Muslim curry - Musamun Kai

Muslim curry - Musamun Kai

500 g (1 lb) chicken fillets Ingredients

1 cinnamon stick

4 cardamon seeds

1 l (1 3/4 pts) coconut milk

2 ts chili paste

2 onions

2 bay-leaves

3 tb brown sugar

3 tb fish-sauce

3 tb tamarind sauce

50 g (2 oz) unsalted peanuts

Method

1. Slice chicken, dice onions.

2. Roast cardamon seeds and cinnamon stem in a wok or a pan for eight minutes.

3. Add chilli paste and half of the coconut milk. Bring to boil and boil for three minutes. Add chicken and simmer for ten minutes.

4. Pour in rest of the coconut milk and bring to boil.

5. Stir in all other ingredients and simmer for ten more minutes. Remove cardamon seeds, cinnamon stem and bay-leaves before serving.

Choo-Chee (Curry Chile Paste)

Choo-Chee (Curry Chile Paste)

Servings: About 3/4 cup

Ingredient

1 teaspoon sea salt

6 garlic cloves, minced

1 tablespoon minced cilantro roots and stems

1 dried New Mexico (or California) chile, softened in warm water and seeded

15 dried de arbol or Japones chiles, softened in warm water

1 tablespoon dried shrimp, softened in warm water and pureed (optional)

½ teaspoon Thai white peppercorns, dry roasted, and ground

½ teaspoon caraway seeds, dry roasted, and ground

1 teaspoon minced galangal, or

1 tablespoon minced fresh ginger as a substitute

1 lemongrass stalk, green parts and hard outer layers removed, minced

1 teaspoon grated kaffir lime zest, or

1 tablespoon grated regular lime zest as a substitute2 shallots, minced

1 tablespoon fresh grated coconut flakes

1 teaspoon fermented shrimp paste, or 1 tablespoon red miso as a substitute

Using a mortar and pestle, pound the sea salt and garlic into a paste. One at a time, add the cilantro roots and stems, chiles, dried shrimp, if desired, the peppercorns, caraway seeds, galangal, lemongrass, lime zest, and shallots in sequence, adding each new ingredient only after the previous one is pureed and incorporated into the paste. Add the grated coconut and mix well, then add the fermented shrimp paste and mix well. The chile paste can be stored in the refrigerator for at least 1 month

Gaeng Keow Waan (Green Curry Paste) แกงเขียวหวาน

Gaeng Keow Waan (Green Curry Paste) แกงเขียวหวาน

15 green hot chilies

3 tablespoon chopped shallots

1 tablespoon chopped garlic

1 teaspoon chopped galangal

1 tablespoon chopped lemon grass

½ teaspoon chopped kaffir lime rind

1 teaspoon chopped coriander root

5 peppercorns

1 tablespoon coriander seeds

1 teaspoon cumin seeds

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon shrimp paste

In a wok over low heat, put the coriander seeds, and cumin seeds and dry fry for about 5 minutes, then grind into a powder. Into a blender, put the rest of the ingredients except the shrimp paste and blend to mix well. Add the coriander-cumin seed mixture and the shrimp paste and blend to obtain ½ cup of a fine-textured paste. This can be stored in a glass jar in the refrigerator for about 3-4 months.

PORK CURRY (Kaeng Hung Ley Muo)

PORK CURRY (Kaeng Hung Ley Muo)

Ingredients

2 Tablespoons curry powder

2 Tablespoons fish sauce

1/3 cup ginger root, cut into thin strips

1 Tablespoons sugar

1/4 cup cooking oil

6 Pork drumsticks

2 Tablespoons black soy sauce

1/2 cup pickled garlic

1/4 cup tamarind juice2

1/3 cups water

Curry paste

3 Tablespoons shallot, chopped

1 teaspoon salt

2 l/2 Tablespoons lemon grass, chopped

2 Tablespoons garlic

1 Tablespoons shrimp paste dried large hot peppers

For making curry paste, ground all ingredients together until smooth. Set aside

Mix the pork drumsticks with black soy sauce and curry powder. Set aside for 20 minutes.

Using saucepan or wok, add cooking oil and place over medium heat. Stir - fry curry paste for a minute add pork. Stir 2-3 times.

