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. While it cooks, cut the unpeeled aubergine into 2 cm cubes and the deseeded pepper into 5 mm strips; pick the basil leaves.
2. Green paste: dry-toast the ground coriander and cumin in the 26 cm sauté pan over a low heat for 30 seconds until fragrant, then tip into the blender bowl. Remove the tough outer leaves from the lemongrass, keep the bottom 12 cm and slice very finely; peel and slice the ginger, garlic and shallot; slice the chillies into rounds; roughly chop the fresh coriander with its stalks. Put everything in the bowl with the pepper, 2 g salt, the grated zest of the whole lime and 2 tbsp thick cream from the top of the unshaken coconut milk tin. Blend for 3–4 minutes, scraping down the sides: the paste should be bright green and almost smooth, with no lemongrass fibres felt when tasted.
3. Spoon off the rest of the thick cream from the top of the tin (about 100 g in total including the 2 tbsp already taken), put in the sauté pan with the oil and heat over a medium heat for 5–7 minutes, stirring constantly: it thickens, sizzles and clear oil beads at the edges. Add the homemade paste and fry for 4 minutes, pressing it into the oil: it darkens, the raw garlic smell disappears and the kitchen smells of toasted lemongrass.
4. 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, 3 g salt 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.
5. 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 aubergine should yield under the spoon and the reduced sauce should coat a spoon. The largest chicken piece, cut in half, should be white to the centre and break apart under a fork.
6. Off the heat, squeeze in the juice of half a lime. 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.
7. Fluff the rice with a fork, divide between two deep bowls, then add the chicken, vegetables and sauce; top with the whole basil leaves and serve immediately.

Homemade paste in a blender (a stick blender with a chopper bowl or a small food processor): kashrut no longer depends on a jar. Without makrut lime or galangal, lime zest and ginger replace them; the paste is less salty than a bought paste, hence 5 g salt. It can be made the day before and keeps for 3 days in the fridge with cling film pressed onto the surface.