The Cookbook Challenge ~ Week 21 ThaiThe Cookbook Challenge ~ Week 21 Thai

Theme:  Thai
Cookbook:  Longrain,Modern Thai Food by Martin Boetz
Recipe:  Spiced Curry of Spatchcock with Chilli

I knew immediately which cookbook I wanted to use for this week’s theme.  Martin Boetz,the German boy who says that “chilli and fish sauce happen to do it more for me than olive oil and balsamic vinegar” has modern Thai recipes that have always inspired and sometimes challenged me.  I have cooked many a dish from his book and hope to one day have attempted all of them.

I’ve read comments that Longrain isn’t “real” Thai food,and it probably isn’t,but then I don’t think it purports to be.  What I do think it does well,is the very Thai practice of balancing flavours to bring out the best combinations.

No weird or hard to find ingredients in this week’s Cookbook Challenge unless you count spatchcock.  I actually used two small poussins,but a small chicken would probably do the trick too.

The method of making the curry paste was a bit of a departure from what I normally do,and took quite a bit longer than I had planned,but the results were delicious.

Ingredients
6 cups coconut milk
1 stalk lemongrass,bruised along its length
6 coriander roots,scraped and cleaned
100ml fish sauce
100g palm sugar shaved
1 x No. 5 spatchcock
100ml fish sauce (yes,a second lot)
100g palm sugar (another repeat)
1 red banana chilli roasted and peeled
50g peanuts,roasted and crushed
juice of ½ mandarin (I ended up using a whole one because I wasn’t happy with the amount of juice from just half)
fried peanuts
1 bunch coriander leaves (I used about a ¼)
1 tablespoon coconut cream

Curry Paste
12 long dried chillies,seeded
1½ cups sliced red onions
1 cup peeled garlic cloves –I couldn’t bring myself to use this much garlic
2 stalks lemongrass,white part only,finely sliced
6 coriander roots,scraped and cleaned
1 x 4cm piece galangal,peeled and finely sliced
2 teaspoons shrimp paste,roasted
1 teaspoon sea salt
1 tablespoon coriander seeds
1 tablespoon blade mace
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
3 cardamom pods
3 cloves
1 teaspoon white peppercorns

Get yourself an nice big pot,fill it with the coconut milk and bring to the boil.  Add the lemongrass,coriander roots,fish sauce and palm sugar and your spatchcock (very wise idea to have washed your birdie first).  Bring back to the boil then lower your heat to a simmer and poach for 25 minutes.  Remove the bird,allow to cool then halve and remove the centre bones.  I decided to quarter my little poussin to make the pieces a more manageable size.  You need to reserve 300ml of the braising liquid.  I strained mine to remove the coriander roots and lemongrass,but the recipe doesn’t actually call for it.

Onto the curry paste.

First soak the chillies in warm water for about 10 minutes.  You can probably tell from my photo that I actually used some small dried chillies as I didn’t have any long ones.  Place a  wok over a medium heat and dry-roast,not the seeds and spices as you might expect (you get to do that a bit later) but the onions and garlic,adding  a little water to prevent burning.  In 5 -10 minutes they should be slightly coloured and you can add the lemongrass,coriander roots and galangal.  Cover the wok to help the cooking a long and stir occasionally.  When you think the garlic is soft and cooked through add the drained chillies,shrimp paste and salt.  Stir it well then remove from heat.

In another wok or pan dry roast the coriander seeds,mace,cumin,cardamom and cloves until you get that wonderful fragrance coming off the wok.  Combine them with the peppercorns and grind to a fine powder.  You could do this in a spice mill.  I went the old fashioned way and used a mortar and pestle.  I then added the “wet” mix to the dry and pounded my little heart out until I got something that I was happy to pretend could be called a “fine paste”.

Now to pull it all together.  I looked at the picture in the Longrain book and the pieces of spatchcock looked like they had been browned.  There is no reference to browning the bird in the recipe,but I decided to do it anyway.

Heat a little bit of oil in the wok (I just used what was left from my browning) and fry the curry paste until fragrant and it smells cooked.  Martin tells me this will be 10-12 minutes,but I stopped WAY before then.  At this point use the extra palm sugar and fish sauce to season and add the reserved braising liquid,your little birdies and the roasted banana chilli (which I completely forgot!).  Simmer for 5-10 minutes,then add the peanuts and mandarin juice.  Transfer it to your serving dish and garnish with extra fried peanuts,coriander leaves and a little coconut cream.

This dish was amazingly tender and moist and different to the normal Thai curries that I have enjoyed. I would do it again –it had good heat and spice and I really liked the balance of flavours.