Mince Beef Green Thai Curry, Packed Full of Veggies

I often plan in advance what I will be cooking and I got some mince out the freezer, as I was due to have a late night at work and thought a bolognaise would be something quick and easy to rustle up when I came home. I have mentioned before how I can’t bear to waste food and when I opened the fridge and saw that we had some quite sad looking mange tout, and asparagus that was so good that it needed eating right away.  Because of this the bolognaise no longer seemed suitable and I just use up what was needed.

I had never used mince in a Thai dish before, and to be honest I did think it might be kind of weird, but it worked really well, infact it was a perfect combination. Sam has also been to Thailand a couple of times and assured me that mince was a plenty out there, so I didn’t feel too absurd with the ingredients choices.  Also, if you are looking to make the paste yourself, just search Green Thai Curry Paste on Homemade with Mess and you will find a recipe to kick the butt out of anything you would buy from the supermarket.

I would have shared this recipe with you sooner, as it is too good to keep from you for too long, however we have been having difficulties with our internet. We have just changed providers and the new router is playing silly buggers in finding any signal. Being internetless doesn’t bother me; however I can’t believe how sad it has made me not being able to blog. I have gone to the extent of bringing my work dongle home (which is sooooo slow,) just so I can feed my blogging addiction, and it feels so great! I think I should probably join a ‘bloggers anonymous’ group as I am officially very obsessed.

Serves 4

–          1 tbsp oil

–          1 green pepper finely sliced

–          ½ red onion – finely sliced

–          210g steak mince

–          1 leek – finely chopped

–          1 red chilli – finely chopped

–          1 stalk of lemon grass – finely chopped

–          1 inch piece ginger – minced

–          1 tbsp sugar

–          1 tbsp Thai green curry paste

–          2 tbsp fish sauce

–          120g mange tout

–          250ml hot vegetable or chicken stock

–          400ml light coconut milk 

Heat the oil in a large wok or frying pan and fry the pepper onion and the mince until the mince has browned and the onions softened slightly

Add the leek, chilli, lemon grass and ginger and fry off for a minute before stirring in the curry paste, sugar and fish sauce.

Fry the paste for 2 minutes, continuously stirring, and then add the mange tout and the stock. Bring the mixture to the boil and then simmer for 3-4 minutes.

Add the asparagus and the coconut milk and simmer for a further 5 minutes, or until the asparagus is cooked to your taste.

Serve hot with some sticky coconut rice.