Jungle Curry (Kaeng Pa) // The virtues of obscure ingredients

When we went to Thailand, our travels through the northern part of the country landed us at a great cooking school in Chiang Mai. Here, we learned about the difference between northern Thai food, influenced heavily by other cultures and their significant distance from the coast, and southern Thai food, flavored heavily with coconut, fiery chiles, and plenty of fish. In the north, pork reigns supreme, and an interesting curry dish has emerged - jungle curry, known most notably for its absence of coconut milk from the sauce. Drawing on the other flavors of the countryside - fermented fish sauce, lime leaves, palm sugar, and a pungent red curry paste - mixed with chicken broth, it is a very enticing, filling, and yet surprisingly healthy alternative to the usual cholesterol-laden curry dishes from Bangkok and parts south. We cooked a decent version that day, which we carried home with us.

Fate being the cruel mistress that it is, we tried to replicate this dish following that recipe multiple times, to no avail. I tried making my own curry paste, finding different vegetable mixes to add, making Thai-infused chicken stock, buying a can of green peppercorns, and even growing my own kaffir lime tree to get things right. Nothing worked. Disgusted, embarrassed from one too many hosted dinner party failures, and on the verge of a breakdown, we tried one last time last night, with a careful eye on the exact ingredients called for.

The results were astounding. Somehow this dish rocketed from the bottom of our Thai repertoire to near the top, for a few reasons - it's healthy, it's easy, it's delicious, and it's exotic. This is the only dish I now make that has two very specific ingredients, which we had to learn (painfully) not to substitute for others. We didn't even have to make our own curry paste for this, just used the cans and it came out great. Still in shock, we may make it again tonight just to confirm that we have this one in the bag.

This is what the dish should look like

A prior attempt included making curry paste from scratch

I have no idea what I was thinking

Prep for the older version - too many substitutions, way too much effort, and an unbelievably disappointing meal. We will refer to this image shortly

So read on to learn about why this last photo is completely wrong, and how you can do this right.

Pad Prik Khing Gai (Thai Stir-Fry with Roasted Chile Paste)

Okay everyone, time for a crash course in ordering from Thai menus.  You may think you understand it, but I have concluded that none of us westerners really know.  Well allow me to clear at least a couple of things up, in a section I like to call:

Culturally Insensitive Language Training

In Thai, there are a number of words which are used strangely, and a small number which you can always hang your hat on.  I think I've finally got a small piece of this figured out.  So let me lay some words on you, and you can try to remember them so you don't make the same restaurant ordering mistakes that I did:

"Pad" - stir-fried.  Not an especially helpful word.

"Gai" - chicken.  Pretty straightforward.

"Prik" / "Phrik" - chile peppers.  Got it.

"Khing" - ginger.  Wait, galangal.  Wait, all of the above.  Ah, here's the problem - people who try to translate this don't know what they're talking about!  What they mean to say is that "khing" most likely means rhizome, which in turn encompasses both ginger and galangal.  In this context, it means galangal.

So, when you see the phrase "prik khing", you may think you're getting chile and ginger sauce, when in fact you are not.  This is even more confusing when you consider that there is a dish called "pad khing", which IS a dish of stir-fried ginger and other vegetables (recipe coming soon).  But no, prik khing refers to a paste made of roasted chiles and assorted aromatics, to include galangal and lemongrass.  If you just pick up a can of the stuff, you will see an almost identical list of ingredients compared to red curry paste, but this paste is prepared in a completely different way, which I know nothing about, but which I gather involves roasting the chiles first, much like you would do to create chipotles from jalapenos or anchos from poblanos.

Moving on.  This is a very common Thai dish, and strongly resembles a curry but without the use of coconut milk.  And since the name gives away very little, it is almost always a stir-fry of green beans (or long beans), often with meat, and usually with some kind of fresh pepper in there.  I absolutely love this dish, and until recently had been making it with red curry paste.  It was probably about 80% as good as if you use prik khing curry paste, but if you can find it I say go for the real thing because it has a certain complexity that red curry paste doesn't have.  And definitely don't hold back on the use of the paste, either.  I used a whole can, and didn't feel like it was overpowering at all.

