SIMPLE THAI FOOD - April 2022 Cookbook of the Month


CURRY PASTES

I’m always game for trying new from scratch curry paste recipes. Such a huge payout for a little effort. Each recipe made, give or take, one cup of paste. I portioned them out into quarter cups, and froze them. The ones in the book are pretty formulaic, so I decided to go with the four standard ones, assembly line style.

All four of them contain toasted coriander and cumin seeds, white peppercorn, fresh chopped galangal, sliced lemongrass, kaffir lime rind, shrimp paste, cilantro root or stem, garlic, and sliced shallot. The green includes fresh green Thai chile, while the others use soaked dry red Thai and bird’s eye chiles. The Massaman is spiced with cloves and green cardamom, and the yellow with fennel seed, fresh turmeric, and curry powder blend.

I had to make a few substitutions, as my local 99 Ranch asian market didn’t stock several of the ingredients. There were no dried Thai chiles or bird’s eye chiles, so I had to use something like chile de arbol. Serranos were subbed for lack of fresh green Thai chiles. I don’t think I’ve ever seen fresh kaffir limes at that store, so I used a combo of fresh Persian lime zest and fresh kaffir lime leaves.

The author recommends grinding all the ingredients before putting into the food processor, and this is excellent advice, especially with the galanga which, even when fresh, can be literally like a piece of wood. I processed my pastes in the Vitamix, and all but the green were very dry, requiring constant scraping down. Only the Massaman required a brief frying in oil to finish. So far, I’ve cooked with the green and red, and both were very tasty and well-balanced. One thing that eludes me is the brilliant scarlet color of the proprietary red curry paste. Mine, and many pics on the net of homemade red curry pastes, are always more of a reddish tan. I’m pretty sure it has to do with the variety of dried chile used. If you know the secret to getting that dramatic, crimson-colored paste, please share! TIA

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Hi @RainyRamone - echoing how nice it is to see you here again!

Very smart to make the pastes at the same time, given how many ingredients overlap!

I don’t know what thai chili will achieve the bright red color, but if you have Kashmiri res chillies they are known for their hue (and not their heat).

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Hi, there! Great to see you again! Yessss - I was thinking Kashmiri or even Aleppo would be good color enhancers.

Those look so good! I made the green one back when curry pastes were dish of the month on Chowhound and I loved it, though I preferred it with chicken rather than the beef she uses in the book.

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Thanks, and I agree that beef is an uncommon choice to go with the green. Green makes me think chicken, tofu, or veg, as I did last night with cauliflower. Do you recall which fresh green chiles you used? My only option this time was Serrano, which I’m pretty sure is nowhere near as spicy as Thai.

To me Aleppo has a distinct flavor… but my mom has been complaining for months about the Kashmiri chilli powder she’s using that colors everything bright but tastes of nothing much :rofl:

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It’s so funny - I also think of green as chicken (or veg) but during the pandemic we had Thai food dropped off from (Thai) family friends a few times, and the green curry was always with beef!

I wonder if it was an Americanization to have green paired more often with chicken?

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I’m pretty sure I used the called for chilis (thai long chilis & green bird’s eye chilis) because my notes describe the replacement I made for the makrut lime rind (makrut lime leaves + some normal lime rind), which I wasn’t able to find. I’m pretty sure I would have done the same if I’d used a different chili. Even with the right chilis, it wasn’t ridiculously hot. From my notes (5. 2018): “It seemed like the paste was going to be super hot, but it wasn’t at all - just a nice kick at the end, and some good umami from the shrimp paste. (Which smells absolutely disgusting, btw.)”

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I believe it was from Andy Ricker (Pok Pok) I got the idea of using puya chiles in place of dried Thai long chiles. They are moderate in heat, but add a rich chile taste and red color. If you really want a vivid red, include a guajillo. Both Ricker and Christina Arokiasamy (The Spice Merchant’s Daughter, The Malaysian Kitchen) include Mexican chiles in their pastes. It has really been liberating for me to do that, because those are the chiles I know best, and can get the balance I want.

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I always have Mexican chiles on hand! I’ll try adding a guajillo to my next batch.

CURRY PASTES

From top to bottom, matsaman, red, green. Prep has been described by Rainy. I used puya chiles in place of long red Thai chiles. I used cilantro roots, as I had a stash in the freezer (now greatly diminished). I used makrut lime leaves instead of zest (sorry folks, I’m not going to use the k-word). I used my Sumeet Multigrind (a wet/dry grinder) to grind the pastes. I did not do the frying step on my matsaman paste - I will do that when it is used.

