Tempting Thai

Genius find last week. I was rushing through the local Supervalu on the hunt for a quick salad to accompany the Aruna Chicken Rogan Josh I had prepared for The FA and the Blonde. Out of the corner of my beadie foodie eye I spotted Thai Red Curry kit. When I say kit, I mean a little pack containing a lime, lemongrass, Galangal ( looks like dried pooh !), Thai Shallots ( looked the smae as Irish shallots!)6 red chillies, a globe of garlic and a stump of ginger. Following the instructions in the pack, I deseeded the chillies and put them in the food processor with the lemongrasss, shallots, garlic, ginger and Galangal. I finely chopped them in the processor before adding the rind of the lime, juice of half the lime, 10 black peppercorns and half a teaspoon each of cumin and coriander seeds. I then slowly added 6 tablespoons of sunflower oli until it turned into a smooth fragrant Thai Red Curry paste. It is now stored in a Kilner jar in the fridge and I feel like a Thai Nigella Lawson. You see, there is no way I would have made the curry paste from scratch if I'd had to gather all those ingredients individually. I think I am fabulous because I made it from scratch but truthfully Supervalu get the credit for doing the hard work. I can't wait to add the chicken and coconut milk to it and hopefully impress a few ladies in the next few weeks. I have a love of Thai food ever since some very good girlfriends of mine ( we jumped off trees together......don't ask!) suggested we meet about 3 times a year in Malahide. The venue of choice for the first outing ( four years ago) was the Siam Thai and although we tried a few other places ( Indian and Italian) we now stick to the Siam Thai and love it. I particularly like our Christmas meeting, as in the midst of all the rich, weighty Christmas food the fresh aromatic Thai dishes are just perfect as a change. This years Christmas meeting is on the 29th Dec. and Thelma and I ( extroverts extraordinaire) will travel up together as we have so much to say ,we need at least the 40 minute car journey, to exhaust some of our verbal energy, so that we don't completely take over the mealtime conversation. We all know the menu so well that we know in advance what we will have, at least two of the 5 having the Chicken Satay and the Massaman curry. Here's hoping my Supervalu attempt even comes close !