Green curry with zucchini and bamboo shoots
We’ve been eating the green curry I made last weekend all week. First we ate it on roasted veggies, then I improvised a green curry with chard and tofu. It came out okay but not great, so I decided to actually follow a recipe the next time! This recipe for green curry with zucchini and bamboo shoots from Nancie McDermott’s Real Vegetarian Thai.
The recipe calls for a whole can of coconut milk, 1-2 Tbs. green curry paste, 8 ounces bamboo shoots, 1 yellow onion, 1/2 cup veg. stock, 1 Tbs. brown sugar, 1/2 tsp. soy sauce, 1/2 tsp. salt, 2 zucchini, and 1/2 bunch cilantro.
Unlike most of McDermott’s recipes, I found a problem with this one. It calls for 2 zucchinis, sliced crosswise (about 1 cup). But it doesn’t say how thin to slice the zucchinis. And after I sliced my first zucchini I already had two cups! I wasn’t sure what to do. One zucchini seemed like not enough veggies for a whole can of coconut milk, so I added another half of a zucchini. I also wanted the dish to be a one-pot meal, so I added in about 5 ounces of diced tofu as well.
I actually didn’t care for this curry. I have no idea why. I normally like all the curries in the cookbook. But the fat from the coconut milk seemed to cling unpleasantly to my mouth, and the curry didn’t seem to have much flavor. I only used 4 tsp. of curry paste (rather than the max 2 Tbs. the recipe says you can use), and maybe that wasn’t enough. Derek thought it needed more curry paste and salt and some acid, but although the addition of more curry paste helped a little, the curry still didn’t taste right to me. Not sweet enough maybe? My vague memories of eating green curries in restaurants include thai basil rather than cilantro, and so I added some thai basil, but it didn’t help much. The head notes say to throw in some kaffir lime leaves when you add the vegetable stock, but I missed the note. Maybe that would have helped? In any case I think I just don’t like the bamboo shoot / zucchini combo that much. Both seem rather bland to me.
Rating: B-
Derek: B
The captious vegetarian 
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