I would like to talk about an evening roughly a year ago when I decided to prepare an authentic Thai green curry entirely from scratch. Up until that point, my cooking routine had been rather predictable, mostly revolving around simple pasta dishes and ready-made sauces. However, after watching a culinary travel documentary about Southeast Asian street food, I felt inspired to step out of my comfort zone and recreate those bold flavours in my own flat.
Sourcing the ingredients was probably half the challenge. I had to hunt down rather obscure items like galangal, fresh kaffir lime leaves, and lemongrass from a specialised international supermarket across town. Once back home, I spent ages grinding the chillies, herbs, and shrimp paste together with a pestle and mortar. It took quite a bit of elbow grease, but the aromatic fragrance that filled the kitchen was incredible. After frying the paste, I simmered chicken and baby aubergines in rich coconut milk, fine-tuning the balance with palm sugar and fish sauce.
I had invited two of my flatmates over for dinner, so I was honestly quite anxious about whether it would be edible. To my relief, the curry turned out to be a massive triumph. It was undeniably fiery, perhaps slightly more pungent than I had intended, yet the layers of flavour were astonishing compared to anything from a supermarket jar. Seeing my friends go back for second helpings gave me a tremendous sense of achievement, and it genuinely boosted my confidence to experiment with other global cuisines.