Thai one on

While visiting my brother and sister-in-law, Jeff and Sara, in Chicago, I made a point of eating good food. When I arrived in Chicago, my brother had a hot spinach pizza from Edwardo's waiting in the car. My last night there, we had our Iron Chef rematch. And somewhere in the middle of it all, we decided to make Thai food.

The inspiration for Thai came from a stop in a random Asian grocery store. Whenever I find one of these, I go inside to see if they sell frozen roti. Sure enough, this particular store had the brand of Roti I used to buy back in Arlington. (Note: Jeff--let me know what that brand is. There's still a bag in your freezer.) I bought two packages of roti for, like, $1.50 apiece, each package containing six roti.

For those who aren't in the know, Roti is an Asian flatbread. I've had it at Thai restaurants and even used to go to FlatTop just to get it. Roti is divinely flaky, meaning it's most likely loaded w/butter and/or other fats. I always sopped up yellow Thai curry sauce w/roti at FlatTop, so I associate it w/Thai food. Once I had the frozen packages of roti in hand, I automatically felt required to make some curry.

Now, I've never made Thai curry from scratch before. I bought some bags of yellow and massaman curry at a food show last year, and they function as simmer sauces; really easy, really quick, really delicious. (CurrySimple is good stuff. I froze it in little portioned off bags and was then able to make about six portions of Thai food over the course of a few months.) But since I didn't have lazy man's curry, I had no choice but to make it from scratch.

Even before I got to Chicago, my brother was like, "Yooooo. I want to make larb." I don't know when he'd first tried larb, but I get the impression it was recent enough that he was still reveling in the joy one feels upon eating it for the first time. An ex introduced me to larb, which I took for ground chicken, red onion, cilantro, and mint. After reading a recipe, though, I found out there was much more to it than just that handful of ingredients.

Given that Jeff didn't have fish sauce in the house, nor did he have lemongrass or Thai chilis or galangal or shrimp paste or most of the necessary produce, we decided to find a nearby Asian market to scrap up the ingredients we needed. We were mostly successful, apart from not being able to find shrimp paste or galangal (whatever that is). But we did find any number of fermented bean products in cans, 'cause, ya know, those are pantry staples.

Back in the apartment, preparation for our Thai feast began. Sara planted herself at the dining room table, surrounded by a lush garden of cilantro, mint, and scallions. As if she wasn't cute enough, check her out chopping up the green in her sunglasses. She said the herbs (maybe she was cutting onions, too?) were making her tear up!

Back in the kitchen, Jeff and I prepared our respective dishes. Wielding a Wusthof knife, Jeff minced up all sorts of stuff for his larb. Observe his superior knife skills:

I was in charge of the raw chicken. For Jeff's larb, I chopped two chicken breasts up rather finely. Ground chicken takes on a funky texture, so Jeff wanted to have hand-chopped chicken. When the breasts are slightly frozen, they're very easy to chop. Regardless, this was my least favorite part of the prep work. I got some sort poultry-induced repetitive motion injury, but it abated a few hours later.

Jeff's recipe involved lots of chopping, while mine involved throwing a handful of ingredients into the Cuisinart, giving it a whir, and ending up w/curry paste. Curry paste is surprisingly easy to make, as you'll see in the recipe below. Add it to some coconut milk and splash it w/some fish sauce, and you have a fine curry sauce.

Once the chicken had simmered in its sauce for a lengthy 1 hr. and 15 min., Jeff began throwing all the ingredients into the wok to make the larb. Like Alton Brown said in his pad thai episode, Asian cooking commonly involves a LOT of prep, but only a very short amount of cooking time. Sure enough, the larb was ready about five minutes after Jeff threw the first ingredient into the wok.

Accompanying our Thai feast would be the roti--of course--and some jasmine rice. I tend to think of larb as an appetizer, but that's probably only because I see it on the appetizer menu at every Thai restaurant. Regardless of what larb really is, we treated it as an entree that evening.

The best line of the night came out of Jeff's mouth: "I don't want to talk to you guys right now 'cause I want to keep eating." Sara oohed and aahed, and I couldn't believe I made a curry sauce that tasted like the stuff I got at that food show. We were all extremely impressed w/our labor.

See why?


Larb Gai (recipe courtesy of Shiok)

Chicken breast meat (boneless), ground (minced) very coarsely - 200 gm
Chicken stock - 90 ml (6 tablespoons)
Peanut oil - 2 teaspoons
Galangal (finely chopped) - 2 teaspoons (substitute young ginger if you can't find this)
Lemongrass (finely chopped) - 1 tablespoon (Use only the tender heart and not the fibrous outer layer. Substitute 1 teaspoon lemon rind if you can't find this)
Fresh red chillies - from 1 teaspoon to 2 tablespoons depending on your tolerance - very finely sliced
Shallots (sliced) - 4 (Substitute with quarter of a medium purple onion if you can't find this)
Fresh mint leaves (chopped) - 1/2 cup
Fresh coriander (cilantro) leaves (chopped) - 1/2 cup
Spring onions (scallions for the Americans) - finely chopped - 2 tablespoons
4 tablespoons raw rice (we're gonna make toasted ground rice with this)

Dressing
2 tablespoons lime juice
2 tablespoons fish sauce
1/2 teaspoon red chilli powder
1/2 teaspoon sugar

First, we're going to make our special ingredient - toasted ground rice. This gives the salad a nutty flavour.

