Thai Yellow Curry with Shrimp

I received an awesome gift from my sister for Christmas: three cans of what she claimed were the best thai curry pastes you can buy in Ottawa (and I presume Toronto as well). I'd only ever used the little glass Thai Kitchen jars so I was excited to try something new. I was inspired by the January issue of Bon Appetit magazine's Thai Chicken Curry recipe and went to work.

In a large pan, I heated up some oil and put about 3/4 of the can in to cook for a minute or two. Then I threw in an onion, two carrots, and one green pepper, and stir-fried those for about 10 minutes.

Then I added one can of coconut milk (not the light stuff either - the full fat kind) and 1 cup of water, and let it simmer and mix for about 7-8 minutes. Then I threw in some broccoli and continued cooking for about 6-7 minutes. I was craving veggies, obviously! Actually that's one of my pet peeves when ordering thai curries at restaurants - they usually don't include any vegetables, so you're stuck with meat or tofu, sauce, and white rice. Not the most healthy meal... but sooo good.

Lastly I threw in a pound of tiger shrimp I had bought on sale (of course) and cooked for 3-4 minutes - the shrimp was already cooked so it just needed heating. I served the curry over some brown rice, and wished I had some cilantro for garnish. It was really good - the thai paste definitely was better than the stuff I'd been using. It tasted like eating in a restaurant, seriously. We went back for seconds - it didn't last long. Who needs The Friendly Thai when you can make your own?