This dish comes together really quickly, and despite having a relatively short list of ingredients it packs a wealth of complex flavors.  I guess that's because the work was already done preparing the curry paste; be thankful I'm not asking you to make your own... yet.

Pad Prik Khing Gai
By numerous sources

• 1 4 ounce can prik khing curry paste (Maesri brand is fairly common)
• 1/2 cup chicken, sliced thinly
• 2 cups green beans (or Chinese long beans), cut into 1-2" pieces
• 1/2 cup water
• 3-4 kaffir lime leaves, sliced thinly
• 1/2 red bell pepper, sliced
• 1 tbsp fish sauce
• 1/2 tbsp white or palm sugar
• 2 Thai chiles, sliced thinly (optional)
• 1 tbsp canola oil

Gather up the fairly short list of ingredients.  Feel free to switch out the meat or the peppers for others, but definitely include green beans or long beans

Heat oil over medium high heat.  Add the prik king chili paste and fry for 1-2 minutes.  Now add the chicken (or whatever protein), coat with the chili paste, and let them cook until they are done.  If the pan gets too dry while the meat is cooking, add some water, a few tablespoons at a time.

Stir-fry the curry paste to bring out the flavors, and attempt to gas your friends out of the house.

Add the meat and stir-fry in the paste

Add the green beans, Thai chiles, and bell pepper slices and some more water, again a little at a time, until they are almost cooked.  Add the kaffir lime leaves, sugar, and fish sauce.  Taste and adjust the seasonings as needed.  Once the beans are fully cooked, serve over jasmine rice.

Stir-fry the remaining ingredients for a few minutes, adding water as necessary, then add the sauce components and serve immediately

Thai Basil Chicken (Gai Pad Krapow)

Update 9/2024: after reading through Andy Ricker's Pok Pok Noodles book, it is very clear that I have made a huge error in describing this dish. Krapao doesn't translate as "basil", it translates as "holy basil", which is very different from the thai basil with licorice flavor and purple stems. Reading this and confirming it all over the internet, I realize that I have no idea what this dish is really supposed to taste like, so I'll have to update this page again once I find or grow the correct basil, and get a better feel for the correct flavors. The version with thai basil is certainly fine, but it's not authentic, and I've been spreading misinformation with what's below. Holy basil (Ocimum tenuiflorum), also known as tulsi, has notes of mint and clove in addition to licorice. I might try some of my wild basil to see if that's similar.

Original post:

It's always nice when you eat a dish in a restaurant and think "I could make this at home", and then you go home and try to make it and it's a dismal failure. Sometimes a homemade meal is a shell of its former glory, when you previously paid for a professional to make it for you. But every once in a while, you make something at home that could pass for restaurant food, if only you had shoved it into a plastic take-out container before serving yourself. And this was one of those moments.

I can't tell you how many times I've ordered pad krapow.  I believe the dish literally translates as stir-fried (pad) basil (krapow - see 9/24 correction, this is actually holy basil) with chicken (gai), which leaves very little mystery.  It is typically served in a large bowl, and consists of ground chicken, a ton of basil, and sometimes a couple of vegetables. I poked around online until I found one that sounded good, then modified it slightly to include a couple of produce items I wanted to use. The result was pretty much identical to the restaurant, although significantly cheaper, and hopefully more healthy. Apparently, the secret to this dish is a ton of fish sauce, although I'm learning more and more that this is the secret to pretty much all Thai cooking.

I've made a few dishes using Thai basil before, but have perhaps skipped over its importance. Thai Basil Chicken is not "Basil Chicken" with Thai flavoring; it is chicken that has been blessed by the infusion of Thai basil. Here's what this looks like:

Thai basil plant, from my garden.  Money well spent - I put this stuff in everything!

Notice that the leaves are not as large as those of regular basil.  I'm no botanist, but this is clearly not the same plant, and shouldn't be confused as such.  You can also probably get away with holy basil, which has more of a purple-colored leaf, and which probably tastes more like licorice than the Thai varietal.

Other than that, there are no mysteries to the ingredients.  I ground my own chicken, which is totally unnecessary unless you happen to only have whole chicken breasts and a grinder.  But other than that, this dish should come together very quickly and easily.