Thai green chicken curry with jasmine rice

Method

1. Rinse the rice in a fine sieve under cold water, rubbing it between your fingers, 3 times until the water runs clear. Put in an 18 cm saucepan with 225 g water, bring to the boil over a high heat, cover and cook over the lowest heat for 12 minutes, then rest off the heat for 10 minutes without opening. Do not salt: the boldly seasoned sauce will season the rice. While it cooks, cut the unpeeled aubergine into 2 cm cubes and the deseeded pepper into 5 mm strips; pick the basil leaves.
2. Open the coconut milk tin without shaking it and spoon off the thick cream on top (about 100 g). Put it in a 26 cm sauté pan with the oil and heat over a medium heat for 5–7 minutes, stirring constantly: it thickens, sizzles and clear oil beads around the edges; lower the heat a little as soon as it sticks to the bottom. Add the curry paste and fry for 2–3 minutes, pressing it into this oil: it darkens, becomes fragrant and turns the oil green. This is the crucial curry technique: paste merely boiled in the milk stays raw and grassy.
3. Turn the heat up to high, add the chicken and aubergine and stir to coat in the paste for 2 minutes, until the chicken turns white on the surface. Pour in 200 g of the remaining coconut milk, 20 g soy sauce (reserve the remaining teaspoon), the sugar, salt (unless the paste is very salty) and 50 g water, or up to 100 g if the chicken is not two-thirds covered. Bring to a simmer, reduce to medium-low and cook for 10 minutes with the lid ajar, stirring twice: the aubergine starts to soften.
4. Add the green beans without thawing and simmer gently, uncovered, for 7 minutes, then add the pepper and cook for another 3 minutes: the beans should be tender but green, the pepper softened but still bright red, the aubergine should yield under the spoon, and the reduced sauce should coat a spoon. The chicken is cooked when the largest piece, cut in half, is white to the centre with no pink, and breaks apart under a fork.
5. Off the heat, grate the zest of the half lime over the sauté pan (green part only, not the bitter white pith) and squeeze in its juice: this zest recalls makrut lime leaves. Taste: the sauce should be distinctly salty, sweet and hot at once. Adjust with the reserved teaspoon of soy sauce and 1 tsp sugar if the heat overwhelms everything. Fold in the torn basil, keeping a few leaves whole.
6. Fluff the rice with a fork and divide between two deep bowls, then spoon the chicken, vegetables and sauce over it; top with the whole basil leaves. Serve immediately: basil loses its aroma within minutes.