Paste:

• 5 Coriander seeds, gently toasted
• 5 Cumin seeds, gently toasted
• 5 White peppercorns, gently toasted
• 6 green birds eye chilies
• 3 long green chilies
• 2 lemon grass stems, roughly chopped
• 25g fresh galangal, peeled
• 25g fresh ginger, peeled
• 25g fresh turmeric, peeled
• 10 Asian shallots, peeled
• 25g fresh garlic cloves, peeled
• 3 coriander roots and stems, reserve leaves for garnish
• 6 kaffir lime leaves
• 20g Shrimp paste, roasted in foil until fragrant
• 25g Stevia, to taste
• 50g Liquid Coconut Oil
• 50g Lime Juice

Curry:

• 150g Green Curry Paste
• 250ml coconut cream
• 500ml coconut milk
• 25ml grape seed oil
• 12 large green prawns, peeled and deveined
• 20 Thai pea eggplants
• 5 apple eggplants, quartered
• 80ml fish sauce, season to taste

Garnish:

• 6 kaffir lime leaves, shredded and fried until crispy in
• 50ml grape seed oil
• 2 long green chilies, sliced on a diagonal
• Fresh coriander Leaves
• Sweet Thai basil Leaves

Method

Paste:

• Place all dry ingredients into a high-powered food processor and blitz; add in lime juice and coconut oil until desired consistency is achieved.  Adjust seasoning if necessary.
• Reserve 150g for next step and freeze the rest in a sealed jar.

Curry

• Over a medium heat in a large pot, heat the curry paste until fragrant, or approximately five minutes, while constantly stirring.
• Deglaze with coconut cream, dislodge any flavour sediment from the bottom.  Stir thoroughly, and reduce heat to a gentle simmer.
• In a large heavy based fry pan, heat the oil over medium to high.
• Toss through all eggplant, until slightly browned and fragrant.
• Toss through prawns until just opaque on the outside.
• Pour the coconut milk into the green curry sauce, stir through, adjust seasoning if necessary.
• Pour green curry sauce all over eggplant and prawns and serve.

Garnish

• Fry the kaffir lime shreds in the grapeseed oil until crispy and fragrant.
• Generously pile all garnish over the top of your green curried eggplant and prawns.

Recipe Notes

• Turmeric is super good for you for a long list of reasons, but it does ‘muddy’ the colour of this otherwise super vibrant and poppin’ green curry paste – if you don’t like the colour, or you’re trying to make your image InstaFamous, you may consider leaving it out.
• Buy fresh green prawns which are as local to you as possible, the species may vary, they’ll be fresher and left less of an impact on the environment because they didn’t have to travel.  
• If you’ve got excess of any of the paste ingredients, go to town, make double or triple the amount if you wish – it freezes really well in jars for later.
• Leftover paste can also be used for a chunky dip by blitzing 150g almonds, cashews or macadamias through it or used as a warm or cold salad dressing by loosening and blitzing through additional liquid coconut oil and lime juice until desired consistency is achieved.
• While the ingredients in this dish are quite traditionally Thai, I have definitely tweaked the method, for convenience, desired texture etc.  Give it a go, but feel free to make it your own, too!
• I’ve chosen not to serve this dish with rice, maintaining it’s grain free, paleo and keto status, however you could serve it with your favourite rice or even cauliflower rice if you did so choose.

Substitute Ingredients

• If you’re not coastal (I’m so sorry, hehehe) but you can totally swap out the prawns for up to 500g Free range, organic chicken breast- or your favourite tofu and additional vegetables if you’d prefer zero animal products.

• For the vegans, replace prawns as above and, you can leave out the shrimp paste and fish sauce, and besides the obvious flavour difference, the paste and final curry will need replacement seasoning, you could happily use your favourite mineral rich salt.

• I’ve used stevia so this is a low-fructose meal, however you could use palm or coconut sugar if you wished.

Substitute Equipment

It’ll take some elbow grease, but if you don’t have a food processor on hand, you could use a mortar and pestle to pulverise the curry paste.

Waste Tips

Reserve prawn shells for a Tom Yum soup later in the week, or a seafood based broth, or roast them until crispy for a fun garnish.

If discarding prawns shells, and it’s not bin night, pack and freeze them until it is.

Diet and Lifestyle Notes