Thai Red Curry Chicken

Today I am trying to make the Thai red curry with chicken from scratch. By scratch I mean I even attempted to make the curry paste at home. You can go ahead and buy the red curry paste from Asian stores but I am little skeptical as I do not eat Shrimp and most of the red curry paste brands listed Shrimp paste in their ingredients. So I decided to make my own. Below is the recipe for Thai red curry Chicken and there is also a link available on how to make red curry paste.
Chicken can be substituted with any kind of meat or sea food. For vegan version substitute chicken stock with vegetable stock and chicken with veggies of your choice like firm Tofu, egg plants, mushrooms, yellow squash,  zucchini and bell Peppers.

Ingredients

2 boneless chicken breasts (about 1 pound)
1/4 cup sliced bamboo shoots (optional)
 1 carrot sliced
1 medium onion chopped
1 small red bell pepper, finely chopped (optional)(I used 2 each of red and yellow small sweet peppers)
3 tbsp red curry paste (see recipe here for homemade paste)
1 can (14 oz) coconut milk
1/2 cup Chicken stock
2 fresh red thai chillies, sliced diagonally(regular green thai chillies will work)
1/2 cup Thai sweet basil leaves, torn
2 tbsp fish sauce
salt for taste
1 1/2 tsp palm sugar (or brown sugar works fine)
Thai sweet basil leaves for garnish(can be substituted with regular basil)
1 tbsp oil

Method

Heat oil in large skillet on medium heat. Add curry paste. stir fry 1 to 1 1/2 minutes or until fragrant. Add the thai chillies and fry for a minute. Then add the coconut milk and chicken stock. Bring to boil on medium-high heat. Stir in brown sugar and fish sauce until well blended. Check the taste and add salt if needed.

Add in the meat, carrot and bamboo shoots and cook for 5 to 7 minutes or until meat is cooked through. Add the onions and bell pepper and cook for 4 to 5 minutes till vegetables are tender-crisp. Remove from heat. Stir in the basil.

Serve over cooked Jasmine Rice or any steamed rice or just enjoy like a soup :).
Garnish with sweet basil leaves before serving.

Note

Do not use the thai red chillies if you want your curry to be at medium spice level.  If you want it mild no thai chillies and just use 2 tbsp of curry paste. I like it spicy so I used 3 tbsp + 2 more tsp of red curry paste.
Thai chillies can be substituted with any spicy chillies based off on your spice level.
You can find canned bamboo shoots at any Asian store or regular grocery store. If you do not have bamboo shoots try using water chestnuts. Else you can ignore that ingredient and go on with the rest of the recipe.
If making the vegan version try to include either Tofu or mushrooms for that meatier texture and taste :).
You can use any veggies of your choice. Baby corn, yellow sqaush, egg plants works well in this dish.