Thai Vegetable Red Curry

Easy and tasty vegetarian/vegan Thai curry option. You can get most of these ingredients in a Chinese supermarket but Thai curry paste are mostly available in Chinese supermarket that carries Southeast Asian products. Some Thai curry paste has fish sauce or shrimp paste so make sure you read the ingredient list to make sure that it is vegetarian/vegan. I added kaffir lime leaves to this curry for extra flavor but you don't really need to use it if you don't have it. The red curry paste should already has it as one of the ingredient. The amount of vegetables you use doesn't really matter, you can change it according to your preference.

1/2 cup Thai red curry paste
1 cup water
2 cans coconut milk (400mL each)
4 potatoes, cut into small cubes
1 carrot, cut into small cubes
1 can straw mushrooms, drained
1 can baby corn, drained
1 cup (fresh) green beans, cut into about 3"
3 kaffir lime leaves
1 tablespoon soy sauce (or fish sauce)

In a pot, add all ingredients except straw mushrooms, baby corn and green beans. Cook until mixture starts to boil. Lower the heat and let it simmer until carrots and potatoes are tender. Add in straw mushrooms, baby corn and green beans. Cook for another 5 minutes. The curry is now ready to be served with white rice.

Curry Noodle Soup (Mi Kari)

This is an all time Malaysian favorite, a bowl of piping hot curry soup served with noodles and toppings such as chicken, pork, cockles, shrimp and tofu. It goes with the name Mi Kari or Laksa Kari. I used to eat it at least once a week and I see that Vance is catching on with my childhood craze. While this is not a traditional recipe, it's the closest I can get without buying a plane ticket back to Malaysia. This recipe is quite easy to make, the hardest part is to stop eating it! I've only tasted Ipoh style Curry Noodle Soup so there might be some other variations out there.

Ingredient A:
1 onion, sliced
1 cup red chillies, sliced
1/2 cup dried chillies
4 cloves garlic
1/2 cup water

1 cup curry powder
1/2 cup Massaman curry paste
1/2 cup oil
1 cinnamon stick
2 sticks lemongrass, halved
3 cans coconut milk (400mL)
2 vegetable or chicken bouillon (2 1/8 oz.)
2 1/2 qts. water
Salt to taste

Toppings:
Chicken breast, poached and shredded
Shrimp, shelled and cooked
Fried tofu cakes, sliced

Yellow noodles, blanched
Bean sprouts, blanched
Mint leaves
Lime, cut into wedges
Fried Onions

Add ingredient A into a food processor or blender and puree into a paste. Mix curry powder and curry paste into the puree. Set aside.

Heat oil in a large pot. When it's hot, add in cinnamon stick and lemongrass. Fry for a minute. Turn heat to low. Add in the pureed spices and fry until it is fragrant, for about 20 minutes. Make sure you stir constantly or the spice would burn. Add in water, coconut milk and bouillon. Turn the heat back up to high. Cover the pot and let it boil. Turn the heat to medium when soup is in rolling boil. Simmer for about an hour and add salt to taste.

To serve, put enough yellow noodle and bean sprouts in a bowl. Top with toppings of your choice (omit chicken and shrimp for vegetarian option) and mint leaves. Pour enough curry soup into the bowl. Sprinkle some fried onions on top. Serve hot with lime wedges.

Ray's Chicken Curry

My mum loves this curry and it's sorta like stuff of legend in the family. Imagine how devastated she was when I turned vegetarian 3 years ago and would refuse to cook meat. Well good news, I'm not a vegetarian anymore (I can still remember my parents cheering in the background) and I decided to make her this curry for her birthday party since she's been deprived of it for years. This recipe was handed down to me from my grandmother (my mum is a lost cause, ha ha). The curry is much darker but the flash from my camera makes it almost whitish.

1 whole chicken, cut into pieces.
8 medium sized potatoes, cut into large chunks.
Oil, enough for frying.

1 medium sized onion, chopped.
1 tablespoon chopped garlic.
2 cinnamon sticks.
1 teaspoon cloves.
1 teaspoon cumin seeds.
Curry leaves, about 1/2 cup.
2 stalks lemongrass, cut into pieces and bruised.
1/2 cup oil (oil from frying potatoes and chicken).
2 cans coconut milk (480 mL).
1 cup water
Salt to taste

Mix into curry paste:
1 cup Mae Ploy Thai Panang curry paste.
1 cup curry powder.
1 tablespoon turmeric powder.
1 tablespoon red chili powder.
1/2 cup water.

Heat oil in a pot. Fry potatoes until slightly browned. Set aside. Fry chicken pieces in the same oil until slightly browned. Set aside. When oil cools, reserve 1/2 cup of oil and discard the rest.

Heat the reserved oil in a wok or pot on medium heat. Fry cinnamon sticks, cumin seeds and cloves for a few seconds. Add in curry leaves, onion, garlic and lemongrass. Fry until onions are brown. Add in curry paste. Lower the heat and fry curry paste for about 20 minutes until fragrant and oil starts coming out from the curry paste. In Malaysian cooking, this technique is call pecah minyak. If the paste is too dry, add a little bit of coconut milk. Stir constantly so you don't burn the paste.

