Recipes: Fire in the hole!

Today marks another successful fast-day on the 5:2 diet and has been finished with a delicious (if I do say so myself), low-calorie meal.

On today's menu: Thai Green Curry with prawns!

Now I'm not a big fish person, unlike my boyfriend (for some of you this may conjure visions of the creature from the black lagoon, but less excitingly, I mean I don't enjoy the flavour), with the exception of sushi and fish'n'chips there are few fish dishes I will eat and enjoy. I don't mind prawns though, depending on what they're in, and considering that they are a fairly low-calorie protein source they're perfect for diets.

I am however, a huge fan of spice!! I've grown up with cream-cheese and Cholula hot sauce sandwiches in my lunch box and my tolerance and enjoyment of chili heat has only grown over the years and Thai Green Curry is one of my favourite dishes.
I would normally make this with chicken but considering that 500g of breast is 860 kcal (compared to 526 kcal for prawns) and coconut milk adds a lot to the calorie count, I'm saving chicken for later in the week.
Whilst we're still on the topic of spice, I realised I made a bit of a mistake while cooking this dish. When I say I like a hot green curry I kid you not, I'm talking lips humming, nose running, occasionally-makes-you-cough kind of hot. My mother-in-law does not like spice at all, though she did enjoy green curry a surprising amount last time I made it (albeit a watered down version). This time I may have forgotten who I was cooking for and used the normal amount of paste, until I tasted it and found it to be hot enough for me... I managed to rectify this slightly by adding a little water to the sauce, thinning the flavour a bit. Oops.

This is a fairly flexible recipe, you can add whatever vegetables you fancy and whatever meat (although I do recommend chicken, particularly thigh meat as it stays juicier) so you can adapt it to what you can find in your area, although it's fantastic with aubergine and this is the traditional vegetable to add.
I would normally make this with a selection of the unusual types of aubergines we could find at our local exotic grocer in Brighton, and sometimes add fresh shiitake mushrooms (if I can get them) which have a wonderful chewy, meaty texture.
Little mange tout stay beautifully crisp and sweet if added to this at the last minute and green beans (as I used today) perfume the curry with their light, beany flavour.

Prawn Thai Green Curry: Serves 5

500g Prawns = 526 kcal

400ml coconut milk = 720 kcal

500ml chicken stock (from a cube) = 20 kcal

1 large aubergine = 87 kcal

250g mushrooms = 40 kcal

250g green beans = 78 kcal

50g green curry paste = 70 kcal

1 tbsp sunflower oil = 120 kcal

1.5 tsp sugar = 24 kcal

total = 1685 kcal

Per portion = 337 kcal

• Prepare your prawns in whatever way necessary (peeling, deveining etc).   
• Heat oil in a large pan, stir fry the paste until fragrant then add half the coconut milk.
• Add the prawns to the pan and cook briefly.
• Add the rest of the coconut milk and the stock.
• Chop the aubergine into large chunks, half the mushrooms (quarter for bigger ones) and chop the ends off the beans.
• Add the vegetables and simmer until softened.
• Add the sugar and season to taste.

Us dieters ate this on its own like a soup, the non-dieters ate this with rice. (I would normally serve it with sticky, sweet, delicious coconut rice which you can find recipes for online) Keep in mind that the calorie count per portion was probably fairly generous as there was more than exactly 5 portions of this.

It's hot, fresh, filling and full of goodness! I would eat green curry once a week if I could and never get bored. This comes with my highest recommendations! Enjoy!