Hurried and curried: Thai curries: a "master" recipe

Yes, it's true. Annalena continues to be a spice girl this year. Don't ask me why, because I really do not know what is motivating this. Perhaps my taste buds are dying and I need stronger sensations on my tongue (let's be careful about responding to that one, ragazzi). Who knows? In any event, it is a fact, as you've seen from the entries you've been reading. And now you're going to get another one. It is based on an article of a type that I usually ignore: "Master" recipes.

You know the type: these are articles that say "if you just master a few techniques, you will have 4,000 recipes at your fingertips without much trouble." Then they explain how simple everything is. That takes two paragraphs. Then you get to the exceptions. That takes three pages. And when you look closely, the instructions include things like "cut the vegetables into 3/8 inch squares". If you persevere, you make one of the dishes, look at the picture and....

HUH?

So, when I read this one, I was a bit skeptical. But, since Asian food is way out of Annalena's area of expertise, and she loves curries, this one appealed to her.

Let us clarify something right away. These are THAI curries. What I have learned, from what little study I have done, is that , in Asia, the members of the curry family differ markedly with respect to how they turn out, based on their origins. A few entries ago, you have a recipe for Malaysian curry. I have not put anything in writing about Indian curry, but if you looked at such recipes, you would see a very complex process of spice frying, lots of ghee and oil, and a dry product at the end.

Thai curries, however, are wetter. They are based, by and large, on coconut milk. Indeed, I remember this. There was a time when the Guyman and I ate Thai food every Friday night. I shall not pretend that I became competent in Thai food. In fact, my attempts were less than praiseworthy. Most of the failures were interestingly enough, a matter of reticence in the kitchen. Annalena, who never feels she adds enough garlic, was not adding enough ginger, lime, or hot peppers to her Thai dishes. My informant, Laksana, used to say to me "Oh, Baby Doll, you need AT LEAST fifteen limes for that dish," where I had used six and wondered why it had no flavor. You will get the drift. But I remember those wonderful Friday suppers, and that coconut milk (my ingredient of the year, I have decided, is coconut in all of its manifestations. The coconut pie, for example, that you've read about, the macaroons and, to come, a recipe based on coconut vinegar). So I read this with some interest. And then I tried it. Did it work? Yes, but... Read on.

The "master recipe" for the curries called for the following ingredients: one can of coconut milk, a cup of chicken stock, a quarter cup of curry paste (more on this below), a tablespoon of what was referred to as "golden sugar," and a teaspoon of fish sauce. Finally, three cups of a vegetable of choice, a pound of protein, and "aromatics."

Now, there was some explanation in the article but not enough. The article explained the four different types of curry paste that are readily available: red, yellow, green and panang. It did NOT explain that, in Thai cooking, certain curries are used only with certain proteins. I used to know this, but I have forgotten. I will tell you the one I created, but play with it. "Golden sugar..." WHAT THE HELL IS THAT? I have no idea, but I used demarara sugar, which is what I had on hand. Use something like that, date sugar if you have it or can find it, and if you can't, just make do with light brown sugar. Fish sauce... I have a big jar of it. It's fairly common in Asian cooking. If you can't find a Thai variety, use a Vietnamese one, or anything that you can find, and if you can't find anything, use soy sauce or worcester. No one will know (incidentally, a teaspoon is too little). The vegetables can be whatever you like. The protein, also, can be animal, vegetable or soy. Probably, you could substitute out the protein with more vegetables. I don't see why not.

The prep work you need to do is to cut the vegetables into small pieces and do the same thing for your protein. The vegetables do not have to be the same and, in Annalena's view, should not be. I used carrots and cauliflower, because that is what I had, and both take well to curries. Use what you got, and think about how long they need to cook when you cook them "Western style," because that will factor into this recipe. So, too , with the protein. If you are using something like pork (which I used), or lamb, or beef, you will need more cooking time than if you use fish products. Squid, for example, will cook in a minute in this recipe.

So you have everything ready. Before you open the can of coconut milk (low fat is fine here, although the recipe did not so state), shake it well. Pour half of it into a big pot, and turn your heat to medium high. You want to reduce the coconut milk almost to a skin on the pan. You'll be fine. It will not take long, so don't go away. When you get that reduction, whisk in the quarter cup of curry paste of your choice. I used the green one. Then add the rest of the coconut milk and the chicken stock.

Having written "add the chicken stock," I am sure you could substitute fish stock or vegetable stock here. Use what feels comfortable. Add the tablespoon of sugar, and at LEAST a tablespoon of the fish sauce. Essentially, the fish sauce is acting as your salt here, it will not add a fishy taste. So use your own tastebuds as a guide to how salty it should be.

Finally, let's look at the vegetables and meat you've chosen. I had carrots, cauliflower, and pork tenderloin, which I had cut into a rough dice, of about 1/3 inch thickness. According to the recipe, this pork ought to have cooked in three minutes. So too, my carrots and cauliflower.

Right.... It was more like eight minutes of a slow simmer, and frankly, that was fine. The recipe was wrong, but the longer cooking allowed the vegetables to soften and pick up some of the coconut flavor, and also allowed the meat to cook through.

You also need "aromatics." What the hell are these? Spices. But be creative. As it happened, I had rangpur lime leaves around, from the Malay curry, and I used those. I could not find my ginger for love or money, and if I had, I would have put some in. The lime leaves, however, gave a pretty potent kick to the dish after cooking for eight minutes. Try to pull them out when you're done cooking.

And there you have it. The only thing that works here is plain, white rice. Cook some of that up, put the curry over it, and you may be finding yourself called a spice girl too. Eat up. Shantih, shantih, shantih (oh dear. That's Sanskrit.)