Last night was my Thai Cooking Class at the Charlottesville Cooking School and I really enjoyed it! Unfortunately (fortunately) I didn’t have any time to take any pictures so it’s imagination only today. We made green curry paste from scratch with a mortar and pestle and our teacher told us that in Thailand there’s an old wives tale that men would walk through the markets and identify suitable wives based on the strength of their pound and the consistency of their curry paste. I think that she might have told us this to help abate any fears that we might have had about mashing rather whole ingredients into an eventual paste because a great deal of pounding was involved, and after about 10 minutes, the room was ringing as the pestles hit their marks and wonderful smells burst into the room. In the future, I think that I’ll be all Cuisinart, but at least I know that if the power’s out or I haven’t been getting enough upper body exercise I mash leaves into a paste.
Green Mango Salad
Som Tam
Ingredients
2 green mangos, peeled and grated into thin strips
1 ripe mango, peeled and grated into thin strips
1 carrot, julienned
2 T fish sauce
2 T lime juice
1 tsp palm sugar
3 cloves garlic, minced
2-3 small birds eye chilies, diced (use less or more depending on spice desired)
2 T roasted peanuts (optional)
Method
Combine green and ripe mangos, and carrot in a bowl. Mix fish sauce, lime juice, palm sugar, and garlic and chilies in a separate bowl. Stir until palm sugar dissolves. Add sauce to mango mixture and toss to combine. Sprinkle with roasted peanuts, if desired.
Green Curry Paste (Nam Prik Gaeng Kheo Wan)
Dried Ingredients
1tsp coriander seed
1tsp cumin seed
½ tsp black peppercorns
Fresh Ingredients
1 T galangal or ginza (can substitute ginger)
1 stalk lemongrass, lower 1/3 only, chopped
1tsp lime zest
2 T coriander root or stem (the stems of cilantro)
3-4 shallots, sliced
3 cloves garlic, crushed
1 tsp shrimp paste
¼ tsp turmeric powder
20 small green chilies, deseeded (or about 6 jalapenos)
1c. (1 oz) sweet basil leaves
Method
Toast first 3 dry ingredients for 1 minute over medium heat until fragrant. Grind in a mortar or spice grinder. Add the rest of the ingredients and pound using a pestle for about 10 minutes until the paste is smooth. Alternatively all fresh and ground dry ingredients can be put into a blender or small food processor until paste forms. Gradually add water as needed. Yields 4-5 T green curry paste.
Recipe adapted from Chiang Mai Thai Cookery School Cookbook by Sompon Nabnian
Green Curry with Chicken
Gaeng Kheo Wan Gai
Ingredients
10 oz boneless, skinless chicken breast, thinly sliced
1
c. thick coconut milk
1c. thin coconut milk
3-4 T green curry paste
1 Japanese eggplants cut into ½ inch pieces
2 green eggplants, cut into 6-8 sections
1 T palm sugar (optional)
2 T fish sauce
2 Kaffir lime leaves (optional)
½ c. basil leaves, shredded
Method
Put the thick coconut milk into a wok and fry for 3-5 minutes, stirring continuously, until the coconut oil begins to separate out. Then add the green curry paste and fry for 1-2 minutes. Once the paste is cooked add the chicken and cook until the outside of the chicken turns white. Then add the thin coconut milk and when it is boiling add the eggplant. Simmer for about 5 minutes until the eggplants are slightly soft. Then add the palm sugar along the edge of the wok so that it melts. Add the fish sauce, Kaffir lime leaves and half of the basil. Garnish with the remaining basil.
It was a quiet day yesterday–Drew and I went to see the Black Crowes on Saturday night and then he was up with the rooster Sunday morning to head to the hospital. I had a leisurely day, met a friend for brunch and made picadillo and onion rolls in the afternoon. I was going to take some betty crocker pictures of my little projects yesterday, but I got cavalier and decided to quadruple the onion roll recipe, having only eaten them in the past without having ever actually made them. In the end it worked out, but there was a brief period where it looked like there was going to be no end to the flour explosion in the kitchen, so I think I’ll just take pictures of the upcoming bar-b-que and the completed rolls rather than incriminating myself by posting a view of the volcanic eruption that can occasionally occur when I’m cooking. Other than that, we are looking forward to another good week! Drew is truly on the home stretch at this point, wrapping up classes etc in the next three weeks and I am looking forward to a thai cooking class on Wednesday night. We hope that everyone had a great 4th!
To call the morning bittersweet is to think
only of the moments before,
to feel the weight of curtains draped
against the dreaming brain,
the seduction of the sheets against
a cast-away leg.
But sleep only tells on side of the morning’s story.
the kitchen too can seduce, the sneaking
sun will cause a shaded eye.
And you,
you promise coffee.
Whew. I’m finally catching up after our glorious week away! Today I’ve noticed some funny little things that I thought I would share…walking to work this morning, I saw a pen on the sidewalk that had been stepped on–behind the pen was a large rorshak puddle of dried ink. In writing it sounds fairly normal, but the serene image of a pen with its inky guts beside it was comically morbid and for better or worse made me smile…I thought that it could only be improved upon by making a chalk outline of the pen and removing it altogether, but alas I was without chalk, so it stayed in its original pose. Driving home for lunch I was behind a 1980 something old Buick that had seen many better days–it was dingy and brown and the interior lining was dangling into the anonymous head of the driver. It was without hub cabs, with a back fire, and generally on what appeared to be a last mile. Plastered neatly on the back bumper was a new shiny bumper sticker that read, “don’t let my car fool you, my real treasure is in Heaven”. Perfect. And just as I had finished smiling about that, a bright yellow convertible Smart Car drove by. Haven’t seen a Smart Car before? They’re about the size of your average lunch box…Charlottesville is on the Smart Car bandwagon, but I had yet to see someone’s hair trying to take flight with the top down. Here’s a stock picture to give you an idea:
