💾 Archived View for tilde.pink › ~bencollver › recipe › ascii › ethnic › asia › thai › recipe183.txt captured on 2022-06-11 at 22:53:07.
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Note this is part 1 of a two part dinner recipe: this curry is *hot*, as a complement to it I suggest the Kai Yang Isan recipe that I will also post. This is a curry that is best if you have an angler in the family. You can probably prepare it with anything that you catch that doesn't eat you before you get it on the plate. I particularly like it done with catfish. If you don't have access to fresh caught fish, you can use any shop bought fish. Mackerel is a good staple. The quantities are of course a matter of choice. The quantities of shallots (purple onions), garlic and sliced prik ki nu are according to my wife "a handful of each" - this equates to almost exactly half a cup, so that is what I have put in the details. Prik ki nu (literally "mousedropping chilies"), also known as birdseye chilies or dynamite chilies, are small green, and quite explosive. The usual cautions apply to handling them then rubbing your eyes... Cook books often suggest throwing away the seeds, but this is not usually done in Thailand. Instead when you slice them any seeds that escape from the pile may be discarded, but don't go to any particular lengths to separate out the seeds. Take about a pound of filleted fish. If using mackerel discard the head and tail, cut the fish in half along its belly, discard the backbone. If using catfish just chop it into chunks, and warn the diners about the bones... :-) In a blender or food processor, place a cup of water, a quarter cup of fish sauce, half a cup of chopped shallots, half a cup of crush garlic, and half a cup of thinly sliced prik ki nu, together with about 2 tablespoons of fermented shrimp paste that has been briefly fried to bring out the aroma. Blend to a coarse paste, and add to 4 cups of water in a saucepan and bring to a boil. Add the fish, 2 tablespoons of palm sugar, a third of a cup of tamarind juice, half a cup of sliced long beans (the Thai version is about a metre long, but the "European" version will do...) and half a cup of sliced bamboo shoots. Bring to a boil, reduce the heat until it is just boiling and cook until the fish is cooked (about 5 minutes). Serve over Thai Jasmine rice. --- Footnote: you can add chilies at the table but you can't take them out once the dish is cooked. Thais regularly offer five standard condiments (prik phom, or chili powder, sugar, chilies in vinegar, chilies in fish sauce, and ground peanuts). You also sometimes see chilies in sweet dark soy sauce, fish sauce, dark soy and oyster sauce on the table. Feel free to add whatever you fancy to the dish. This dish is *meant* to be hot, but it isn't meant to eat the glaze off the plate, so be sensible the first time you try it (I recall a cooking show in Australia recommending half a birdseye chili per person: on that basis this dish has enough chilies to kill an average Australian family it would appear (though I don't believe it, so don't flame me, mail Channel 7)) Thais usually have several dishes, that complement each other. A good complement to a hot dish like this is our relatively benign kai yang isan. (which I will post next).