The Nation

Having written about Thai curries for the past two columns I still cannot resist giving you more ideas, facts and recipes for different versions of Thai curies. Thai curries represent those dishes that make Thai food so popular and famous all over the world. I hope you will allow me to indulge in writing about more Thai curry recipes. This week I will show that Thai curries can also be created and cooked differently. Traditionally we boil curries but one of the recipes I am going to give you uses the steaming techniques and the incorporation of eggs in this dish to make it like savory curried custard. This recipe shows the cooking influence of Western and Chinese cuisine. Without further ado I think I should give you the two curry recipes. The first recipe the famous Gaeng Ped Pbed Yaang with Ngoh Sod Sai (Roast duck curry with stuffed Rambutans) and the second recipe is my adaptation of the original recipe for Hor Mok ( Steamed Fish Curry Custard or soufflé).

Ingredients-for-Gang-ped-Ped-Yaang-Ngoh-sod-sai

Gaeng-Ped-Ped-Yaang-with-Ngoh-Sod-Sai

Gaeng Ped Pbed Yaang, Ngoh Sod Sai. (Roast Duck Curry with Stuffed Rambutans)

Ingredients:

Fresh Rambutans, pitted and stuffed

with small pieces of pineapple 2 cups

Roast Duck, Boned and cut meat into pieces 1 each

Red Curry paste 2 Tbsp.

Coconut cream 1.5 cups

Coconut milk 4 cups

Fish Sauce 2 Tbsp.

Coconut Sugar 1-2 Tsp.

Kaffir lime leaves, torn 3-4 Leaves

Thai red and green peppers, seeded and sliced on a bias ½ cup

Thai Sweet Basil leaves, picked ½ cup

Directions:
1. Bring coconut cream to a boil and reduce heat until a sheen of coconut oil appears on the surface of the coconut cream. This will take about two to three minutes and represents the beginning of the separation of the coconut oil from the coconut milk. This will indicate that the liquid in the pot is hotter than 100 degrees and ready for the curry paste to be put in.
2. Cook the curry paste out and spread it out so it does not lump up. The curry of the paste will change to a deeper red color.
3. Add the sliced roast duck and stir. The add the coconut milk, not all 4 cups only about 3 cups and bring the curry back to boil. Taste the curry for richness and saltiness. If too rich add more coconut milk adjust the saltiness with fish sauce and round out the flavors with coconut sugar.
4. Then add the stuffed Rambutans. Taste again correct the seasoning and add the kaffir lime leaves, red and green chili peppers. Bring back to boil, add the basil leaves and turn the heat off. Stir to mix and serve in a bowl with steamed rice.

Tips:
a. This recipe usually uses cherry tomatoes instead of any kind of sweet and sour fruits. Coconut sugar is used to slightly sweeten the original recipe but is you are using canned Lychees or canned Rambutans you can omit the sugar because these fruits are usually in quite sweet syrup.
b. Pre- cooked roast duck can be bought at Chinese Roast duck over rice restaurants which can easily be found all over Bangkok.
c. When adding the basil leaves at the end of the cooking process, you need to turn off the heat and stop the curry from boiling or the scent and flavors of the basil will be boiled off by the heat.

Finished-Hor-Mok-Ping

Hor Mok Ping. (Steamed curry fish custard the slightly grilled)

Ingredients:

Fish meat, cubed, use any kind of white flesh fish ½ Kilogram

Coconut cream 1 Cup

Coconut milk ¾ cup

Fresh egg 1 each

Coriander leaves, finely chopped 1 Tbsp.

Fresh red chili peppers, seeded and julienne 2 each

Kaffir Lime, thinly sliced 2 Tsp.

Thai sweet basil leaves, picked ½ cup

Fish sauce as needed

Coconut sugar as needed

Red Curry paste 1.5 Tbsp.

Steamed mussels shelled ½ cup

Dry or fresh corn husk as needed

Directions:
1. Using a food processor, put all the ingredients in the work bowl except for the mussels, basil leaves, julienne chili peppers, sliced kaffir lime leaves and the corn husk. Blend everything until a smooth mousse is achieved.
2. Spoon some of this mix out and fry a small amount in a small pan to check the taste. It should taste very fragrant with the red curry paste, creamy salty enough not to be over powering and naturally sweet from the coconut milk.
3. To make the corn husk basket, tie both ends of the length of wide pieces of corn husk allowing the ends to protrude out a little as if twisting either end of a candy wrapper.
4. Line the bottom of the inside of the basket with some basil leaves, then add the mussels and fill the cup with the curried mousse. Topped the mousse with a few drops of coconut cream, red chili peppers and kaffir lime shreds. Take all these baskets over to the steamer and steam for 15 minutes until done. You can keep it outside until prior to service. The at service time take these baskets over to the grill and grill until hot and very fragrant. This dish can be served with rice as one of the many main courses in a Thai meal or as an appetizer or cocktail snacks in Western kitchen.

Tips:
a. Traditionally, this mousse is put into banana leaf cups. But I wanted you to know that you can use other thing to products that might be more easily available in you home country.
b. You don’t need to grill the Hor Mok if you don’t want to but when I used corn husk for shell the grilling process makes this dish more fragrant and interesting.
c. In the olden days they do not use food processor to make Hor Mok but rather ground fish meat and an earthen bowl to incorporate all the ingredients. My using the food processor is considered by true traditionalist as sacrilegious!