Bamboo Shoot Curry

My attempt at one of my manipuri friends firm favorites- bamboo shoot.

This can be done with meat or just on its own, as the bamboo is a very strong flavor. Bamboo shoots are the slimy yellow oblong things that look a bit weird.



Basic yellow curry - fry up some ginger, onion, garlic and fresh tumeric(if u have it). Add some yellow curry powder to the mix and soy sauce or a bit of salt. If you have it available, a dollop of red curry paste doesn't go wrong here, but be sparing. Dont use any of those intense indian curry pastes in a jar as they are too strong and salty.

If u only have Patels Mild Curry Paste in a jar skip it, the specialists really only use a little yellow curry powder when they make this and I put in the red because I like to add bit of a mix to the color scheme.

A better substitute for some color would be using red delicious Palm Oil which you can find at african supply stores and which turns the curry a very nice reddy yellow and tastes great.

once the oil is bubbling and your base is looking good, add in the bamboo shoots and potato, cut in bite size chunks.

after they have been tossed in the oil and browned a little bit add some water and let simmer on low heat for about 15 mins or longer if u got the time. the only thing that will degenerate will be the potato, the bamboo is formidable and can hold its own.

This is a great curry with rice and usually in combination with at least 1 other curry. In my manipuri house they always eat their curries with a side relish which is the specialty of the region and usually features large amounts of the famous bhut jolokia or Ghost Chilli.



Ingredients:
red curry paste
yellow curry powder
ginger, garlic and onion
1 potato peeled
3 or 4 stalks of bamboo shoots fresh (or canned)
splash of soy sauce
fresh tumeric if you have it. powdered if u must.
couple of chillies to taste

Thai Yellow Seafood Veggie Curry

Standard yellow curry with a twist; no oil. In fact besides the coconut milk, no fat at all and it could easily be done hot and sour style with tamarind paste instead of coconut milk.

Ingredients:

broccolli
carrots
baby corn
baby white/green eggplants
4 or 5 whole cherry tomatos(som tam tomatos are small and tough enough to withstand the heat but its nice when the tomatos go goey and mix in as well)
fresh or frozen prawns
1 - 2 century eggs
spinach(handful)
fresh thai basil(cant get enough of this leaf)


GRAVY:
white pepper powder
fresh green peppercorns on twig
cheap chinese yellow curry powder
fresh tumeric
fresh ginger
onions (big chunky pieces)
3 cloves of garlic
4 or 5 red chillies fresh chopped
splash of fish sauce
3 squeezed limes
splash of soy sauce
thai shrimp paste
small tin of mackeral in tomato sauce
couple of dried prawns

Simmer in the minimum amount of water all above ingredients, adding water to the boil as the paste begins to come together. Add as much water as you like for extra gravy, I put a lot in as it will slow cook for a long time.

While its boiling, steam your vegetables in the steamer and bung them whenever your gravy looks good.

Boil gravy and veg together on low for about 5 - 10 mins then add chopped greens (basil or spinach) along with your century eggs and frozen prawns.

After you mix in the greens and its looking like a nice jambalaya with a somewhat watery, hot and sour gravy you can whack in your coconut milk stir and let sit on lowest heat for another 5 - 10 mins.

If you wanted to do a low low fat option you could stir in a half a cup of water mixed with spoonful of tamarind paste or some tomato paste instead of coconut milk.

Waite till you get a bite of century egg, prawn and eggplant its too good.