Recipe: A cheat's Thai curry

I love Thai food: it's extremely quick to make, really quite healthy (once you forget about all the sugar, coconut milk and wildly salty sauces) and wonderfully tasty to boot. I went on a cookery course in Chiang Mai a couple of years ago and now, knowing just how easy it is to create a masterpiece from virtually nothing and in hardly any time at all, I can't really condone the use of the serious cheat of a recipe I share below.

However, desperate times (I haven't found an Asian supermarket yet; have no kitchen workspace or sink; and am using a portable oven) call for desperate measures, so here we are with a very simple cheat's Thai curry that B and I filled ourselves with late last night. (Although to be quite honest I'll make this again and again regardless: far better than buying a jar of paste and it is proper comfort food.) If you'd like a real Thai recipe, you can see the spectacularly simple Tom Yam soup I learned in Thailand on my old and rather short-lived food blog, Fill That Belly.

I have absolutely no idea where I found this one, or if my version still bears any resemblance to the original, but it's does me well for a very easy, very tasty bowl of food that takes five minutes to prepare and ten to cook. Coconut milk isn't cheap over here, mind, and B had to go back out for a tin opener, but here it is for two...

Ingredients:

• the white/pale green part of 6 spring onions, chopped into inch-long pieces and then sliced in half lengthways, then each half into three - you can save the green bits for a salad
• 1 green chilli (or 2, of course, or 3), very finely chopped
• 2 plump chicken breasts cut into bite-sized pieces (we used turkey last night, cheaper than the organic chicken, and funnily enough it was so good that, unlike what I've had in that England, I wouldn't have been able to tell the difference)
• 1 can coconut milk
• 1 tbsp nam pla (or more to taste)

Method:

• Heat a little oil in a pan (ideally not olive; it has too strong a taste for my liking: last night I used corn oil - I love that stuff) and throw in half of the spring onions and chilli; stir it around a bit...
• ...and then add the chicken, mixing it in with the green things and generally sealing it on all sides for a few minutes
• Next pour in the coconut milk and add the nam pla before letting it gently heat through for another five minutes or so - don't let it boil
• Just before serving, throw in the rest of the spring onions and chilli
• Serve in a bowl with basmati rice and something green like mange-tout.

Now the leftovers for lunch...

PS word has it that Stewed! are bringing out a Thai curry this summer... probably even quicker, easier and tastier than this one. Go buy.