Green Thai curry vegetable ribbons

It’s been a good week for Carla Bruni and Hugh Jackman.

It’s been a bad week for Peter Andre (poor lamb.  But what was he thinking marrying her?!?)

It’s been a good week for Austria.

It’s been (another) bad week for Zimbabwe.

It’s been a good week for Cooksister the Homeowner (OMG, could I love my new house any more??)

It’s been a bad week for Cooksister the Blogger (I still love you all!!  I’m sorry I have been so scarce!!)  In fact on the topic of a bad week, I discovered this week that since mid-March, Nourish (the service that provides the weekly Cooksister newsletters to which some of you subscribe) has not been functioning and now appears to have closed down without telling its users.  So my apologies to all of you that have been denied your newsletters – I am working on finding another provider and I’ll let you know when it’s sorted…

I must confess that it’s also not been the best week for cooking.  Every day after work I’ve either been working on the house, meeting with contractors, or at the gym.  Creative cooking has taken, shall we say, a back seat for now and I have found myself falling back on quick and easy favourites, or foraging in the fridge for random leftovers until inspiration struck.  Probably not my finest culinary hour, but there you go!

It is only when you cook for two (or one), that you realise how the supermarket world is geared towards portions for 4 or more people.  This means that I often had half a pack of this or half a tin of that left over, and in these credit crunched times, I’m sure as hell not throwing any half-tins of anything edible out!   One of the things that most often lurks in my fridge as a half tin is coconut milk.  When I make my easy Thai green chicken curry for me and Nick, there is invariably a third to a half a tin left.  It doesn’t keep all that long, so I usually have to think of something to do with it pretty quick – and that was the dilemma facing me this week.  What to do with a little leftover coconut milk and some vegetables that needed eating?

The answer was a huge hit with both of us:  vegetable ribbons in a green Thai curry sauce, served to accompany quickly pan-fried medallions of pork loin.  It’s pretty, it’s quick, it’s delicious… and it takes care of that pesky half-tin

GREEN THAI CURRY VEGETABLE RIBBONS (serves 2)

For printable recipe, click here.

Ingredients:

2 Tbsp sunflower oil
2 carrots, peeled
2 small zucchini
1 small red pepper
1 clove garlic, crushed
1 Tbsp green Thai curry paste
dark soy sauce
about 150-200ml coconut milk

Method

Crush the garlic, slice the pepper very thinly, and using a vegetable peeler, cut the carrots and zucchini into ribbons lengthways.

Heat the oil in a large pan of wok, add the garlic and sautee till aromatic.  Then add the pepper strips and sautee for about 3 minutes.  Add the carrot strips and zucchini and sautee briefly, just until they begin to soften.

Add the green Thai curry paste and stir to mix thoroughly.  Add a splash of soy sauce and allow the liquid to reduce.

Finally, add the coconut milk, stir and heat through until starting to bubble.  Serve immediately.

I could imagine this would go well with grilled fish or chicken, but my vegetables were delicious with couscous and pan-fried pork medallions.  The choice is yours!