Pour in water and bring to the boil. Cook for 5 minutes. Add ginger root, garlic, fish sauce, sugar and tamarind juice, a minute Stir 2-3 times. Cover. Simmer for l0-15 minutes, Remove from heat.

Duck Curry

Duck Curry

Serves 4
1/2 boneless duck breast Duck Curry
1/4 cup grapes (any kind)
1/4 cup fresh pineapple cut bite-size
1/4 cup cherry tomatoes
1 fresh red chili
1/4 cup fresh basil leaves
2 kaffir lime leaves
4 deep fried red hot chillies
1 cup coconut cream
2-3 tsps red curry paste
2 tsps dark soy sauce
2 tsps fish sauce
1/2 tsp sugar
1/4 tsp salt
2 tbsps soy bean oil = available at Asian grocersTakes about 45 minutes

1. Cut the grapes in half and remove the seeds. Cut the cherry tomatoes in half.

2. With a fork make holes in the duck. Spread the dark soy sauce and salt on it and place it in the oven at 150 degrees celsius. Cook for 12 minutes and remove.

3. Cut the duck into bite-size pieces.

4. Heat the oil in a pan or wok. Add the curry paste and the lime leaves and stir fry over low heat until fragrant (about 15 seconds.)

5. Add the duck pieces and saute about 10 seconds. Add the pineapple, grapes, and tomatoes and stir fry briefly.

6. Add the basil leaves and red chili pieces and saute another 10 seconds.

7. Add the coconut cream, reduce the heat and let cook another 20 seconds.

8.Add the fish sauce and sugar and cook for another 20 seconds, stirring. Garnish with deep fried red hot chilies, and serve warm with steamed rice.

Gaeng Gai (Chicken Curry) แกงไก่

Gaeng Gai (Chicken Curry) แกงไก่

4 tablespoon vegetable oil
10 dried red chilies, crushed (adjust heat to your taste. this amount makes a fairly hot dish)
1 medium yellow onion, chopped
4 cloves garlic, chopped
1 teaspoon ground galangal (kha)
1 stalk fresh lemon grass, chopped fine
4 tablespoon fresh coriander, chopped
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg6 kaffir lime leaves
1 tablespoon ground coriander seed
1 tablespoon sugar
2 tablespoon fish sauce
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon salt
2 whole chicken breasts, skinned, boned, cut into 1/8 inch slices
10 ounce shredded bamboo shoots
16 ounce coconut milk (frozen is better, but you can substitute1-14 ounce can)
20 fresh basil leaves (dried basil is not a good substitute)

Heat the oil in a wok and stir-fry the chilies, onion, and garlic until light brown. Add galangal, lemon grass, fresh coriander, nutmeg, lime leaves, cumin, ground coriander, sugar, fish sauce, and salt. Cook for about 2 min. over medium heat. Add the chicken and stir-fry for 1 minute. Add the bamboo shoots and coconut milk. Bring to boil,reduce heat and simmer about 10-15 minutes until checken is tender. Garnish with fresh basil, serve over rice. This dish is even better if you refrigerate it overnight and reheat it the next day!

Choo-Chee Goong (Red Curry Shrimp with Kaffir Lime Leaves and Basil) ฉูฉี่กุ้ง

Choo-Chee Goong (Red Curry Shrimp with Kaffir Lime Leaves and Basil) ​ฉูฉี่กุ้ง

Servings: 4 to 5
My mother has a soft spot in her heart for choo chee curries - those red hot curries with a rich, thick sauce cooked in a pan so hot that it pops and sizzles, making a swishy sound, like choo chee. Just enough of the concentrated sauce coats the pieces of seafood cooked with it, or is spooned over seafood cooked separately. Although excellent with shrimp and prawns, America's favorite seafood, Mother is first and foremost a fish lover and, now that she is advanced in years and no longer cooks, she, without fail, orders choo chee fish whenever we take her out to dine at her favorite restaurants.

