This is Nigel Slatter’s recipe and he says he has been tweaking it over several years. Buy green chilles with the heat you want. Tastes great, creamy, hot and vibrant.

Curry Paste

• 4 lemongrass outer stalks removed, fine chopped.
• 10 green chillies seeded and chopped.
• 6 cloves garlic peeled and chopped.
• 6cm ginger, peeled and chopped.
• 3 shallots peeled and chopped.
• 4 tbsp chopped coriander
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• 1 tsp ground coriander
• 1 tsp chopped lime zest
• 2 tbsp lime juice
• 2 tbsp Thai fish sauce
• ½ tsp ground black peppercorns

For the curry

• 1 kg Chicken breasts
• 3 tbsp Vegetable oil
• 300g chestnut mushrooms, quartered.
• 2 x 400ml tins coconut milk
• 400ml Chicken stock
• 1 tbsp Thai fish sauce
• ½ tsp crushed black pepper
• Hand full of Basil, shredded.
• Hand full of Coriander (leaves and stalks,) roughly chopped.

Fine chop the lemongrass. Rough chop everything else. Then get all the paste ingredients into a blender and blitz into a smooth thick paste. Add a bit of water to help.

Cut chicken into thin strips. Add some vegetable oil to pan and brown chicken over high heat. Cook in batches to avoid overcrowding pan. Finally, at the mushrooms and brown.

Add stock, coconut milk, pepper, and fish sauce to mushrooms and bring to a simmer. Add ¾ of the curry paste and bring to boil and then simmer for 10 mins. Add the chicken. Then before serving add remaining paste and cook for 5 mins. Then add the chopped herbs.

Serve with jasmine rice.