Green Curry with Chicken and Thai Basil

Open the coconut milk without shaking it and spoon the thick cream from the top into a wok. Keep the thin milk beneath for later.

Cook the cream over medium heat for 4 to 6 minutes, until it splits and you can see clear oil separating out. This is called cracking, and a paste fried in that oil tastes completely different from one stirred into milk.

Add the curry paste and fry in the split cream for 2 minutes, until it darkens and smells fragrant rather than sharp.

Add the chicken and turn it in the paste until coated and no longer pink on the outside, about 3 minutes.

Pour in the reserved thin coconut milk, add the fish sauce, palm sugar, aubergines and lime leaves, and simmer for 12 minutes.

Check the chicken is cooked through — 74C/165F at the thickest piece — then taste and adjust with more fish sauce for salt or sugar for balance.

Take the wok off the heat, stir through the chillies and Thai basil, and serve at once with jasmine rice. Basil added off the heat stays green; boiled basil goes grey and bitter.