Thai Curry Pasta

Fusion cuisine should have its own facebook page. And I'm sure I'll be a friend then. There are some great outcomes when wonderful cuisines are fused together. Ask Wolfgang Puck - and he'll say Amen. But then there are some fusion dishes that should not see the light of day. Like kofta balls in rasam. I don't think I want to go there. 

But I surely want to go here - Thai Curry Pasta. 

Long ago, when I was not so occupied (translation-lazy), I added a recipe request form to this blog. And promised to cook whatever someone asked. Like I said, that was long ago. My apologies for not keeping up my word. But I'm going to take baby steps and try to complete most of the requests. So, here's a post for Amrut who had asked for a thai curry pasta recipe. Amrut - I hope you still are interested in this. Here's the delicious dish just for you!

Cook Pasta al dente. I've used Penne here but you could use your favorite pasta. Linguini would be good here too and look like noodles. Add a tsp of salt to the water while cooking the pasta.

For the veggies, chop up some broccoli, carrots, green beans. Once the pasta is done, just strain out the pasta from the water and while the water is still boiling, add the veggies in there and switch off the stove immediately. You don't want the veggies to be over cooked - just blanched a little. Drain out the veggies in about 3-4 mins and pour cold water once to stop cooking.

And now on to make the curry paste. Here's what I used -

half a medium onion roughly chopped
Garlic - about 4-5
Ginger - about 2 inch piece roughly chopped
Coriander seeds - 2 tsps
Black Peppercorns - a few
Dried Red Chilli - 4-5
Turmeric - 1 tsp
Lemon Grass - 1-2 tsps (paste)

Just add all of them raw into a mixer to make a paste.

For a kick, add 1 tsps of brown sugar to the rest of the ingredients.

Grind into a coarse paste and then add a little oil and grind to a smooth paste.

In a wide pan, add about 2 tsps of oil. Throw in some onions and bell peppers and saute for a couple of mins. 

For the curry, I used some light coconut milk. Add the paste and fry for a couple of mins, and then add about 1/2 can of the coconut milk. Add salt to taste just enough for the curry.

Add 1 tomato chopped and deseeded.

Then, add all the veggies to the curry. Mix well and cook for maybe a min.

Add fresh chopped cilantro to the curry.

And finally, add the cooked pasta to the curry. Mix well for a couple of mins.

And there you go - some delicious juicy curry pasta.

You could add some fresh or fried tofu to enhance this dish. Enjoy a nice warm meal with your family. And pass on my regards to them!

Enjoy. Peace Out!

Vegetarian Drunken Noodles

Drunken Noodle or Pad Kee Mao is my most favorite dish in Thai Cuisine. There is an interesting story behind the name given to these noodles. The literal meaning of the name is a little gross. I could not believe it when I read it up for the first time and my jaw opened up wide. Well, just so I can gross you out too – here’s what it is. Pad means Stir fry. Kee means Shit. Yes, you read it right and it’s not a typo. Mao means drunk. Grossed out enough? So, here’s the old wife’s tale behind this noodle – it seems a guy came back home so drunk and had a horrible hangover the next morning. His wife made some flat noodles and added a ton of chilli spice in it – and he ended up eating it and was totally relived of his hangover. So, the wife decided to call the noodles – Stir fried noodles to be eaten when someone is Shit Drunk. Pad Kee Mao. Makes sense now? And so it got its famous Drunken Noodle name. And I thought it was just because the noodle itself looked so flat out drunk and sloppy when cooked. Maybe that’s true too.

But the last hundred times I’ve eaten it, I’ve not been Shit drunk. Or have I ever eaten this for breakfast to cure myself of a hangover. However, this still makes a sensational dish as a part of a Thai dinner. Shit Drunk or not. Now, I can’t seem to stop using the gross words. Help me God!

There’s been this little box of Panang Curry paste sitting in my pantry for a little while now. And so one day last week for dinner, I decided its going to be Thai night. And of course, I ended up craving for some Drunken noodle and decided it was time I learnt how to make it. So, one the way back home from work, I stopped at the asian store to pick up some flat noodles and found these flat rice noodles. Now, even flatter ones would work best – the big flat squares would be perfect. But sometimes you just learn to live with what you get. Right? So, this was all I could find and had to live with it. Or rather cook with it.

This recipe is pretty simple. Cook the noodle al dente and set aside. Make a sauce to go with the noodles. Cook the veggies crisp. Add the sauce, spices, and noodles and mix them all together well. That’s it. Eazy, Peazy, Jacuzzi.

