John Torode's Thai red prawn curry

Life’s too short to wait for great-tasting food - so if you’re tight on time and want something delicious for dinner, look no further. John’s showstopping Thai prawn curry is easy to prepare, quick to pop on the hob and ready to eat in half an hour.

Thai red prawn curry

Serves: 4

You can either make your own curry paste or you can use a good quality ready made paste. If you use a ready made paste you may need to add more seasoning.

Ingredients

100ml vegetable oil

50g thin rice noodles

100g (100ml) coconut cream

50ml vegetable oil

2 tbsp red curry paste, from a tub or make your own

2 x 400ml tins coconut milk

100g palm sugar

15ml fish sauce

6 lime leaves, torn

2 sticks lemongrass, bashed

1 thumb size piece of galangal or root ginger, sliced

300g firm tofu

1 kg large prawns, peeled and line removed

200g sugar snap peas

2 bok choy, split into quarters

Handful beansprouts

Handful coriander, picked

Handful Thai basil, picked

Cooked rice, to serve

Method

• Heat a wok with 100ml vegetable oil and fry the noodles, a few at a time. They will puff up and go crisp very quickly but cook only a few at a time or it will not work.

• Melt the coconut cream and 50ml vegetable oil together until they bubble and almost start to brown. Add the red curry paste and fry until fragrant, stirring all the time.

• Add the coconut milk, palm sugar and fish sauce and bring to the boil. Now add the torn lime leaves, lemongrass and galangal and cook for a good 20 minutes, stirring, until the flavour intensifies.

• Add the tofu and cook for a further 5 minutes, then add the prawns and cook for 4 minutes. Take off the heat and add the sugar snaps

• Taste and season with more fish sauce or sugar if need be. Pour the curry into a serving dish with bok choy in the bottom, the heat from the sauce will be enough to cook it, sprinkle over the bean sprouts, Thai basil and coriander and serve with rice.