Add potatoes, chicken, coconut milk and water into the wok or pot. Turn the heat up back to medium. Cover the wok or pot and cook the curry for an hour, stirring frequently so the bottom doesn't burn. Serve with rice, naan, roti canai or nasi kunyit.

Aloo Gobhi

This recipe is for Kristen, a friend of us who lives in Connecticut. She's not tolerant at all with spicy food but would like to try a curry/Indian dish. This dish is not too spicy, and is very forgiving with the amount of chillies used. Aloo Gobhi literally means potato (Aloo) and cauliflower (Gobhi) in Hindi. This dish is really a spiced potato and cauliflower dish, not SPICY potato and cauliflower dish. So, for those that can't stand the heat of curry or Indian food this is the dish for you. This dish is good with chappati, naan, rice or even toast.


1 medium sized cauliflower, cut into florets
5 medium sized potatoes
1 green chili, sliced (adjust to taste)
1 cup frozen green pea, thawed
2 cup cherry tomato or 1 cup chopped tomato
1 medium sized onion, sliced
1 tablespoon chopped garlic
1 tablespoon chopped ginger
1 teaspoon cumin seed
2 tablespoon curry powder
1 teaspoon turmeric powder
2 tablespoon oil
1/2 cup water
1 cup chopped coriander leaves (cilantro)

Boil potatoes with skin on in a pot. When potatoes are cooked, peel skin and cut into bite size pieces. Set aside. Boil cauliflower for 3 minutes, or until al dente. Set aside.

Heat oil on medium heat. Add cumin seeds and fry for a few seconds. Add onions, garlic, ginger and green chillies. Fry until onions are translucent. Add curry powder and turmeric powder. Fry for 1 minute and then add potatoes, cauliflower and tomatoes. Add water. Stir and cook for about 10 minutes. Add green peas. Cook for another 5 minutes. Turn off the heat and stir in coriander leaves. Serve.

Kabocha Curry

Vance once had kabocha curry before in a Chinese Vegetarian Restaurant in Chinatown and has been craving them ever since. The restaurant is no longer in business and I have never tasted the dish before so recreating it is rather difficult. Here is my version of the kabocha curry. I don't want to make it too spicy so you can actually taste the sweetness of the kabocha. Vance hates Japanese curry because it is thickened by "roux" instead of coconut milk and he doesn't like the consistency. So, this is a modified Japanese curry that's thickened by coconut milk instead of roux.


1 small kabocha, leave the skin on and cut into cubes.
2 cups baby carrots.
1 cup celery, chopped.
2 cups frozen green peas, thawed.
1 medium sized onion, quartered and chopped.
2 cloves garlic, chopped.
2 cups water.
1 can coconut milk (480 mL).
3 tablespoon oil
1 tablespoon sugar.
salt to taste.

Ingredients (A)
1/2 cup water.
1/2 cup curry powder.
2 tablespoon red chili powder.

Heat oil on high heat. Add onion and garlic, fry until onion is translucent. Combine ingredients (A) into a curry paste. Lower the heat to medium and add curry paste. Fry for a few minutes until aromatic. Add kabocha, carrots, celery and 2 cups of water. Cover and let simmer for about 30 minutes. Add coconut milk, sugar and salt. Cook for another 15 minutes. Add green peas and cook for 10 minutes or until the sauce thickens. Serve warm with white rice.

Ray's Vegetable Curry

I learn how to make this from my grandma when I was living in Malaysia. I'm modifying the recipe to suit Vance's taste. If you like eggplant and okra, you can also put them into the curry.

The cast of the vegetable curry

• 4 cups cauliflower (cut into florets)
• 3 cups string beans (cut into 3” pieces)
• 4 carrots (cut into chunks)
• 5 potatoes (cut into chunks)
• 4 oz. fried bean curd
• 5 cloves garlic (chopped)
• 1 medium sized onion (chopped)
• 3 stalks lemongrass
• ½ cup curry leaves
• 2 sticks cinnamon sticks
• 1 teaspoon cloves
• 1 teaspoon cumin seeds
• 1 cup curry powder
• 1 cup chilli paste
• 1 tablespoon red chilli powder
• 1 tablespoon turmeric powder
• 5 cups water
• 2 cans coconut milk (480mL each)
• 1 cup vegetable oil
• Salt to taste

Heat oil in the wok or pot in medium heat. Add in chopped garlic and onion when the oil is hot. Fry until it turns slightly brown. Add in lemongrass, curry leaves, cinnamon sticks, cloves and cumin seeds. Fry until the onions turned brown but be careful not to burn them.

 Stir in curry powder, chilli paste, red chilli powder and turmeric powder. Add 1 cup of water and stir them into a paste. Turn the heat to low.



Stir occasionally for about 15 minutes until the spices are fragrant. You can add in a little bit of coconut milk if they spices are too dry.



Add in string beans, potatoes and carrots. Pour the remaining coconut milk and 4 cups of water. Cover the wok or pot and let it simmer for about 15 minutes. Add in cauliflower and fried bean curd. Stir. Cook for 5 more minutes. Season with salt. You can serve the curry with rice or bread.