The Slapdash Cook

One of my favorite Thai dishes is pad prik king. It’s spicy and contains green beans, which I adore when they’re really fresh. Months ago, somewhere on the Internet, I discovered that I can jury-rig a version of prik king at home with red curry paste, sugar and soy sauce (or fish sauce, but the stuff smells horrible and I can barely understand why other humans want to put it in their mouths). I’d provide the link if I could remember it.

Anyhow, I had some green beans, eggplant and other lovely veggies to use up on Wednesday — but I didn’t have any red curry paste. Alas! I did, however, have green curry paste. I considered green curry, but there was no coconut milk around. Then it occurred to me that if people use red curry paste in stir-fries, you can probably also use green curry paste in a stir-fry without coconut milk. I Googled around, found nothing that didn’t use coconut milk, got hungry and decided to make it up. The results suffered only because I didn’t use enough curry paste. (Or possibly I could have used less of something fresher — I’m sure the Martha Stewarts of the Thai world make their own curry paste, but I’m not that cool.) The following recipe has modifications from what I actually did that I think will make it better.

Green Curry Paste Fake Prik King Stir-Fry 
Half a block of tofu, baked (I prebake my tofu. Once the water is out, this was probably about three ounces.)
Two handfuls of green beans, chopped
Cubed eggplant, let’s say a half cup to a cup
Red bell pepper or any other appropriate veggies you have around. E.g. mushrooms would be nice, but brussels sprouts might be kind of weird.
1 tsp to 1 tb of oil
2 to 3 tb green curry paste (I used 1.5 tb. Not really enough.)
2 tsp brown sugar
2 tsp soy sauce, or fish sauce if the smell doesn’t make you gag
1/4 cup chopped green onions, or normal onions if you don’t have green ones around
(Stuff I used that I think you can skip: diced lemongrass, minced ginger, crushed garlic. I like all of these things, but they didn’t seem to contribute to the finished product enough to justify picking the lemongrass out of the food.)
If you have fresh basil around, chop two leaves for a tasty garnish. Cilantro would be nice too.

1. Chop everything.

2. Heat oil on medium or medium-high heat. If you’re using normal onions, put those and the eggplant in first and let them get soft before you add the rest of the veggies. (If you’re using green onions, hold them back for now.) Add the other veggies. Cook until everything seems more or less done. Add the green onions and any other aromatics you’re using — garlic, ginger.

3. Turn heat down so nothing scorches. Add the curry paste, soy sauce and sugar and stir very well to mix. If necessary, you might wanna add a little water to thin the curry paste, but go really easy on that.

4. Sprinkle with chopped basil. Serve over rice!

We have since purchased light coconut milk, which I would turn into a staple if it weren’t so deliciously fatty.