and add them to the pot.
• Make jasmine rice according to the package instructions.
• Serve the curry over the jasmine rice, and garnish with pineapple and/or chopped cilantro and/or cashews. Serve with Indian rotis.

Thai yellow curry garnished with pineapple and cilantro, served with Indian rotis.

Chef Eric posts many of his recipes on his website: http://www.911cheferic.com/