No kaffir lime leaves?
No lemongrass?
No Thai basil?
No fish sauce?
No problem!
Just as my first time in Rio, I have reached that point where meat, rice, beans and pasta just don’t do it for me. I need a sushi roll or Pad Thai thrown into the mix, for good balance. Unfortunately, there are no Asian restaurants locally, and that means no Asian cuisine ingredients in town. Well, there iiissss Nissan instant soup. Definitely held me over for about a week or two. But, I should probably wane myself off of it at this point, for the sake of a healthy heart.
I get on the internet this morning on a mission learn how to make various Thai coconut curry soups with vegetables.
I am salivating at 10:30 am like a kid at a cotton candy stand. It is now or never, Zandra, we have to give this a try! I head out with a list of ingredients.
Five stores and an hour later, I return with the bare minimum. There was no cilantro or any basil at the vegetable market. I fear the curry will be a fail, but cling to faith in my strong desire for it to turn out, and the chance that my Asian-cuisine deprived pallate (over 7 months without Thai food!) won’t taste the absence.
I peel, chop and segregate the ingredients into two piles with the intention of blending them separately. Because I will be blending them, there is no need to “finely chop” or “zest!”
I had picked up black pepper, coriandor and cumin. The latter two are key spices, and without them, I think the curry would be a bust, and I am right. Curry, by its definition, is a blend of herbs and spices.
As I eye the separate piles of ingredients, I am taken back to my Thai cooking class in Ao Nang Krabi, Thailand in 2013. “Bang, bang! Chop, chop!” the comedic instructor said as her rescued (her words) Malaysian women helped clear the several prep dishes and present new ones for the next meal.
As I blend the ingredients, and the aroma of Thai goodness escapes the blender, I sample and taste too much spice. Balance it with sweet. Sugar. And tang, lime. I recall how she said the three bases to Thai food are sweet, tang and spice. Perfect. That is all you need to know to be successful in Thai cooking. Not professional, but successful.
I follow the recipe for the soup, and am gleeful as I see it turning into its true being: looks right, smells great, tastes authentic!
“Green” curry paste
- lemongrass (perfect substitute: 2 tsp lime zest. peel a lime, like you would an apple or potato)
- kaffir lime leaf (the above substitute is a good cover)
- juice the limes to 2-3 tablespoons (good cover for lack of kaffir lime leaf and lemongrass)
- cut 2 small shallots (or mini onions, as they turn out to be 🙂 )
- cut purple onion (seems redudant, but it offers a nice complimentary flavor to the other onion)
- cut a thumb-size piece of ginger
- peel 4 pieces of garlic
- fish sauce (great substitute: salty liquid, so, 2 teaspoons of soy sauce. A Brazilian version sells for only $1.00)
- coriandor
- cumin (the latter two spices were only $.25 for a small envelope each! If I couldn’t find these spices — at the fifth store, by the way — then this dish would’ve been a bust)
- 1 tsp of sugar
- 1-2 pimenta (peppers) with spice. Jalapenos. work. I picked up to modest looking peppers the size of a medium carrot. I kept the seeds, because I like spice.
Blend, blend, blend. I now have a drinking cup worth of curry paste to saute with meat or veggies in the future, another soup, or a noodle dish. 
Coconut Curry Soup base
same as the above minus the “fish sauce” and purple onion, plus more ginger and less finely chopped.
Soup Preparation
Make 1 liter of chicken broth from bouillon cubes.
In separate pot, heat oil that coats pot, add blended base. Cook 3 minutes. Add “fish sauce” (ahem, soy sauce) and a teaspoon of sugar. Cook and stir for a minute. Add chicken broth. Cook a couple minutes…add the bite size chopped potato, corn and mushrooms and 1.5 cup of coconut milk (for $1.00 at the store here….Brazilians love coconut!).
Cook for about 10 minutes. Add chopped green onion to garnish.
Oh my goodness! Bonus: turns out, this dish is super low fat and nearly vegetarian/vegan, except for the broth!
Zandra's Ways 