So, let’s start the cooking. Bring a wide pan of water to a boil and add the noodles in and cook for about 5-8 min or as per the instructions on the packet. Cook the noodles al dente and not too soft – there should be a gentle bite to the noodles. Drain, wash well with cold water and move to a bowl and add about a tbsp of oil and mix well. Make sure they don’t cling to each other and remain separate.

Chop up your favorite veggies to go with the noodles. These are my veggies for both the panang curry and the noodle – that’s why you see two sets of veggies. I also bought fried tofu from the store for my curry and noodles. You could also use regular soft tofu instead – that would do good for the curry but you can pan fry them a little for the noodles.

Here’s what goes in the sauce.

1 tbsp of soy sauce
2 tbsps of golden mountain sauce - this is made with soy sauce and wheat flour. This is a great substitute for vegetarians instead of a fish sauce normally used in thai dishes. This sauce adds that extra saltiness usually provided but the fish sauce
1 tbsp of vegetarian oyster sauce ( if you can find it – if not, just skip this ingredient)
1 tsp of plain white sugar
1 tsp of brown palm sugar
1 tsp of chilli paste (skip this if you don’t want your dish too spicy. We will also be adding chilli paste directly to the veggies)

Add all the above sauces to a small bowl and whisk together well and set aside.

In a wide pan or wok (wide enough the toss the noodles with the veggies), add 2 tbsps of vegetable oil. Add in fresh chopped ginger, garlic and green chillies.

 

When that browns a little, add in the sliced onions and sauté till they turn color. Throw in all the veggies – broccoli, carrots, baby corn, bell peppers or anything else you like with your noodles. Little button mushrooms would be great too.

Add the tofu to the veggies and mix well.

Cook the veggies for a minute and add in some red hot chilli flakes. You could also use the thai chilli paste. Purists would cry foul at my dish because I’m not adding the fresh thai basil here – I will cry foul myself – but I could not find the fresh thai basil at my Korean store..:( - but I added an alternative later on – you’ll see.

When the veggies are done, add half of the prepared sauce on top the veggies to flavor them up.

Immediately, add the cooked noodles and stir well. Now, add the rest of the sauce on top of the noodles and give the whole thing a brisk mix up.

Now, instead of the thai basil, I added a few fresh leaves of Tulsi. Why did I do this – because a friend of mine has a thai neighbor who oftens borrows tulsi leaves from her garden to use in her home cooked thai meals. According to her, tulsi also provides a nice flavor to her thai dishes. So, I thought I should try using it too and yes it does add a nice flavor. So, try some the next time you make Thai food.

That’s it – we’re done here.

Time to sit back and enjoy some awesome Pad Kee Mao noodles.

Here's the Panang Curry I made. I don't really have a recipe for this as I used a readymade Panang Curry paste to preapare this - just a couple of spoons of the paste with a can of lite coconut milk and a easy bowl of curry is ready for dinner. Serve hot with steaming white rice.

Enjoy. Peace Out!

Pineapple Fried Rice

How many of you have ordered this dish in your favorite Thai restaurant? Personally, I rarely do because I want to eat spicy food and not something that could be sweet. Not my type, you see. But nevertheless, this is a classic. And you've got to eat the classics too. And so, in order to convince myself and my family, I had to take matters in my own hands. Besides, the pineapples were on sale too and I can't resist a deal. So, I got 2 gorgeous pineapples at 88cents each (see I told you, they were a deal!). I was just too tempted to try this. Finally when we were done with dinner, this was the verdict - especially from my husband who does not like the presumed sweet rice - "Make this every time you make Thai at home instead of the plain fried rice" and also - "let's make this next time we meet up with our friends".

And for the sweet part - the rice has the subtle sweetness of the pineapple but also load of other flavors. The sweetness is only when you bite into the pineapple - but the rice itself is spicy. Not sweet. I could go on and on about the wonderful flavors in here - but you won't know unless you actually try it. And you should. Really - what could go wrong. Yeah, you could finish the whole pot of rice - that could go wrong. And nothing else. So, go out after you read this and get your pineapples too!

You'll need a nice ripe pineapple - how do you figure that out? The outside should be a nice yellow color and not green. And when you just smell the outside, you should smell the sweetness of the pineapple. That means its ready. It wants to become a part of something special. It wants to grace your dining table. It needs compliments. It needs all your love. Needy Pineapple.

