Green Chicken Curry (Thailand)
Well it’s pork curry but I subbed it with chicken of course. In this book, there’s a recipe on how to make the paste from scratch (you will have to buy the book for the detailed ingredients) but I will show you what I did below.
Ingredients for the paste
My only addition is that I added 10 more bird's eye chillies to the paste and even then it’s still quite a mild curry. So if you like your curry spicy then adjust your chillies as you see fit.
You can use the blender but roll up those sleeves and pound it for the gorgeous earthy colour (you will not get this colour if you blend it).
Now for the green curry itself.
Ingredients:
2 cups of coconut milk (one cup thick, one cup thin)
3 tblsp. green curry paste
1 cup of water/ light chicken stock
1 tblsp. fish sauce
1 tspn. palm sugar
500g pork/ chicken breast (diced quarter inch)
4 medium sized green round eggplant (1 subbed this for 1 cup of pea sized eggplant- terung pipit)
½ cup Thai basil
2 red chillies for garnish
"There’s a lot of 'Aha!' moments for me with this book. "
Method:
Pour in the thick coconut milk into the pan with lemongrass and cook it on medium heat until oil comes out (pecah minyak)
You must make sure that the milk curdles like this
Put in paste, fry for 2 minutes (constantly stir so it won't burn)
It should now resemble the above
Add in chicken, coconut milk, stock, fish sauce and palm sugar. Mix until it bubbles.
Add in eggplant (cook 10 minutes).
Add basil at end, cook it a few seconds so that the leaves turn dark green.
Chef Says:
Best thing is that there’s no oil in the recipe! It comes from the thick coconut milk that ‘pecah minyak’. This recipe requires you to fry part of the santan first until its natural oil oozes out. Only then do you put in the spice paste, then meat then the rest of the santan. Remember when you are fying the thick coconut milk to stir often so it would not burn.
In this book even the small pictures matter so pay attention to them. For this recipe Danhi shows this curdling and look of the santan when oil breaks out in photos.
Again the how and why part is great. It answers your questions before you ask them. It even has timing and interesting tips like when exactly to put in your fresh basil so you get the most flavour out of them.
So the verdict?
Ingredients: There's a lot of them, typical for most gravied dishes in this region so it can be daunting for a novice. However, Danhi takes time to take you through them. Also by providing enough information on them, it makes you understand why we use the things we use and why we do the things we do. It’s deconstructing cooking I suppose.
Method: The methods in this book are excellent. Good illustrations and explanations. It does not take for granted you know certain things neither does it talk down to you.
Taste: Sedap! For both dishes. I do like my curry spicier but like I stated before, I made allowances for it. And here’s the thing, the more you cook, the more you will understand your own palate and that is the building block for great cooking.
In a nutshell: I found this book a real page turner. I think it's a real labour of love for Danhi and to think that this is the distillation of almost 20 years of his life! You have to give the man credit. And even if you think he can’t possibly teach you anything about Malaysian cooking, then he can certainly educate you on Thai and Vietnamese cuisine. So yes folks… I say buy it- a worthy addition for your kitchen-shelf. You can get this book at Kinokuniya, KLCC for about RM151.00 and MPH in Mid-Valley for about RM144.00. You can also buy it on-line at Amazon.com or at their website
http://www.southeastasianflavors.com. They also have videos related to the book on the website.
Best thing about trying out new recipes is the feasting afterwards
.JPG)
You must be logged in to post comments