When guests come over, it’s sometimes overformal to have everyone sit around the table and eat a full-course meal. Sometimes you just want to serve snackable main courses so that everyone keeps mingling and there are no awkward silences at the table!
These Thai green curry rice pockets are the best way to pass around the fragrant Thai delicacy in a casual setting. They’re fairly easy to make, and you can spice them up however you like.
For this recipe, I use a banana leaf from my local Thai shop (luckily I have one close by). You may need to hunt for one if you live quite far from any Thai or Southeast Asian shop, but trust me, it’s worth it. Using a banana leaf locks in the flavours and adds a beautiful aroma to the food, especially since I steam these pockets before serving in order to not lose too much flavour from the rice. I would suggest making the Thai green curry quite concentrated before adding the rice.
Makes: 4 pockets
Prep time: 20 min
Cooking time: 30–45 min
Ingredients:
- 1 long banana leaf (available at any Thai shop)
- 1 tbsp grapeseed oil
- ½ tsp fresh green chilli, chopped
- ½-in piece ginger, grated or chopped
- 2 tsp vegan green curry paste
- 1½ cups organic jasmine rice
- 2 cups water
- ½ cup coconut milk
- ¼ stalk fresh lemongrass, chopped
- 2 kaffir lime leaves
- fried garlic, fried shallots and fresh coriander, to garnish
Method:
- Wash and drain the rice.
- In a medium-sized pan over high heat, add the oil, chilli and ginger. Stir until fragrant.
- Add the curry paste. Let it sizzle for a few minutes.
- Add the rice and stir the mixture together until completely blended.
- Add the water (bit by bit as you don’t want to dilute the flavours), coconut milk, lemongrass and kaffir lime leaves.
- Let the rice boil for a minute, then turn down the heat to simmer.
- In a separate space, cut the banana leaf into 4 rectangular shapes.
- Once the rice is fully cooked and fragrant, switch off the gas and let it cool down.
- Add 1 wooden-spoon-sized amount of rice to the centre of each rectangular banana leaf piece. Fold the top and bottom parts of the leaf across the rice, leaving a peephole in the centre. Slowly fold the sides of the leaf underneath the rice, securing the rice in its place.
- Place the pockets in a steamer, and once the colour of the leaf turns from dark to light green, they’re ready!
- Garnish with fried garlic, fried shallots and coriander and serve immediately.
For more awesome vegetarian recipes like this, like Foodie on Facebook