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RED DUCK (TOFU) CURRY WITH PINEAPPLE AND TOMATOES - ebook

I strayed far from the recipe, I’ll admit. You start with the red curry paste from the book and fry it in some coconut cream and oil. Sometimes I find it helps to use some oil like this recipe calls for, and other times there is enough fat in the coconut cream to fry the paste. I did not need the oil this time, so I didn’t use it. You add coconut milk, pineapple, and tomatoes - the book calls for cherry tomatoes, but I used one very large tomato. You are supposed to simmer this and then add in cooked duck meat, but I immediately added fried tofu, plus some zucchini and snow peas (I wanted veg in there so it would be more of a meal). I simmered this until the veg were cooked. You season to taste with fish sauce (I used a vegan fish sauce analogue). Before serving, you are supposed to stir in some fresh basil. Ooops. I forgot. I would have liked to have had it, but the curry was fine without. I was really just looking for an excuse to use some of the curry paste I had made earlier in the day. A solid red curry. Neither the best nor the worst I’ve made/eaten.

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I have one book that calls for adding paprika, which would give color but no extra heat.
For extra green color, I have used leaves from my chili plants.

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FISH IN RED CURRY SAUCE - Kindle P. 101
[chuchi pla]

Salmon is the author’s fish of choice for this dish, but I used orange roughy with delicious results. The coconut oil, red curry paste, and coconut cream are combined over high heat, allowing the paste to bloom. Coconut milk, water, fish sauce, and palm sugar are blended in. The skinless fish fillets are then arranged in a single layer and cooked, covered, for two minutes per side. Sliced makrut leaf and fresh Thai chilies are sprinkled over the top before serving. I used my homemade red curry paste, and although very tasty, the resulting sauce was not at all red.

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KAI PHAT KHING | CHICKEN-GINGER STIR-FRY - ebook

The dish is pretty straight forward, it’s a non-spicy dish. Heated the oil in wok with medium high heat, stirred in the minced garlic, added chicken cut in bite size (I used thigh), oyster sauce, fish sauce and sugar. Cooked for a minute and added the stripped pre-soaked wood ear mushroom, ginger in fine stripes, leek (instead of green onion) and a chicken stock, stirred for 2 minutes and served.

Very tender chicken. I like ginger and I preferred it over the young ginger I had in the freezer. Good dish to served over white rice for a 1-plate meal. The recipe didn’t mentioned black pepper, but I couldn’t live without. I feel this dish is probably Chinese influenced Thai dish.

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Since I’ve store bought red and green curries paste, the are very powerful and lasts forever, I don’t think I’ll make mine. Maybe eventually matsaman and yellow. Just for curiosity and for comparison.

Ingredients
Notice there are shrimps.

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@MelMM,

Just something to consider…
I have read a few posts about people cooking through cookbooks.
This is a really good one because the recipes are simple to make.
I’m going to echo those words having discovered that it is more rewarding to cook through a book as opposed to hopping on to the next one.
Would you consider possibly extending it over a 2 month period so that we have more opportunity to explore the book?

I’d be open to that, but I don’t feel it’s my call to make. On one hand, it gives more time to explore a good book. But sometimes we choose a book that turns out to be disappointing, or just doesn’t generate the interest we thought it would. In those cases, moving on sooner rather than later is the best thing to do. I think the solution is to use the nominating process in the usual manner. If you’d like to keep cooking through Simple Thai Food in May, then nominate it. If enough people agree, it will make the voting and maybe be selected for a second month.

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Keep in mind that you can continue to post on the COTM threads indefinitely. I always enjoyed reading reviews posted to the former COTM threads and tried to do this myself.

Personally, I like having a new COTM every month. Some months I don’t participate because I either don’t have the book or the book just doesn’t work for me. I am sure there are people who are skipping this month, but looking forward to participating in the next book.

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SWEEET POTATO FRITTERS WITH PEANUT-SWEET CHILE SAUCE - p. 11

Prep has been described. I used rice flour in the coating (brown rice flour, actually). For the dipping sauce, I started with a peach-chile glaze that I make and can every summer. It’s sweet, sour, and has a chile kick. I added just a touch more vinegar, then proceeded with the recipe. These came very well, perfect in texture, and Mr. MM loved them. If you like sweet potato fries, you will love these. I, however, do not like sweet potato fries, so I was pretty lukewarm on these. Great texture, but they still taste like sweet potato.
Had these with some vegan “fish cakes” I had in the freezer, and made the cucumber relish from the fish cake recipe in the book to garnish. I’m not going to write that up since my fish cakes were a completely different style.

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