One of the things I brought back with me from Seattle after college was a tub of Mae Ploy brand yellow curry paste. I could have left it with my sister, but she agreed with me that she wouldn’t use it. She doesn’t like how cooking it makes the house smell. I think there’s little else more appetizing than spicy curry scents wafting through the air.

Curry sauce is fantastic for using up odds and ends in the veggie and meat compartments of a fridge. Cut everything all up into one-inch squares and add it to the curry paste and coconut milk mixture. Let the vegetables and meat soften and cook in the sauce and serve it all next to a nice jasmine or basmati fragrant rice. It’s so simple.

I had Korean roommates in college who would make Japanese and Korean-style curries. They always added potatoes and carrots to the sauce. Even though I like making Thai curry better thank Korean or Japanese curry, I still add the potatoes and carrots. It’s nice to bite into a big chunk of potato.

I was being kind of lazy last night and didn’t feel like cooking the rice separately from the curry. Some shudder at the idea of mixing rice with anything, sometimes it’s nice. Anyway, I fished all the veggies and chicken out of the curry sauce and added some rice and water to it. I turned it up to boiling, stirred the rice, took it off the heat and let it sit for 20 minutes or so. I stirred the rice again, then added all the veggies and chicken back in and it was like a Thai curry casserole. A one-pot meal. So good.

I’ve looked for Mae Ploy curry paste all over Wenatchee and spotted it once a few years ago at the now defunct Asian market in the Victorian Village, but haven’t seen it since. However, yesterday I noticed that Fred Meyer in East Wenatchee carries Thai Kitchen curry paste jars. I’ve never tasted Thai Kitchen curry paste, so I can’t recommend it, but if you can’t make it to Central Market in Shoreline or Uwajimaya in Seattle for Mae Ploy, it’s worth a try. If you’re really into the Martha Stewart thing, you can attempt to make your own curry paste. I’m sure I’ll attempt it sometime.

Good luck and let me know if you can find Mae Ploy curry paste in NCW, mine’s just past its use-by date.

Update:

I found several kinds of Mae Ploy curry paste at Oriental Mini Mart at 307 S. Mission St. in Wenatchee on Monday. Nice to know we can find the good stuff here. The store has all sorts of Asian ingredients as well as a few Mexican food specialty items.