Heat a skillet over low heat and when it's hot enough, add the raw rice grains. Keep the heat low and stir from time to time. Keep toasting till the grains turn golden brown. Remove from heat and set aside to cool.

When it has cooled down, put it into a coffee grinder and grind till you have a coarse powder. You should not grind it till it's fine. It should still have some "bite".

Combine the salad dressing ingredients and set aside. Adjust to taste if something seems out of balance.

Heat a wok or large pan and when it's hot, add the peanut oil. Once the oil is hot, add the lemon grass, shallots, and galangal. Stir for 20 seconds, and add the stock. Turn the heat down to medium and add the minced chicken. Cook for another 3-4 minutes (about 30-60 seconds past the time that the chicken turns white completely and is no longer pink) Don't overcook the chicken or it will get tough. By the time you finish cooking, the stock would have evaporated.

There, the chicken is done. Turn off the heat. Add the salad dressing, the chillies, the toasted rice, spring onions, the mint and coriander leaves. Mix well.

Take a serving plate, arrange the lettuce leaves in the corners of the plate, and empty the chicken and its dressing on to the plate in between the leaves.

Ta da! Your salad is ready. Traditionally, it is served with plenty of veggies and herbs on the side. You can have the salad as an accompaniment to your main course, or wrap the chicken and some dressing in lettuce leaves and enjoy it as a hot n' sour package. Be adventurous and use more chilli than you'd normally use. The flavour of the fresh herbs will prevent any serious damage to your taste buds.

This salad can be served at room temperature, but I like to serve it warm. If you allow it to cool, the chilli flavour recedes and the salty flavour becomes more assertive. Try making the salad with beef too.

* * *

Thai Yellow Curry Paste and Chicken (recipe courtesy of templeofthai.com)

Curry Paste

12 dried thai chilis
2 tsp sea salt(or coarse salt)
2 shallots, peeled
4 cloves garlic, peeled
1 thick slice fresh galangal (or dried galangal soaked in water until softened) --> didn't have/use!
1 stalk lemongrass, sliced crosswise (discard tough outer leaves and the root end)
1 thick slice peeled ginger root
1 tbsp coriander seeds --> didn't have/use!
1 tsp cumin seeds --> didn't have/use!
2 tsp curry powder
1 tsp shrimp paste (kapee) --> didn't have/use!

Dry roast coriander seeds and cumin seeds until fragrant over low flame in a heavy bottom pan (be careful not to burn). Set aside. (See a more detailed explanation of dry roasting spices).

Pound in a mortar and pestle or process in a small blender/food processor container in the following order: dried chiles, sea salt, shallots, garlic, galangal, lemon grass, and ginger root. Process or pound until smooth but some small pieces can still be seen.

Now add the roasted spices and curry powder. Process or pound again until the seeds are completely broken up into powder and the paste is blended through. Last add the shrimp paste and gently blend in, using the mortar or processor.

Yellow Chicken Curry

3 tbsp yellow curry paste (either from the recipe above or from a can like MaeSri brand)
1 lb chicken, cut into 2 inch pieces (cut through the bones with a sharp cleaver if using chicken with bones) --> we used boneless, skinless breasts
2-3 small red potatoes, scrubbed and cut into 2 inch pieces --> left this out
1/2 tsp sea salt
1 can (16 oz.) coconut milk, shake before opening to mix separated milk
2 tbsp fried shallots (available ready-made in a plastic jar), optional
1 tsp fish sauce, to taste

In a small bowl mix the curry paste with 1 tbsp. of water to dilute. Add to the coconut milk in a medium sized sauce pan. Stir to mix. Add the chicken and potatoes, and 1/2 tsp of sea salt. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Cook until the meat and potatoes are cooked through, not simmering on low heat, but let the curry roll on a low boil.

At the end of cooking, taste and add fish sauce to adjust the saltiness. Cook a minute longer. Remove from heat. Garnish with fried shallots (available ready made in a plastic container), if desired. Serve with Thai jasmine rice.

Editor's note: because we didn't have/use a good number of ingredients, our finished product obviously didn't taste exactly as the recipe would have it. I'm not sure if galangal is sweet, but if it is, that definitely would have made a difference. I was unhappy w/the fact that my curry sauce wasn't sweet, so I asked Jeff and Sara whether or not I should add some sugar or honey. Sara was all over the honey idea, so I added about 2 tbsp. of it. I've gotta say, it was a perfect remedy. The sauce had just that added bit of sweetness that I like so much about Thai curries.