Nosh: Thai Farm Cooking: Green Curry paste: แกงเขียวหวาน

Thai Farm Cooking: Green Curry paste: แกงเขียวหวาน

The day of the Thai cooking course was one of the best days of my trip to Thailand. Imagine my thrill when I chanced to walk past their booth on a side street in Chiang Mai. I was immediately hooked. The promise of a day in the countryside, a local market, an organic farm, and learning and understanding what Thai ingredients are and how they're used. I had read about a few other cooking courses in Chiang Mai, but this one offered a chance to escape the city smog and pick organic ingredients to cook with -- I could not resist. I'm so glad I did it!

The next day, the owner, Sawat, who was also our instructor, picked each member of the class up at their respective guest houses around Chiang Mai. All in all we represented the U.S, Norway, Sweden, England, France and Germany. We climbed in the back of his pickup truck and drove about 15 minutes outside of the city.

The Market
The pickup truck pulled up to a large open-air market; it was very clean. Sawat pointed out that it did not "stink" like other markets and we were all in grateful agreement. We headed to the rice stall where a dozen sacks of rice awaited his explanation. The basics: Thai people like to eat two different kinds of rice. Sticky rice or "Kao Nio" is soaked overnight in water and steamed. "Kao Jaw" can be brown, red, white, Jasmine or Basmati rice, and it's simply boiled in water.

Thai Farm
After the market, we drove through miles of rice fields until we reached his beautiful farm.
The first thing we did, after each settling in at our own stone mortar and pestle, was to walk around the farm as Sawat explained all the different herbs and plants. He passed leaves around for us to crush in our hands; he picked and cut roots open; we tasted, we felt, we perspired under our floppy straw hats and snapped pictures and listened. All the while, Sawat was funny and interesting ... it was easy to tell that he enjoys teaching foreigners about Thai ingredients, that he was proud of his farm and what they grew, that he was committed to growing things organically. Organic farming isn't just about not using pesticides ... it involves an intelligent way of growing things and naturally deterring insects by what they grow ... for example, a Thai farmer will not grow a large patch of one thing; instead, they grow a little bit of one thing and a little bit of another, all interspersed, and this keeps bugs who feed on specific plants from destroying a crop. They will also plant strong-smelling herbs to discourage insects, or they'll place plants that they know a specific insect doesn't like within the plants that the insects DO like. Smart.

So it was back to the veranda and our mortal and pestles to use the collected ingredients to make our own Thai Green Curry paste. You can buy (and I have) decent green curry paste at the store but it doesn't compare to making your own. You experience each ingredient, the texture, the aroma ... you can customize it depending upon what you like more or less of. And, of course, it's fun! Here is a recipe for the green curry paste we made ... adjust the amount of chilies to your liking .... you can find all of these ingredients at your local Thai or Asian shop:

Thai Green Curry paste: Kaeng Kiao Waan Gai: แกงเขียวหวาน
Serves 1-2

2-3 green long chillies
1 tbsp. of chopped shallots
1 tsp. of chopped galangal (or 'Siamese ginger')
1/2 tsp. of chopped kaffir lime rind ( or kaffir lime leaves)
1 tsp. of chopped garlic
1 tbsp. of chopped lemongrass
1 tbsp. of chopped krachai ( or ‘Thai ginseng’ )
1/4 tsp. of roasted cumin seeds
1/4 tsp. of roasted coriander seeds
1/4 tsp. of salt ( or 1/2 tsp. of salt if you would like to keep the paste longer )

Pound each ingredient in a mortar and pestle, one by one, building the ingredients into the paste as you go. At the end, you should have a paste like this:

Once we completed the green curry paste, we used it to make one of my favorite dishes that involves blending the curry paste with coconut milk. Anything involving coconut milk is A1 on my list. I found out, too, that "coconut milk" doesn't come from inside the coconut. It's made by grinding mature coconut flesh with water. Thais don't eat the mature coconut the way we do; it's too fatty. They only eat young coconut. Apparently, young coconuts have less oil and can be eaten with a spoon; the flesh is soft. But they are too young to make milk - they only have a sweet water inside. Very popular in Thailand - they hack open a young coconut, drink the juice, and scoop out and eat the jelly-like flesh. That was news to me!

This green curry dish seems more like a soup than a curry. You eat it with "sticky" rice -- you make a ball with the rice, then flatten it out, and scoop up the curry with it.

Green Curry with Chicken: Kaeng Kiao Waan Gai

1 cup of sliced eggplants ( or other vegetables like cauliflower, broccoli or potato )
1/4 cup of smaller pea-like eggplants ( "MAKHEAU PHUANG" )
1/3 cup of sliced onion
70 grams of sliced chicken
1 tsp. of sugar
1 tbsp. of fish sauce or soya sauce
3 kaffir lime leaves
2 stems of sweet basil ( HORAPAA )
1 cup of coconut milk
1 cup of water

Pour the coconut milk into a medium pot and turn the heat to medium. Stir until oil appears. Add the green curry paste and chicken and stir until almost done. Add your vegetables, water, sugar, fish sauce, salt and turn the heat up. Stir a little. When everything is cooked, put the sweet basil and lime leaves. Serve with rice. (Note: Chicken can be replaced by beef, pork, fish,l or tofu.)

If you're wondering about the sugar in that last recipe, I learned that many Thai people use sugar to replace MSG. Good news!

Here is the information for the Thai Farm Cooking School. I highly recommend this specific course; it was a wonderful experience. Here are more photos of the cooking course. Stay tuned for more Thai cooking!

Thai Farm Cooking School
info@thaifarmcooking.net
203 Moo 5
Tambon Muanglen, Amphur Sansai
Chiang Mai 50210 (Thailand)

1-2 day courses cost 900 baht ( 19 Euros or 26 U.S Dollars ) per course. They include everything - transportation, market experience, all ingredients, and literature. Not bad for 20 bucks.