I’d probably do a red thai curry. So tasty but also pretty easy. Thai curry paste needs to be used up within a week of opening it, so when I do open one, I get a lot of practice. Even the ones that turned out not so great were still delicious (one time I used a bag of frozen seafood that had a strong fishy flavour, another time I burnt it a bit before adding the coconut milk and deglazed the burnt stuff instead of switching to a new pan, both of those ended up being “delicious curry plus kinda offputting extra thing”).
If you do try making a thai curry, IMO the critical ingredients are the curry paste, coconut milk, and carrots. First two more essential than the last, but it’s just not the same without carrots.
Also, learn how to balance the flavour groups. Even just making sure they are all present to some degree will enhance your cooking results, for curries and everything else. It’s the thing that has transformed a lot of “it’s alright I guess” dishes into “this is really good”.
Downside of learning how to balance flavours is that you’ll notice it when restaurants fail to do so. But plus side is you can just do it yourself with salt, sugar, vinegar/lemon juice, and soy sauce, which many restaurants will bring you if you ask. Just taste it before adding anything or you’re not balancing but just adding seasonings to something that may or may not need it.
I’d probably do a red thai curry. So tasty but also pretty easy. Thai curry paste needs to be used up within a week of opening it, so when I do open one, I get a lot of practice. Even the ones that turned out not so great were still delicious (one time I used a bag of frozen seafood that had a strong fishy flavour, another time I burnt it a bit before adding the coconut milk and deglazed the burnt stuff instead of switching to a new pan, both of those ended up being “delicious curry plus kinda offputting extra thing”).
If you do try making a thai curry, IMO the critical ingredients are the curry paste, coconut milk, and carrots. First two more essential than the last, but it’s just not the same without carrots.
Also, learn how to balance the flavour groups. Even just making sure they are all present to some degree will enhance your cooking results, for curries and everything else. It’s the thing that has transformed a lot of “it’s alright I guess” dishes into “this is really good”.
Downside of learning how to balance flavours is that you’ll notice it when restaurants fail to do so. But plus side is you can just do it yourself with salt, sugar, vinegar/lemon juice, and soy sauce, which many restaurants will bring you if you ask. Just taste it before adding anything or you’re not balancing but just adding seasonings to something that may or may not need it.