Thai Red Penang Style Curry with Fish & Prawns

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil
• 2 cloves of garlic finely chopped
• 1 red onion, finely chopped
• 300g of prawns, raw, peeled and deveined
• 300g of your choice of white fish, cut into small 5cm pieces (I used ling fillets)
• 2 bunches of your choice of greens (I used green beans and broccolini)
• 1 can of coconut milk
• 2 tablespoons of fish sauce
• 2 tablespoons of finely shaved palm sugar or normal sugar
• 2 cups of white rice, cooked to serve (jasmine or basmati preferred)
• 1 small bunch of fresh coriander to serve
• 2 tablespoons of fried shallots to serve
• 1 sliced fresh red chilli to serve

Penang Red Curry Paste

• 6 dried red chillies
• 1 small piece of galangal, finely chopped or 1 teaspoon of galangal powder
• 1 small piece of ginger, peeled and finely chopped
• 1 lemongrass stalk, pale part bruised, finely chopped
• 3 asian red shallots, roughly chopped or red onion
• 2 coriander roots, chopped
• 4 garlic cloves, roughly chopped
• 3 kaffir lime leaves, destemmed and sliced
• 1 tablespoon of shrimp paste
• 1 teaspoon of ground cumin
• 1 teaspoon of ground coriander or coriander seeds
• 1 tablespoon of roasted peanuts
• 1 teaspoon of tomato paste
• 2 tablespoons worth of jarred roasted capsicums

Method

1. To make the curry paste, soak the 6 dried chillies in hot water for 10-15 minutes or until softened. Remove the chillies from the water (it doesn’t matter if you don’t drain them completely as some water is fine). Reserve the chilli soaking water. Roughly chop the chillies and then place them into the bowl of a food processor with all the remaining ingredients. Blend until smooth, adding some of the chilli soaking water a tablespoon at a time if the ingredients aren’t blending smoothly. Optionally, if you’d like to intensify the red colour in the paste, add some tomato paste or roasted capsicums to the paste to turn it to an intense red colour.
2. Heat the vegetable oil in a large pan over medium heat. Add 1 chopped red onion and 2 chopped garlic cloves and sweat for 5 minutes or until soft and translucent. Add half the curry paste (approx. 4 tablespoons) and cook, stirring for about 5 minutes on medium. 
3. Stir through 1 can of coconut milk, bring to the boil and then turn down to medium to simmer. If you’d like to add more water you can add the remaining chilli soaking water or a cup of vegetable stock.
4. Add 2 bunches of your greens and cook until nearly tender for 5 minutes. 
5. Add the 300g of fish and 300g prawns and cook for 2 minutes. 
6. Finish seasoning the curry by adding 2 tablespoons of fish sauce and 2 tablespoons of finely shaved palm sugar and taste again to see if you would like to add more. Transfer to a serving plate. Drizzle with fresh coriander, fried shallots and slices of red chilli as well as some fresh hot rice.