Spice the Thai up!

Dinner: Mussels with Lemon Grass and Beef with Green Curry

Saturday we had 5 people over for dinner, including us 7. I don't know why, but for some reason I found cooking in larger proportions far more difficult than just for two. I guess it doesn't make sense at all. Anyway, we had Mussels and Beef with Green Curry, served with white rice. It was good, but not super good. Next time we need to add more hot peppers in both dishes and/or double the spices.

Mussels recipe: Mussels with Lemon Grass
Clean two bags of mussels. Heat 1,5 tablespoons vegetable oil in a wok and stir-fry 3 chopped garlic cloves, 1 finely chopped small onions, 3 lemon grass stalks (white part only and finely sliced) a 2.5 cm piece of galangal, cut in 8 slices, 2 finely chopped red hot chillies for about 2 minutes.
Add the mussels and stir fry them for a couple of minutes. Add 1 tablespoon of fishsaus, 1 tablespoon of lime juice and 1/2 teaspoon of sugar.
Cover loosely and cook over a medium heat for about 6 minutes, shaking the wok frequently.
Transfer everything to a boil and ad 25 grams of roughly chopped holy basil leaves.

Beef recipe: Beef with Green Curry
For 7 people we had about 5 lbs of beef. (I don't remember which part of the beef, but I believe it was the shoulder.) Slice the beef in very thin parts of about 4 by 2 cm and set aside.
Put 120 ml coconut cream in a saucepan and simmer over medium heat until the cream separates and a layer of oil forms in the surface (about 5t minutes). Stir the cream if it starts to brown around the edges. Add 4 tablespoons of green curry paste, stir well to combine and cook until fragrant.
Add the beef and stir until all brown. Add about 800 milliliters of coconut milk, 5 tablespoons of fish sauce and 2 tablespoons of palm sugar. Simmer over medium heat for about 5 minutes.
Add 100 grams of julienned galangal and some kaffir (lime) leaves torn into half.
Garnish with basil leaves.