Prik Kaeng Kiao Wan (Green Curry-Sweet Hot) Ingredients
1 cup prik ki nu
1 (green birdseye chilis)
5 tbsp lemon grass,
1 finely sliced
10 tbsp shallots (purple onions),
1 chopped
10 tbsp garlic, minced
5 tbsp galangal (kha) grated
5 tbsp coriander/cilantro root,
1 chopped
2 tbsp coriander seed
1 tbsp cumin seed
1 tbsp freshly ground
1 black pepper
2 tbsp shredded bai makroot
1 (lime leaves)
4 tbsp kapi (fermented shrimp
1 paste)
1 tbsp palm sugar.
Prik Kaeng Kiao Wan (Green Curry-Sweet Hot) Directions
This is a paste for a green curry, and the 'wan' indicates that it
should be slightly sweet as well as hot. If you can't get prik ki nu,
you can use half a pound of habanero chilis or one pound of jalapena
chilis. If you use the latter deseed them before use. Note that if
you use a substitute you will get a different volume of paste, and
that you will need to use different amounts in subsequent recipes. If
you can't get kha use ginger if you can't get bai makroot use lime
zest if you can't get coriander root, use coriander leaves.
coarsely chop the chilis. Toast the dry seeds in a heavy iron skillet
or wok, and grind them coarsely. Add all the ingredients to a food
processor and process to a smooth paste. Place in tightly stoppered
jars, and keep in the fridge for at least a week for the flavors to
combine and develop before use. The remaining three pastes are all
made from dried red chilis: those sold in Thailand are frankly stale.
Those sold in Europe and America are generally barely fit for human
consumption. If you must use them then break them up and shake out
the seeds, and soak them in tepid water for about 30 minutes before
use. Preferably dry fresh red chilis. All these recipes call for one
cup of fresh red chilis, or half a pound of red habaneros, or one
pound of red jalapenas, deseeded. Dry them in the sun, or if the
climate doesn't allow then dry them in a herb desicator, or smoke
them in a smoker or over a barbeque. The dried chilis (which need not
be tinder dry - it is enough to remove most of the water) are then
toasted under a broiler until *almost* burnt. Treat this stage with
extreme caution: if you overcook them a noxious gas closely related
to Mustard gas is released. This is quite dangerous at a minimum cook
them in a very well ventillated room with a fan on and have a damp
cloth ready to cover your mouth and nose in case of emergencies --
and disconnect your smoke detector/fire alarm! Thai 'curries' are
typically made using a 'curry' paste. However that is an
oversimplification: firstly the word used for these dishes in Thai is
kaeng (pronounced 'gang') and it covers soups, stews and of course
curries. A paste which is used could be used just as well for a soup
as for a curry. Secondly of course it is not true that Thais call
them curry: the word for curry is kari and it is only applied to a
small number of dishes: the dishes that appear on western Thai
restaurant menues as 'curries' are kaengs, and they are made not with
curry paste but with a sauce made from prik kaeng (which in this case
could be translated better as chili paste). There are many different
prik kaeng in Thai cuisine and from them you could make a vast number
of different dishes by using different protein ingredients, and
vegetable ingredients and so on to the extent that it is said that
most Thai housewives could cook a different kaeng every day of the
year. However if you know the four basic pastes listed here, and the
basic techniques from my next posting, you can make a vast array of
dishes, if not perhaps quite one per day for a year. A rough rule of
thumb is that one cup of raw chilis yields a cup or so of paste
(since there is air in the chilis). Further it will keep about 3
months in a preserving jar in the fridge. Since the average kaeng
will require (depending on how hot you make it) between 2 and 8
tablespoons of paste, and since there are roughly 16 tablespoons in a
cup, you can scale this recipe up to suit your needs. Suffice it to
say that we make these pastes on a cycle over 8 weeks and make 6-8
portions of each of them. As they say in US motor advertisements:
your mileage may vary!
Colonel Ian F. Khuntilanont-Philpott Systems Engineering,
Vongchavalitkul University, Korat 30000, Thailand
Serves: 2
Please enjoy this Prik Kaeng Kiao Wan (Green Curry-Sweet Hot) Recipe
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Food Quotes:
Nothing would be more tiresome than eating and drinking if God had not made them a pleasure as well as a necessity.
Voltaire
The most remarkable thing about my mother is that for thirty years she served the family nothing but leftovers. The original meal has never been found.
Calvin Trillin
Cooking is like love. It should be entered into with abandon or not at all.
Harriet van Horne
