A Favored Curry -- Vegetables And Tofu Brighten A Classic Of Thai Cuisine

THOSE WHO HAVE dined in the Thai restaurants that have blossomed in the Puget Sound area during the past decade will have noticed that the Thais have a penchant for color coding their curries - red curry, yellow curry, green curry.

It is the green that is perhaps Thai cuisine's most creative contribution to the domain of curries. Curries in Thailand - and the rest of Southeast Asia - are acquired from Indian cuisine; the curry pastes are actually relatives of the Indian masalas. Southeast Asian curries differ from Indian curries in the larger number of herbs used and in waiting till the end of the cooking process to add vegetables, keeping them crisp. The cooking process often uses the wok, borrowed from China, the other great cultural influence on Southeast Asia.

The Thai name for green curry translates literally as sweet green curry, though it is neither truly green nor sweet. Its color is more a yellow-green, derived mostly from fresh green chili, whose presence in the curry paste is hardly conducive to sweetness. The color can actually be enhanced: A Thai chef in California adds pureed Romaine lettuce to make the curry greener.

But the spiciness cannot be reduced, except by making your own curry paste with less chili. This is an arduous process, but one that produces incomparable results. Local restaurants compromise by using less commercial curry paste and by adding more sugar, sometimes producing a version that is far removed from green curry as it is made in Thailand.

Classically, green curry is made with chicken and eggplant. In contrast to the skinned breast meat used in local Thai restaurants, pieces of chicken including bones and skin are used in Thailand, adding depth of flavor to the curry. The eggplant is either a pea-sized, bright green eggplant, which has a slightly bitter flavor that plays intriguingly in the mix, or a round white eggplant that is available locally in Asian markets.

Served with steamed jasmine rice, green curry is savory and flavorful. Its elegant appearance and sensuous qualities have made it the curry of choice for festive occasions in the village, as well as a favorite for serving in Thailand's royal palace.

Homemade green-curry paste includes a range of ingredients, with all the herbs fresh: green chili, garlic, shallots, cilantro (leaves, stalks and roots), galanga (related to ginger), lemon-grass stalks, kaffir lime peel, prepared shrimp paste, coriander and cumin seeds, and peppercorns. Commercial curry pastes, as used in the accompanying recipe, probably include only some of these. Those interested in making their own Thai curry pastes may consult Nancie McDermott's paperback "Real Thai" (Chronicle Books, 1992), the coffee-table volume "Thailand the Beautiful Cookbook" (Weldon Owen Inc., 1995) or Victor Sodsook's creative compilation, "True Thai" (William Morrow & Co., 1995). As with all curries, recipes differ with regard to the number of ingredients and their proportions.

Like another green-hued mixture, Italian pesto, green curry complements a variety of main ingredients. Besides chicken and eggplant, green curry may be made with prawns or with a mix of vegetables. Our recipe uses a colorful trio of East Asian vegetables and tofu - ingredients available year-round.

This green curry can become a vegetarian or vegan entree if made with vegetable stock or water instead of chicken stock, and if you substitute salt for fish sauce, which along with soy sauce replaces salt in Southeast Asian cuisine.

Joy Ittikiatisak, owner of two Thai restaurants in Seattle - Noodle Studio on Capitol Hill (whose menu includes many uncommon regional Thai dishes) and Kinnaree in Magnolia Village - has created a recipe that is easy to prepare, uses well-chosen ingredients, and remains close to the Thai original.

As curries are always eaten with a large quantity of rice, ladle the green curry over steamed white rice (preferably jasmine rice). If you'd like to eat it as the Thais do, use a fork and spoon, the fork in the left hand pushing the rice and curry onto the spoon in the right hand. (Chopsticks are generally used only with noodle dishes.)

The sweetness of the coconut milk and the blandness of tofu dilute the spiciness of this green curry, and its bright colors recall the verdant tropical land from which it comes.

Andrew Jayasundera, a publications specialist and freelance food writer, was a longtime resident of Southeast Asia. Dean Rutz is a Seattle Times staff photographer.

Thai Green Curry with Vegetables (Serves 2 as an entree; 4 as a side dish)

Small amount of oil

1/2 teaspoon minced fresh garlic 2 tablespoons green curry paste # 3 cups coconut milk # 1 cup stock (chicken or vegetable) 4 kaffir lime leaves # 1 large or 1 1/2 medium heads of broccoli, broken into florets 1 large or 1 1/2 medium carrots, peeled, split into half lengthwise and sliced 3 shiitake mushrooms, stemmed, wiped with a damp paper towel and sliced about 1/4-inch thick 1 Anaheim chili, sliced

1/2 pound extra-firm tofu, diced into 1-inch cubes 2 tablespoons light (colored) palm sugar # , sliced (or substitute 1 tablespoon brown sugar) 1 tablespoon Thai fish sauce # 12 holy basil leaves #

1. Heat wok and coat center with a little oil. Saute garlic for a minute. Mix in curry paste and saute for another minute. Add about 1 1/2 cups of coconut milk, mix well, and simmer uncovered for 10 minutes or longer, until the color deepens and the oil separates. 2. Add remaining coconut milk, stock and lime leaves. Mix well and simmer uncovered for about half an hour. 3. Meanwhile, prepare broccoli, carrots, mushrooms, chili and tofu; set aside. 4. Add palm sugar and fish sauce to the curry and mix well. Add basil leaves and stir. Add vegetables and tofu and cook for three minutes or until broccoli is mostly cooked but still crisp.

Note: All quantities may be adjusted for taste. The cooking instructions in this recipe are for a wok. If unavailable, use a small frying pan for cooking the curry paste and then transfer to a saucepan. Use medium heat. To ensure even cooking, cut large broccoli florets so that all florets are of similar size. Removing the seeds from the Anaheim chili will make the curry less spicy.

# Coconut milk, green curry paste, holy basil leaves, lime leaves, palm sugar and fish sauce can be found in Asian markets. The brand of canned coconut milk and curry paste we used was Mae Ploy.