So, after you've tried this recipe and enjoyed enough choo chee with shrimp, make the spicy and aromatic sauce to spoon over crispy fried fish. Mother's favorite fish for choo chee is a small, flat fish called bplah neua awn ("soft-flesh fish"), which fries to a delightfully crunchy crispiness and can be eaten almost entirely, bones and all. When it comes to eating crispy fish fins, heads, and bones, Mom beats us all. People from her generation know no waste and, from her, I've learned that food is sacred, and a life that has been sacrificed to keep us nourished should not be dishonored by throwing out any of its parts. Watching her enjoy every small bit of her crispy fish, even at a ripe old age, is a heartwarming sight.

1 pound medium shrimp

3 orange or red serrano, jalapeño, or fresno peppers

1 cup rich unsweetened coconut cream (preferably Mae Ploy or Chao Koh brand-spoon the thickest

cream off the top of an unshaken can of coconut milk)

2 to 3 tablespoons red curry paste

nam plah, as needed (some packaged curry pastes are already heavily salted)

2 teaspoons palm sugar, or to taste

8 kaffir lime leaves, very finely slivered

½ to 1 cup Thai basil leaves (bai horapa)

1 to 2 short sprigs of Thai basil (bai horapa) with purple flower buds, for garnish

Shell, devein, and butterfly the shrimp; give them a saltwater bath to freshen. Rinse and drain well, and let sit at room temperature for 20 minutes before cooking.

Cut two of the three red peppers into thin rounds, including seeds, and pound with a mortar and pestle to a coarse paste. Cut other pepper with seeds into fine inch-long slivers.

Heat 2/3 cup coconut cream in a wok or skillet over high heat. When it has warmed to a smooth consistency, spoon out 1 tablespoon and reserve. Reduce remaining cream for a few minutes until it is thick and bubbly and the oil begins to separate from the cream. Add curry paste, mushing it into the cream and fry, with stirring, over medium-high heat for a few minutes, until it is aromatic and darker in color; and the mixture is very thick.

Increase heat to high and add the remaining 1/3 cup coconut cream, stirring to make a thick, well-blended sauce. Season to taste with fish sauce and palm sugar: Stir well to melt sugar and blend seasonings. Toss in shrimp and cook in the sauce, stirring frequently. When most of them have lost their raw pink color on the outside, stir in the crushed chillies and kaffir lime leaves. Stir-fry 10 to 15 seconds before adding basil and slivered chilli. Stir well to wilt basil and, when shrimp are just cooked through, turn off heat.

Transfer to a serving dish and dribble reserved tablespoon of coconut cream over shrimp. Garnish with a sprig or two of basil.

Notes: To make the sauce, follow the instructions to the end, simply skipping the shrimp. Try the sauce over crispy fried, whole small or flat fish, such as pompano, butterfish, sole, white perch, smelts, and anchovies. The sauce is also good over pan-fried or grilled mackerel. Or, if you prefer, smother over grilled halibut, salmon, albacore, tuna, mahi mahi, jumbo prawns, lobster, or whatever else you like to toss on your charcoal grill. Top with the coconut cream and garnish with basil sprigs. For strong-tasting fish, about 2 tablespoons of fine inch-long slivers of fresh rhizome (qkrachal) can be added to the sauce at the same time as the basil and cooked until both are wilted.

Besides cooking with shrimp, as in this recipe, substitute squid, scallops, shelled clams, and mussels, or a combination of shellfish and mollusks.

Choo-Chee Pa (Curried Spicy Mackerel)

Choo-Chee Pa (Curried Spicy Mackerel)

Mackerel is an oily fish and a good source of essential fish oils. This dish is how we serve it in Thailand, with a spicy green pepper and curry sauce together with strips of lime leaves.

1 to 2 Mackerel Fish
250 ml Coconut Milk
1 Tablespoon Red Curry Paste
½ Teaspoon Salt
1 Teaspoon Sugar
2 Kaffir Leaves
2 Red Chiles

Clean the mackerel and cut in half, gut it and steam for 10 minutes.

Put the coconut milk in the frying pan and warm it on the heat. When the coconut milk starts to steam, add the red curry paste and oil and stir until mixed for 30 seconds. Add the salt and sugar until it's all mixed together then turn off the heat.

Place the mackerel on a plate, spoon over the red curry paste and finely slice the kaffir leaves and chiles and garnish the fish dish with it.