Assorted Vegetables Sour Yellow Curry (Southern Style)

Gang Leung Pak Roum ( Gang=curry, Leung=yellow, Pak=vegetable, Roum=mixed)

This is another curry when my body needs something light to consume. This sour curry is water-based curry, no coconut milk added. It's very light and energized.

There is something to be clarified about sour curry in Thailand; There are two different way to call sour curry in Thailand, which is Gang Som and Gang Lueng. Gang Som is sour curry from the central part of Thailand. Gang Lueng is sour curry from the southern part of Thailand, called by people from other parts of Thailand except people from the South themselves. People in the South call their sour curry Gang Som, there is no Gang Lueng in the South.

People from the rest of the country call sour curry from the South Gang Lueng (yellow curry) because of the yellow color in the curry which come from Turmeric , sour curry in the central part of the country doesn't have turmeric in the ingredient.

So, if you are in central part of Thailand, and you want sour curry with central style cooking, you order Gang Som. If you want the Southern style sour curry with yellow color curry, you order Gang Lueng. Now, when you are in the South and want sour curry, you order Gang Som, what you will get is sour curry with yellow curry, and that's it! There is no Gang Lueng in the South.

When it comes to making Gang Som and Gang Leung, I normally made my own curry paste, since the ingredients of this curry are easy to find, and the best part is I get the fresh taste and fragrant from the herbs, which is better than those getting form the packaged one.

Making your own curry paste
If you have granite mortar and pestle, it's time to get them out and put them to work. If you don't, the food processor will work out fine.

- 3 heads of shallot, choped.
- 1 stalk lemongrass, fine sliced.
- 7 cloves of fresh garlic.
- 2 inches long of fresh or frozen turmeric, cut to small. (available in South East Asian groceries, mostly frozen)
- 10 small dried chillies, or as much as you think you can handle the spicy.
- 1 tsp. salt
- 1 tbsp. shrimp paste.

Head-up!....this process might make you cry because of the shallot, chilies and garlic, so if you don't want to shed some tears, go with the food processor.

Put all ingredients (except shrimp paste) in the mortar and pound them until they become paste then add shrimp paste to this point. Continue to mix until the shrimp paste incorporates with all ingredient.

 

- 3 tbsp. curry paste

- 2 cups of water

- Fish sauce

- Tamarind water

- Lime juice

(I don't give the exact measurement here because it's' better to gradually seasoning, starts with an equal part of fish sauce and tamarind water, and then build up the taste from there.)

Choose all vegetables you like.

These are some of vegetables that go great with this kind of curry : Bamboo shoot, young small corns, green papaya, Napa cabbages, Chinese broccoli, snow peas, cauliflowers, water spinach, watercress, mushrooms, etc.

1. Dissolve the curry paste in water, put on high heat until it reaches full boil.

2. In go, vegetables, start with the kind that isn't get soft easily. Let it reaches the full boil one more time then start seasoning.

3. Keep building up the taste by gradually add fish sauce and tamarind water. Add the soft vegetables.

4. Taste it...it should lead by gentle sour taste.

5. Turn off the heat, add lime juice, stir to incorporate. To this point, the curry should taste slightly sharp sour after adding lime juice. You can cut the sour taste by adding a bit more of fish sauce, if you like.

Paring this sour curry with some fried fish, chicken or some kind of meats, or stir-fried dishes, and eat with steamed rice is a great way to balance the taste of the whole meal.

Stir-fired String Bean with Curry Paste

This is a perfect dish to spice-up your table a little without having your mouth on fire even though it's made with curry paste. It's also a delicious string bean dish eating with steamed rice and a bowl of light soup.


Get a wok on fire

- A bunch of long and firm dark green string bean, cut into an inch long.
- 2 cloves of garlic, crushed.
- 2 tbsp. julienne Kaffir lime leaves
- Red curry paste, start with 1 tbsp.curry paste and you can add more if you want it more spicy.
- Generous amount of your meat of choice - pork, beef, chicken, or seafood like shrimps, squid or firmed tofu, cut into bite size. Here I used pork.

- 1 tbsp. fish sauce
- 1 tbsp. palm sugar
- water



1. Heat up the wok, drizzling in saute oil.
2. Add in crushed garlic and meat, saute for 1 minute.
3. In goes curry paste and 1 tbsp. of water.
4. Add string bean.
5. Start seasoning with fish sauce and palm sugar.
6. Add julienne kaffir lime leaves, saute to incorporate until the meat cook through, string bean getting soft, but still crunchy, add more water if it's too dry.
7.Turn off the heat. Serve.

Chicken Green Curry

Gaang Keaw Wan Gai

This green curry has become the must-try-to-make curry for my foreign friends, once they get the chance to taste it.

To me, this is one of the very savory curry among many curries we have. It's full of a bunch of aromas from the varieties of herbs using to make this type of curry paste and a richness of coconut milk.

Green curry paste

The question I get most about this curry is " What does make it green? " the answer is the green chilies make the curry paste green. In Thailand some people even add the chili leaves to make it even greener.

Don't freak out when seeing green curry with a thick layer of oil floating on the surface which is released from coconut milk, that is how you tell green curry you are about to eat is made by experienced hands, and it tastes real darn delicious. Those oil can also tell that the curry is made with very fresh coconut milk, in away that the canned coconut milk can never do it .

Make the most out of what you can find.
Japanese Eggplants

- 3 tbsp. of Thai green curry paste - available in most Asian groceries.
- 1 canned coconut milk. (about 1 1/2 cups)
- 3-4 pieces of big chicken thighs - either with bones or boned, cut into a bite size.
- 10 Thai eggplant or 3 Japanese eggplants, cut into a bite size.
- a bunch of basil, using only the leaves.
- handful of kaffir lime leaves.

- 3 tbsp. of fish sauce
- a pinch of salt
- 2 tbsp. of paste or 2 pieces of cake palm sugar.
- 1 tbsp. tamarind water.
- 1 tbsp. of oil
- a cup of warm water

Kaffir lime leaves at mom's edible garden in Thailand.

1. Heat up the cooking pot, add in the oil and green curry paste, saute the curry paste until fragrant - be careful not to burn the paste.
2. Add a cup (half of can) of coconut milk to saute with the curry paste. Keep sauteing them until you can see streaks of oil seeping from under the paste up through the surface.
3. Add chicken thighs to incorporate with curry paste.
4. Mix the rest of the coconut milk with water then pour into the pot.
5. Put the lid on, and let the curry reaches the full boil.
6. Once the curry reaches the full boil, start seasoning with fish sauce, palm sugar and tamarind water.
7. Bruise all the kaffire lime leaves with your hands to release the aroma , and add to the curry.
8. Bring the heat down to medium put the lid on, but let it ajar for 15 min.
9. In goes eggplant and cook until the eggplant soft, add basil leaves.
10 Taste your curry and adjust the taste you like.
11. Serve with rice or Thai noodle.

Yum Mommy Yum!

Thai Jungle Curry with Beef, Gang Pah Neau

I don't know what your jungle looks like, my jungle looks like this - lots of mixed vegetables and herbs and beef. This jungle is wild. It makes my mouth on fire every time I eat it. But, that is a good thing though, according Dr. Oz, spicy food helps booting your metabolism, burning your fat.

Gang Pah, Gang means curry, Pah means jungle in Thai, is once considered as a peasant curry. When you live in the jungle, your foods come from what ever it is the jungle provides you- wild herbs, wild vegetable and wild meats.

Thai eggplant, Kabocha squash (Japanese pumpkin)

Cooking in the jungle with wild meat, which some have a very strong meaty smell, the curry paste using for this kind of curry is made with strong fragrant and spicy herbs to help dilute the scent of the meat.

Today the jungle curry has made its way to the city, so that, in some area, the level of spice has been toned down because of a supermarket meats and vegetables have been used instead of the wild animals out there.

preserved Bamboo Shoot

This is the water base curry.
It's light, but it can make your mouth on fire.

- Gang Pah curry paste (available at Thai groceries)
- Vegetables : Thai eggplants, string beans, preserved bamboo shoot, Kabocha squash, cut them all up into bite pieces.
- Thai basil or holy basil, use only the leaves
- kaffir lime leaves, fresh galangal, julienned
- beef, thinly slice

- fish sauce
- palm sugar(optional)
- water

Gang Pah curry paste




1. Heat up a 5 tbsp. of curry paste with a half cup of water until fragrant then add 3 cups of water more, leave it until boil.

2. putting in vegetable, start with squash since they are the hardest to get soft then follow with others except the basil leave (basil leaves go in last)

3. leave them to reach full boil then season it with fish sauce, start with 2tbsp. then taste it, and you can little by little adjust the taste as you go, too salty add more water.

4. (optional) add a small piece of palm sugar for more rounder taste.

5. With fully boil, in goes beef, stir a few times, add basil leaves, close the lid for a few minutes then turn off the heat, leave it for three to five minutes, and it's ready to serve.


Serve with fried fish or stir-fried vegetable and steamed rice. YUM!

Secret tip:
If you feel that the curry is too watery, before cooking this dish, soak up 1 tbsp. of uncooked rice with water for 1 hour then pound or grind them into powder and add into curry, it will help curry to have more body, just what I like.

Sour Curry with Fried Eggs and Watercress

Gang Som Cha-oom Kai

Kang Som translats as the sour curry. The word Som is literally used for something that gives the sour taste. In Thai, Som is also oranges or tangerines. There are two bases of Thai curries, which is a coconut milk base and a water base. Most Kang Som are water base curries, which are lighter and tend to be tangier than most coconut milk base curries.

This particular dish just surfaced in Thai restaurants about fifteen to twenty years ago, I would say. I consider it as a Thai fusion food from the fact that it is a combination of two individual distinctive foods, which is one is Kang Som dish and another one is fried vegetable beaten egg dish, which normally be served separately on the table. Somehow, someone got creative and took a risk putting these two dishes together as one dish and introduced it to people. It becomes a big hit over night. I would die for to know who is the one who created this dish. However,whoever that is, he/she is a real genius because it tastes so good.


I was first introduced to this Kang Som by one of my friend who owns a small, edgy restaurant in Bangkok, and it's become one of my favorite Kang Som I always ask for in the restaurants.

In Thailand this curry is called....Kang Som Cha-om Kai. The original of making this kind of fired beaten egg is to use fresh Cha-om leaves, a type of Acacia family called Acacia pennata, a shrub that is native to Thailand, beaten in with eggs and then fry, called Cha-om Kai, a dish that is usually paired up with spicy shrimp paste dipping (Num-Prik) to eat together. These tiny green leaves have a very strong pungent smell and also health benefits that is good for our body.

I didn't make a trip to a Thai grocery in Chinatown, so I just substituted Cha-om with watercress, which also give a nice texture to fried egg, the only thing missing is that pungent smell, which is, yes, I can live with that.


Ingredients

- 2 tbsp. Thai Kang Som curry paste ( some would label "yellow curry")
- 2 cups of water
- 3 tbsp. concentrated tamarind juice (available in Thai groceries or most Asian groceries)
- 2 tbsp. fish sauce
- 1 tbsp. palm sugar
- 3-4 tbsp. oil for frying eggs

- fresh watercress
- 2 eggs
- 6 fresh shrimps (optional)
- 1 cup of dried shrimps, grind them up into fine powder. (optional - it will help to give more body to water base curry - available in Asian markets and groceries)


First Part: Making Fried Egg

1. Wash and rinse watercress thoroughly.
2. Take a hand full of them and put them into beaten eggs. Leave some to put in the curry.
3. Add 1 tsp. fish sauce mix thoroughly
3. Heat up a pan until the oil get very hot ( you can see some smoke coming up)
4. Pour the mixing egg to the hot oil until it is golden and crispy to both sides.
5. Take it out from the pan, rest it on a cookie rack for cooling down.


