Hindustan Times
Thai high: The Konkan way
We all love Thai food, don’t we? Tangy, spicy, saucy — close enough to be accepted by masala-loving Indians, exotic enough to be a special meal. A flood of Thai restaurants has washed up in our cities, but surprisingly few people try the cuisine at home.
This might be because some of the ingredients are difficult to find: Fish sauce, galangal (Thai ginger), lemongrass, shallots, to name a few. Some roots and spices are freely available at neighbourhood grocer and provision stores — 10 years ago I remember buying galangal from Delhi’s rundown Kotla Mubarakpur market — so go get them.
I am delighted to inform you that the flavours of Thailand merge happily with condiments from my homeland cuisine from the Konkon coast. I discovered this quite by chance more than a decade ago.
The ingredients for the fish curry are limited and quite simple
It was on a cool, winter morning sometime in the late 1990s that I had time on my hands, a cold-season hunger, a limited number of ingredients — Thai and Konkan — and a desire to create something that did not taste like my everyday food.
A disclaimer: I cannot tell you how to make Thai masalas from scratch. What I can tell you is that the Namjai brand of pastes works wonderfully as a base for fusion explorations. I’ve bought them for years in green, red, yellow and massaman pastes.
You can, of course, simply follow the instruction on the packet and produce an adequate Thai curry, but that’s never quite satisfied me. I can get better Thai food in a restaurant.
No, if you want to really make Namjai rise above its ordinariness, urge it to widen its horizons. I’ve done this often, either for my family or for parties, and the delighted response indicates it works.
The fun thing is that no one is willing to believe every dish takes no more than 15 minutes. I made a fish curry (more Thai than Konkan); a vegetable curry (more Konkan than Thai) and a salad (of no specific provenance). In short, a hearty, flavour-laden Sunday lunch with minimum effort.
Thai-Konkan fish curry
The Thai-Konkan Fish Curry, ready to eat
750 gm fish (I used singhada)
1-inch piece of galangal, chopped round
1 packet of basil leaves (about 100-200 gm), roughly chopped
¾ packet of Namjai green-curry paste
6-7 large pods of garlic, crushed
1 tin of coconut milk
8-9 kokum pods, soaked in 2 tbsps of water
salt to taste
1-2 slit chillies (if you want it spicy; I don’t add them)
Lightly heat 1-2 tsps of olive oil in a non-stick pan. Add the garlic. When it starts to turn brown, add the galangal and stir for a minute. Add the green-curry paste and stir-fry lightly for 1-2 minutes (if it sticks, drizzle some vinegar or wine; I use red-wine vinegar). Add the fish and toss. Reduce heat. Pour in the coconut milk. Add basil leaves. Add kokum with its water. Add salt. Keep on simmer till fish cooks through.
Konkan-Thai broccoli curry
The Konkan-Thai Broccoli Curry is amazingly easy to make. Eat it hot
1 small head of broccoli; wash and clean florets
2-3 garlic pods, crushed
½-inch piece of galangal, sliced into roundels
1 tsp of black and white sesame seeds
½ tsp of turmeric powder
1 flat tsp of red-chilli powder
2-3 kokum pods, soaked in 2 tsp of water
1 carrot and half a cup of peas, boiled (feeling lazy? leave them out)
½ can of coconut milk (I used a Dabur tetrapack)
salt to taste
In a small wok, heat 1 tsp of olive oil, then pop the sesame seeds. Add garlic, till lightly brown. Add the galangal, stir for 30 seconds. Add the turmeric and red-chilli powder. Drizzle more olive oil if needed. Add the broccoli and stir fry till almost done. Reduce flame to simmer. Add coconut milk. Add kokum with its water and salt. Stir in boiled carrot and peas.
The Scronchy salad
The Scronchy Salad is best when it's chilled before eating
(so named because it went “scronch” when we ate it)
1 big handful of sprouts (about 100 gm)
1 tomato, with pulp and seeds removed, chopped small
3 walnuts, broken into little pieces
9 olives (I used olives stuffed with red chillies)
3 tbsps of parsley, washed and roughly torn
Fresh black pepper
For the dressing: juice of half a lime; 1 tsp of olive oil (less if you want); 1 tsp of soy sauce, 1 crushed garlic pod
Important: Dry the sprouts completely, otherwise they won’t “sronch”. I used a salad spinner. Mix all the ingredients. Chill in the refrigerator. Pour on the dressing before serving. Grind some fresh, black pepper.
(2 votes, average: 4.5 out of 5)
Loading ...Posted by Samar Halarnkar on Friday, September 25, 2009 at 8:45 pm
Filed under Food, Uncategorized · Tagged Konkan food, Konkan-Thai broccoli curry, scronchy salad, Thai food, Thai-Konkan fish curry
Hi Samar,
I’ve been following your blog for quite a while now. I’m a student living in the US. I’m bored of making normal sabji-roti kinda meals (or then eggs or chicken). I’m looking for some innovative recipes (e.g. your sausage masala :)… any suggestions for other such dishes which are quick and easy to make?
-Hitesh
[Reply]
Samar Halarnkar Reply:
September 27th, 2009 at 8:50 pm
Hi Hitesh. As I make them, I’ll post them!
