Thai Green Curry Sauce with Tofu, Shrimp, and Vegetables

I've made this so many times. It speaks to me. The first five or so times I made green curry it was terrible. Flavorless. Thin. But I held on. Don't waste the fresh veggies on winging it. Use this recipe.






Makes at least 8 large servings.
Prep: 20 mins
Cook Time: 25 minutes

Ingredients
1. 1 20oz can coconut cream (Don't substitute milk. Get cream)
2. 1/3 of container of Maesri green curry paste (roughly 5 tablespoons of paste) (Note: the dish gets spicier the longer it’s in your frig, so you may want to prepare it a little mild if you're not going to finish it within a day or so.)
3. 1/2-1/3 cup fish sauce (salty—use to taste)
4. 1 large zucchini
5. 1 large sweet potato
6. 1 large bundle of whole bok choy
7. 1 onion
8. 3 blocks of tofu
9.      1/2 pound shrimp
10. 1/3 cup canola  or peanut oil (optional ... but it really makes a difference)
11. 2 cans worth of water (use the empty coconut cream can)
12. 20+ fresh basil leaves (I go crazy with my basil. I think it’s nearly impossible to use too many.)
13. 2 or 3 fresh bay leaves (optional)
14.   1 cup basmati, jasmine, or sushi rice (I prefer sushi)

Directions:

• Prep: chop all vegetables into small pieces. I use almost all of the stem of the bok choy because it cooks down well and helps flavor the dish. 
• Peel and de-vein shrimp.
• Pour coconut cream into a large deep sauce pan. A soup pot is a good alternative if you don’t have a deep sauce pan. Pour two cans worth of water into pan. Add curry paste, oil, bay leaves, basil, fish sauce, bok choy and chopped sweet potato. The potato takes the longest to cook. Bring sauce to boil, then turn down to medium and let cook for at least 15 minutes. You can overcook the potatoes; they will break down. And it is possible to cook the sauce at too high of a heat, and the coconut cream will break down, and you don’t want that either. (Those are two mistakes I’ve made.)
• start rice
• While the sauce and rice are cooking, dry fry the tofu. Dry fry just means sitting slices or chunks in a pan on medium to high heat and trying to dry it out. It helps harden the tofu. You don’t need to use any oil. I sometimes baste the pieces with another wetter curry paste if I have it lying around. And you can skip this step and just put the tofu into the mixture toward the end.
• After the curry has cooked for fifteen minutes, try a potato. If it tastes almost done, then put in the zucchini, onion, and tofu. Continue cooking on medium for 5 minutes. 
• Turn heat to low or warm. Mix in shrimp. The heat from the sauce will cook them. 
• Remove bay leaves before serving. They’re easy to find. 
• Serve over rice.