I had my first Vietnamese cookbook bought for me this Christmas. A truly amazing book Secrets of the Red Lantern: Stories and Recipes from the Heart
Ngon (tasty in Vietnamese) is probably the best way to describe this dish. Ca Ri Chay is a turmeric and lemon grass vegetarian curry, a real staple of Vietnamese cuisine and the recipe used was very traditional. Well no I’ll rephrase that, it was very traditional until I went and added some king prawns.
I would have been quite happy to leave this dish as the vegetarian meal it was intended to be, but in order to keep the family peace and use up some of the large Christmas shopping goodies the prawns went in. I have to admit though that they were a very tasty addition.
As the recipe was based around a pre-bought red curry powder it made the meal very quick and simple to prepare, a very express meal. Although if you wanted to spend a day in full chill-out kitchen mode you could make the curry blend yourself, I didn’t and used a paste bought from The Spice Shop.
I expected the curry to be very spicy, similar to Thai curries but it wasn’t so hot, just a warming melody of spices which made the mouth sing with each bite.
The Recipe & Cooks Notes:
Curry Paste:
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4 long dried chillies, soaked in hot water for 5 minutes, finely chopped
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1 lemon grass stem, white part only, finely chopped
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6 coriander roots, scraped clean
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6 garlic cloves, finely chopped
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1 tablespoon ground galangal
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1 tablespoon ground turmeric
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1 1/2 tablespoons red curry powder (‘Ayam’ brand)
Curry:
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4 tablespoons vegetable oil
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50 g (1 3/4 oz) palm sugar (jaggery)
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1 tablespoon tamarind paste
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1 white onion, cut in half and sliced
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200 g (7 oz) potatoes, cut into 1 cm (1/2 in) cubes
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2 x 540 ml (19 fl oz) tins coconut cream
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2 teaspoons salt
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200 g (7 oz) Japanese pumpkin (winter squash), peeled and cut into 1 cm (1/2 in) pieces
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200 g (7 oz) button mushrooms, quartered
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100 g (3 1/2 oz) baby corn
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1 bunch bok choy (pak choy), quartered
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100 g (3 1/2 oz) snow peas (mange tout)
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100 g (3 1/2 oz) long, purple (Japanese) eggplants (aubergines), quartered length-ways, cut into 4 cm (1 1/2 in) lengths, then fried until crisp
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100 g (3 1/2 oz) chopped roasted peanuts
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100 g (3 1/2 oz) fried red Asian shallots
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100 g (3 1/2 oz) bean sprouts
To make the curry paste, pound the chili, lemon grass, coriander and garlic in a mortar, then stir through the galangal, turmeric and curry powder. Heat the oil in a large saucepan over medium heat, then add the curry paste, palm sugar and tamarind paste and fry for 2 minutes. Add the sliced onion and potato, stir to combine, then continue to fry for another 2 minutes. Add the coconut cream, 250 ml (9 fl oz/1 cup) water and salt, bring to the boil, then reduce and simmer for 5 minutes. Add the pumpkin and simmer for another 5 minutes, then add the mushrooms, corn, bok choy and snow peas and simmer for a further 5 minutes. Add the eggplant and stir through.
Ladle the curry into a large serving dish and garnish with the peanuts, shallots, and bean sprouts. Serve with steamed jasmine rice. 
Cooks note:
* I added butternut squash, not pumpkin.
* I added petit pois not snow peas
* I omitted the beansprouts (I didn’t have any) and the peanuts (at my mums request)
* I used a combination of white and sweet potatoes.
