Darley Street Thai Chuu-Chii (Red Curry) of Coffin Bay Scall
Submitted by minger
Thai red curry scallops (Chuu-Chii) with homemade curry paste, coconut cream, kaffir lime leaves, and fish sauce. Includes a from-scratch paste recipe using galangal, lemongrass, and shrimp paste.
YIELD
4 servingsPREP
20 minCOOK
15 minREADY
35 minStraight from Sydney’s legendary Darley Street Thai restaurant, this Chuu-Chii curry showcases plump scallops in a rich, fragrant red curry sauce built entirely from scratch.
The homemade curry paste is the heart of it: dried red chillies, lemongrass, galangal, shrimp paste, and kaffir lime zest get pounded into a fine, aromatic paste. Make extra and store it in the fridge for weeks.
Coconut cream gets split over high heat until the oil separates, then the paste fries in that oil until the kitchen fills with an intoxicating perfume. Scallops go in at the very end for a quick simmer, and shredded kaffir lime leaves, fresh chilli, and coriander finish the bowl. Serve it over jasmine rice and let the sweet-sour-salty balance do its thing.
Chef Tips
- Don’t shake the can of coconut cream. Use the thick solids at the top for splitting. The watery liquid underneath gets added later as the coconut milk.
- Process the curry paste for the full 10 minutes. A smooth paste gives a silky sauce. Chunky paste gives gritty curry.
- Scallops cook in minutes. Add them last and don’t overcook or they turn rubbery.
- Palm sugar can be swapped for brown sugar in a pinch, though the flavor is slightly different.
Ingredients
Directions
Though the recipe may seem dauntingly lengthy, most of it is simply a long list of ingredients for red curry paste, which can be made in quantity and stored in a container in the fridge for 3 -4 weeks for further use.
Grate the limes for zest while they are stir frozen.
In a mortar and pestle or spice grinder, grind to a powder 10 white peppercorns and a few sheaves of mace.
Roast 1 teaspoon of Thai shrimp paste by zapping it in a microwave oven or putting it on a little piece of foil under the grill.
Put the pepper-mace mixture and the shrimp paste in a blender and add 3- 5 long red dried chillies, deseeded, washed and chopped, 4 cloves of true shallots, (or substitute the same quantity of Spanish onion), ½ stalk of lemon grass, sliced, 1 teaspoon galangal. peeled and chopped, ½ teaspoon kaffir lime zest, 1 tablespoon of coriander root, scraped and chopped, ½ teaspoon of salt and a little water.
Process to a very fine paste.
This may take up to 10 minutes.
Transfer to a storage jar.
In a medium-size pan, boil 250 mL coconut cream over high heat, stirring constantly, until the oil separates out, about 3 to 5 minutes. (If using canned coconut cream, don’t shake the can -use the solid mass of coconut at the top of the can, plus as much of the rest as you need to make up 250mL.
If it doesn’t separate within 5 minutes, add a tablespoon of oil.) Add 2 to 3 tablespoons of red curry paste and fry for 5 minutes, stirring, until fragrant.
Add 1 tablespoon fish sauce, ½ tablespoon palm sugar and fry until colour deepens.
Add 24 Coffin Bay scallops (12 if other dishes will be served simultaneously) and 125 mL coconut milk.
Check for sweet-sour balance.
Throw in 5 kaffir lime leaves, shredded, 1 large fresh red chilli, julienned, and 2 tablespoons of either coriander or basil leaves.
Serve with jasmine rice.
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