Thai Green Curry

Once again, the creative muse has left me. But rather than force loyal Cant readers to endure yet another round of "No Column" entries, I will remain committed to my established backup plan: If I can't rant at you properly, the least I can do is teach you how to cook.

For starters, I'd like to tell those of you who can't or don't cook to get OFF YOUR LAZY ASSES AND LEARN. I don't demand haute cuisine -- I'm no gourmet myself -- but there are an awful lot of really good dishes that require zero skill and only a little patience, and it's time you moved beyond cutting away the plastic film over the cranberry cobbler.

I have all sorts of problems with American politics and American culture, but the one thing you really, really can't complain about here is the food. Sure, we have plenty of bad food available, and the general culinary trend is towards salty fried starch nuggets served alongside salty grilled meat nuggets -- but if you want to eat tremendously well we have access to a wider variety of basic components here than anywhere else on Earth.

With the exception of horsemeat and a few unpasteurized French cheeses that can't be legally imported, if you can find it in a cookbook, you can find it for sale. I found lemon grass at supermarkets while driving through Nebraska. Kaffir lime leaves in Santa Barbara, tamarind in Ohio -- weird food from around the world is no longer limited to New York City and San Francisco. Some ingredients require a little hunting, some involve driving to a slightly more metropolitan area, but very little is truly unavailable if you're willing to look for it.

I was recently in a Ranch 99 in San Jose, and inside this sparkling new Asian mega-market was a small "ethnic foods" section carrying salsa, refried beans, and taco seasoning. When I was growing up, Asian markets were little shacks selling unlabelled jars of squid eyeballs and Botan rice candy. Now they're big enough to have their own ghettos. The world has changed.

Anyhow, here's a Thai dish that is absolutely wonderful. The only ingredients that are any trouble to find are the lemon grass and the green Thai curry paste. Lemon grass is easier, but is only available at about every other major supermarket chain (Safeway usually carries it, Albertson's usually doesn't, but any even slightly upscale market will have plenty on hand.) The curry paste is a little rarer, but only slightly. I recommend Mae Ploy brand Green Curry paste (sold in a little green plastic tub) but other brands will be just fine. Oh, and if you're at all squeamish about Thai fish sauce, it is totally interchangeable with soy sauce in this dish.

It takes about 20 minutes to assemble everything, slice up the chicken ,and blanch the bamboo shoots (to the cooking illiterate, blanch just means "boil"). Then it's about ten minutes of actual cooking. Oh, and you'll want to start some rice going ahead of time, so it'll be ready just about when you're ready to serve the curry.

Heat half the coconut milk over medium heat in a wok or good-sized pot until bubbling. Add the curry paste and lemon grass, and stir about 45 seconds. Add the chicken broth, fish sauce, sugar, turmeric, and lime rind. Bring to a boil. Add the chicken and cook until it turns white (about 3 minutes). Reduce heat to low, add the remaining coconut milk, bamboo shoots, and peas. Continue to simmer until vegetables are hot, about another 3 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in the basil. Serve immediately over steamed rice.

Enjoy!

Columns by Cindy