Second Part: Making Kang Som curry.

1. A pot with water, stir in Kang Som curry paste until the paste and water are incorporate.
2. Bring curry to a boil.
3. Turn the heat to medium and start seasoning with tamarind, fish sauce and palm sugar.
4. Put in ground dried shrimp.

* To this point you can gradually adjust the taste by adding more the seasonings if you like. Besides the spicy taste, the taste of Kang Som should be led by sour taste then wrapped with salty and sweet. I usually squeeze a wedge of lime into the curry before serving.

4. Put in fresh shrimps (optional) and the rest of watercress, increase the heat to full boil then turn off the heat.

Fried Watercress Egg

Serve
Cut up the crispy egg into small pieces, put them into a serving bowl. Ladle out Kang Som curry to top the crispy eggs. Eat with fluffy steamed rice and fried salty chicken to help balancing the spicy taste of the curry.

Hor Mok, steamed salmon curry cake

This is not a kind of cake with sweet icing on top though and it is not sweet, instead, it's spicy food made with curry paste, coconut milk and eggs. YUM

Curry cakes are usually made with fish meats and all kind of seafood. They are a solid form of curries, I would say, to eat with plain, steamed rice, but, for me, no rice is even better. There are many Thai foods I crave for, which is, again, not easy to find, especially when I live far from Thai community. The only way to satisfy my craving is to call mom for the recipe and directions.

I used to think that this kind of foods is complicated to cook because they look complicated, to me. Besides making water into ice, I had no idea how to make curry into solid form - inside a steamer not a freezer. That was out of my world. Now they are just a piece of cake...righttttttt...after going broke by numbers of long distance phone calls.


In Thailand a batch of curry cake is scooped up into banana leaves folded and secured to form tiny bowls covered with vegetables at the bottom of the bowls. In New York, finding banana leaves is more likely finding gold. So, forget about banana leaves, just good heat resistant ceramic bowls my curry cakes would be happy enough. Still, if finding banana leaves is not a burden, go for it. It is worthy - smell so good and look pretty too. This time I got creative using bell peppers as my tiny bowls and that I can eat the whole thing. I realized I didn't buy enough bell peppers and they were kind of small, so I had to put the rest of the batch into ceramic bowls as usual.


Try some if you love spicy food.

- start with 2 pieces fresh salmon cut into chunks or your choices of fish meats or any seafood.
- 2 tbsp Thai red curry paste.
- 2 eggs
- a can of coconut milk (save up 2-3 tbsp for topping at last)
- 2 tbsp fish sauce
- 1 tbsp palm sugar
- about 5 bell peppers, seeds and ribs removed, or just heat resistant bowls.
- vegetable leaves for covering the bottom of the bowls - basil leaves are the ideal.

Let get your arms toned.

1. Mix salmon, coconut milk, curry paste and eggs together.
2. Stir them together to incorporate.
3. Season with fish sauce and palm sugar and keep stirring until creamy thick - thick enough to hold itself a little.
4. Prepare the steamer. I use a wok with a steamer plate and a lid since it is easy for me. You can use any kind of steamers that allow hot steam from boiling water go through tiny holes to steam the bowls. (I used wine corks to help balancing bell peppers since they don't have flat bottom)


5. Open the lid checking them after 15 minutes, add a tiny pinch of salt to preserved coconut milk and top it on the curry cakes follow with basil leaves.

Eat them with steamed rice, or just them. I eat them as an appetizer, or even a snack sometimes.