There are so many variations of Thai curry in my house that the following recipe is a clip on, clip off kind of affair.  Put in what you like after the basic ingredients and you will have a fab curry in no time!

The basics:
400ml tin coconut milk
1-2 tablespoons Thai Curry paste- red, yellow or green
150ml water or stock (I use vegetable bouillon powder and boiling water)
1 tablespoon fish sauce
1 teaspoon sugar
juice of a lime
chopped coriander/cilantro

Method:
Take the creamy part of the top of the can of coconut milk and add to the pan with the curry paste.  Mix and heat gently.  After a couple of minutes add everything else, except the lime juice- this gets added just before serving so it adds zing!

You are ready for your clip on's:

The clip on's:
Meat- chicken, pork, beef, turkey 
The choice is yours but the meat must be sliced very thinly.  This is an easy task for me with my butcher training but for a knife novice I can highly recommend using a very sharp knife and take your time to position your meat so its stable on your board before you cut.  Its very easy to cut yourself with a dull knife as you will be pushing harder against the meat and your blade is more likely to slip.  Add the very thinly sliced meat to the simmering mix and cook though.  The time all depends of you ability to get the meat thin and I work on about 6-7 minutes for my meat.  Always take a piece out and slice through it to test. 
or
Fish- White fish, salmon, prawns
Pick one or mix them up.  If adding fish its important to add them at the very end to the simmering mix and cook for 3-4 minutes and they should be cooked through.  You can make the sauce part in advance and simply reheat and add the fish at the very end before serving. 

Vegetables-The list is endless and you can go full on veggie or, as I do, a mix of meat and vegetables.  You can theme your vegetables with the colour of your curry paste but its a more relaxed affair for me and it usually just gets what I can find in the vegetable drawer of my fridge.  Squash is an excellent addition as it bulks the dish out and its soft gentle nature soaks up the curry taste so well its usually always added to my dish.  Simply peel, cube and add to the basic bubbling mix and simmer for 15 mins till tender, adding other clip on's as you go.  For any vegetables you add just cook till tender- don't boil the life out of them!

Once you have added your choices and they are cooked through add the lime juice and coriander/cilantro and serve with some basmati rice. 

Serves- 4-6

I am sure that you have them?

They may not be right at the front but they are there, tucked away to save the day. It's the cupboard hero, the stand by super food. Unassuming on their own but with a quick kitchen raid they can make tea in record time.

I have two main Hero's; crushed tomatoes (see here for my love of their tins too!) and coconut milk.

I used to work in a Thai restaurant. One of my many jobs was to prep food for the busy food service and opening vast number of tins of coconut milk was one of my tasks. I make Thai curry so often now you would be hard pressed to see a weekly menu in my house where some version of it does not spring up. My children love it too, which is a big thing. I try not to spice it up too much, but even when I add a little extra curry paste they never complain- they just ask for more water in their glasses! It's worth noting that you can make your own curry paste and  if you have the time and inclination to do so, be my guest. The Thai chefs I worked for didn't, and nor do I. If you add a few extra things to your curry it will sing happily on your tongue!

Parents you will no doubt be aware of film by association.  This is when you don't actually sit down and watch a film but you know all about it by one of the following methods:

• The in-car DVD:  We are lucky enough to own a device for playing DVD's in the car on long journeys.  I always thought they were a weak parenting option, but how wrong was I- they can be bliss!  I have listened to many a film.  I know all of the words but have not yet seen a single picture of it.
• Passing through the room:  Mornings in my house are for jobs.  I will happily stick a film on for my 2 year old to watch so I can get my daily jobs done and the afternoon is then free for playing, crafting etc with him.  As I pass through the living room I catch glimpses of the film he is watching.  This is enough to work out the whole story when you put all of the glimpses together but you never watch all of it and feel you don't ever need to as you know how it starts, a bit of the middle and the end scene! 
• Guess what happens at the end:  We bought the last Harry Potter film recently and I was glad when my son misbehaved during the week when we bought it- gasp you say, I was glad of bad behaviour??  This resulted in Friday film night being cancelled and Harry Potter was not watched before me and the hubby could watch it alone when the kids were in bed.  This saved us from our children telling us the really good twist at the end of the film or saying right at the start- oh yeah, he turns out to be the bad guy, oh yeah he did it, oh yeah he dies you know!!!  Ahhhhh, don't give the film away!!! 

So if you know all about the film and you have never sat down to watch it, not even once, you must be a parent!  Thank goodness they go to bed and we have the sanity of some good old grown up time!

In my house we have a large, noisy issue at the moment. It's the battle of the brothers. It's an all consuming war over bedroom territory, toys, food, the TV, the puppy and generally everything within the four walls.


Alfie has been spotted hitting Harry, pushing him off a bed, throwing things at him, intentionally breaking Lego cars and buildings and stealing things whilst running at full speed the other way.

Harry is powerless, as he knows retaliation will lead to trouble with the grown ups. He takes the beatings and torture simply reporting his woes so we can deal with the unruly Alfie.

Obviously if we see this happening we step in and discipline accordingly, but you cannot see them in every corner of the house and as parents know, kids are good at sloping off the grid- especially when they are plotting trouble. Its hard to know how to deal with them and currently we are using the oil and water method. Oil and water don't mix so don't try! We sperate them to play, watch TV, have a bath and we have even taken to sitting between them at mealtimes to prevent food or fork war! I don't want this to be a long term solution as they used to play together so nicely and it's hard to watch how their relationship has changed. 


I am sure its just a phase but at the moment, "ding, ding", round 5- the battle is still at large!