What makes green curry green?

Haven't cooked as much this week, hence the lack of posts.  We decided to run errands Tuesday night and played volleyball Wednesday night so no cooking those nights.

Last night was my first attempt at Thai green curry and I must say it turned out wonderfully! It's pretty simple to make, just lots of simmer time.  The ingredients are as follow

Chicken

Green curry paste

Coconut milk

Fish sauce

Soy sauce

Thai chilis

Bell pepper

Onion

Potatoes

Green onions

Carrots

Broccoli

Brown Rice

Garlic

The veggies are just an option so you can add whatever veggies you want.  I cut everything up and put them into 2 bowls based on cook time.  I put the green onions, onion, garlic, and chicken in one bowl and the carrots, bell pepper, and broccoli in another. 

I started by par cooking the potatoes in chicken stock to get some extra flavor.  

So once those cooked for about 20 minutes, I cooked the thai chills in a stock pot with some olive oil to release the heat.  These are necessary but we like our heat so I added them for extra spice.  Depending on what curry paste you use and your tolerance to spice, you may not even need them so taste the paste first.  After about a couple of minutes, I added the coconut milk, fish sauce, soy sauce, and paste to the pot along with the potatoes.  At this point I started the rice, using water and some chicken stock from the potatoes.  After letting that cook for about 5 minutes, I added the bowl of peppers, broccoli, and carrots.  Once that cooked for a bit, I added the remaining bowl of ingredients and let it all simmer for about 30 minutes or so.  I let the mixture simmer for a total of about an hour from start to finish. 

Final product!

It was super delicious!! It had a great amount of heat, the potatoes soaked in all of the juices and spice.  I highly recommend this dish.  It's so easy to make and so good!