[Reply]
Hitesh, here’s my mother’s super-quick fried tomatoes. Slit 2 green chillies and leave them to soak in half a teaspoon of cooking oil. Meanwhile, slice 2 tomatoes. Heat the oil in a frying pan with or without chillies as you like, add the tomatoes, mush about a bit, turn flame on lowest, cover and cook for 3-4 min, lift lid and mush about a bit more. Have on buttered toast.
It is to die for.
You can add bits of capisicum if you like, but if you want the flavour to really sink in, don’t eat the tomatoes right away. Leave in the fridge overnight and by morning your fried tomatoes will have a lovely capisicum-y flavour.
[Reply]
Kushal Reply:
September 26th, 2009 at 1:54 pm
Whoops, I forgot. Add salt just before you begin to mush the tomatoes.
[Reply]
Samar Halarnkar Reply:
September 27th, 2009 at 8:50 pm
that is innovative bunny
[Reply]
Pervin Reply:
October 4th, 2009 at 2:53 pm
Like a true-blue Bawa, breaking an “eendu” on the tomato mush, will help me attain instant Nirvana! Bunny, shukriya!
[Reply]
Samar, the salad was cool, i have tried the namjai thingii and its quite handy i must say
Kushal, the fried tomatoes is super cool gonna try it asap !!!!
Keep them coming guys !!!
[Reply]
Samar Halarnkar Reply:
September 27th, 2009 at 8:51 pm
[Reply]
Thanks Kushal! Definitely gonna try it!
[Reply]
Scronchy salad is what I’m going to try first. many thanks. You had covered the transition from the 20th to the 21st century in your last piece on Al Jawahar, sorry for pointing out something that already existed.
[Reply]
Samar Halarnkar Reply:
September 27th, 2009 at 8:51 pm
tell me how it turns out
[Reply]
Hi Samar,
You have a nice blog here. Thanks for the recipes, I have been wanting to try my hand at cooking Thai for sometime now. Where can we get the Namjai pastes in India? are they readily available? I am from Mumbai
[Reply]
Samar Halarnkar Reply:
October 1st, 2009 at 8:00 pm
Hi Nishi. You can get Namjai pastes in larger provision stories, in Mumbai and in Delhi. They are quite common. Happy cooking
[Reply]
I had a privledge of relishing Tender Coconut Salad. It had besides the tender coconut thin pieces of Kokum mixed evenly to give it a tangy taste. Broadly it had small pieces of tomato minus its seeds and yoke, spring onions, coriander leaves. Sauce was half sauteed in butter. I do not have the recipe. If anyone of you can post it for the benefit of foodies of this blog.
The unpolished ‘Ambe Mor’ rice tastes better than any of the rice that you get here in north or any other rice for that matter. Any takers ?
[Reply]
Where can I buy kokum pods in Delhi?
[Reply]
Anil Reply:
September 30th, 2009 at 6:07 pm
INA market. You may try at Maharashtra and Goa food stalls in Delhi Haat
[Reply]
Samar Halarnkar Reply:
October 1st, 2009 at 7:59 pm
INA is where I buy my kokum from
[Reply]
hey samar. we celebrated the successful survival of our lemongrass plant by making thai green curry. i found the recipe on the net, though improvised it to ingredients we find. it turned out very thai-restaunrantsy! so here’s a quick guide:
make a paste in the mixer: 1 onion, 1/2 cup corriander, 3 garlic pods, 1 thumb-sized ginger, 2tbsp dark soy sauce, 2 tsp dhania poweder, half a stalk of lemongrass (i was unsure if it would blend right so just put in half), 1 tsp sugar.
take 2 tbsp oil, put this paste in it and add 1 small (250 ml) pack of cocounut milk to it right away. immediately add 1 stalk of lemongrass (cut into thin 1 inch slices). let it boil for a minute.
at this stage we add the vegetables or meat. we used cauliflower and carrots. they were cooked-but-crunchy in around 10 mins.
Then add peppers - red, green or yellow. simmer for around 3-4 minutes more.
Once the heat has been switched off, we added 1/2 cup of roughly chopped basil leaves.
we had this with brown rice, though think white rice would have been better.
an ideal add-on would be some pan-grilled fish!
cheers, sanasi
p.s. love reading your blog, though i always feel a slight pang of regret of having turned into a veggie.
[Reply]
sanasi Reply:
October 2nd, 2009 at 9:22 am
oops! forgot two major ingredients — 3 green chillies (i deseeded them) to be included in the paste. and salt as per taste
[Reply]
Samar Halarnkar Reply:
October 3rd, 2009 at 2:51 pm
Sanasi, great to hear about your lemongrass plant. And thank you for this recipe. Cheers
[Reply]
all good things
[Reply]
You’ve married the Kon_Thai cuisines very well, Samar. Your innovative salad made many a fan amongst our friends, last evening. Thanks!
[Reply]
Samar Halarnkar Reply:
October 5th, 2009 at 1:51 pm
It’s very nice to hear that!
[Reply]
Sawasdee khaa! I try make or even better I tell Yashoda make. Yashoda my Nepalese-Burmese homehelp, make good Tomyum, Khao Phad Che (Veg Fried Rice) and my favourite, Crapcow aka Khao Ka Phao Kai (Rice with Chicken and Basil Leaves).
Al-loai! (Delicious!)
[Reply]
Samar Halarnkar Reply:
October 22nd, 2009 at 6:48 pm
wow
[Reply]
Thai food is very similar to south Indian, ie coconut and peanut
[Reply]