Cut your needy pineapple vertically into two pieces. Take a knife and cut the center into big pieces and gently lift it off the skin. Once you get all the big pieces out, use a spoon and scrap out the sides so that you leave out a smooth skin underneath. We will use this later as the serving piece! Chop the pieces you took out from the center into small bits of deliciousness!

Now for the rice part, do this step first. You can use Thai Jasmine rice if you have some. I used just our regular basmati rice. Wash about 2 cups rice and set aside. I want to give everyone a totally unrelated tip here - if you use a non stick rice cooker, don't wash the rice in the cooker and then cook it. Always use a small bowl to wash the rice and then add it along with water in your rice cooker and cook it. This helps to protect the non stick surface of your rice cooker for a long time.

Take about 2 cups of uncooked rice.

We will also be using some coconut milk here. I always use the light variety - as you can see this has 67% less fat than regular coconut milk - I can so use that. My hips agree too.

Now add the 2 cups of washed rice to the rice cooker. Then, add 2 cups of coconut milk and 1 cup of water to the rice. Make sure you don't use all the coconut milk in the can. Save about 1/2 cup for later for the curry. And then close and switch on the rice cooker. You can use this type of rice for many many dishes. Ghee rice made with this tastes heavenly - I promise to make that and eat after I genetically change my body structure. Until then, I'll just dream about it.

Now for the curry part. We are going to make a fresh curry paste at home using simple ingredients.

In a small blender, add the following -

1 heaped tbsp of Coriander seeds
1 heaped tsp of cumin seeds
3-4 dried red chillies
3-4 kernals of black pepper
about 2 inch piece of ginger - chopped roughly
about 1 whole stick of lemongrass - chopped roughly or 1 tbsp of lemongrass paste
Garlic - 1 or 2 cloves (optional) I actually did not add this - but I'm sure it will be good if you do.

Grind it all together - you can add a few drops of water or a little oil for a richer curry paste. Use regular vegetable oil and not olive oil.

Now in a pan, add about 1 tsp oil and then add about 1 cup of chopped onions. Sprinkle some salt on top and saute for a min until the onions start turning translucent. Once they are done, remove the onions from the pan and set aside.

Now, add about 1 cup of chopped red bell pepper to the same pan - you don't need to add extra oil. The oil already in the pan will do. Again, sprinkle salt and then saute for a min or two. Then, remove and set aside.

Now, add the curry paste to the pan and cook it for a min until all the wonderful aromas start flying out and touching the tip of your nose. Thank God now for making ginger a part of our world.

Now add the coconut milk you saved earlier to the curry. And then slit one big green chilli and add salt to taste along with that. Also, add a 1/4 tsp of turmeric powder for a gorgeous color! Let this curry bubble up for a min.

Now, add the chopped pineapple pieces in here and mix well with the curry.

Now, that's some gorgeous curried pineapple here - you can just stop here and add this to bread as a topping and eat that. I'm sure it will be delicious! That will be a curried pineapple bruschetta ..how about that for some thai - italian fusion cuisine! I have to try it myself sometime!

Next, throw in the sauteed onions and red bell peppers into this.

Here's the cooked coconut rice.

Add the rice a little at a time to the curried pineapple paste and mix gently.

Add a little red chilli powder or paprika on top just to spice it up a notch.

Now, add some fried cashews and raisins to the rice. Just a tiny bit of raisins - maybe only about 6-8 pieces. You don't want to make this more sweet with too many raisins.

Finally, add the best garnish ever - some finely chopped cilantro!

One other unrelated opinion here - does it bother you when you see people or restaurants or big chefs on TV adding cilantro on top - but just the whole leaves. That annoys me to a very great extent - its like as soon as I see that, I deduct 20 points from their score in my head...you know what I mean? Come on, how long does it take to chop up some leaves...and when chopped nicely, the flavor that these leaves bring out enhances the whole dish. Just eating them as leaves does not please my palette at all. I pick them and set them aside. Some people are so lazy, they don't even take the stems off. Please. .don't do that. I saw this show on a tamil channel where this lady cooks and then while serving, just throws in a couple of leaves with the stems and somehow that is supposed to make the dish look more beautiful according to her. Really lady...you just made the dish look not so good. Chop them next time...

Enough of my rant. Sorry, I got carried away.

So, chop the fresh cilantro leaves and add them to the rice. Mix well - gently.

Serve hot on the scooped out pineapple bases. Isn't that a nice meal to serve your family? They deserve it. Do it for them.

Blogger or not, take pictures of your creation - and frame it if you want to!

A bountiful of nature's beauty. All for you to enjoy!

 Enjoy! Peace out!