Thai-style mushrooms

The last week has been really bad for me. I was down with a really bad stomach infection and before I could recover completely, I was down with a bad cough and cold. Its been raining almost everyday and thats made it more gloomy all around.
I was living off khichdi and bland food and all that good and cooling for the stomach.
Like you can imagine, I have been craving for something more interesting on my plate.



I had a little Thai red curry paste remaining from a batch that I made for a red Thai curry a while back. It was too little for a curry but the flavour of this paste is so good, I couldn't let it go waste, so I decided to use it with mushrooms

This dish comes about really fast if you have the Thai curry paste ready. Steamed rice, green curry and these mushrooms and my taste buds were alive and kicking again !

What you need -

15-20 button mushrooms
1 red capsicum
a few basil leaves
1 tbsp Thai red curry paste
1 tbsp coconut milk
1/2 tsp sugar
1 tbsp oil
2-3 pods garlic
1 tsp freshly ground pepper
salt to taste

What you do with it -

Clean and quarter the mushrooms
Chop the red capsicum into pieces
Tear up the basil leaves with your hand
Heat oil in a pan. Add the chopped garlic and red curry paste
Fry for a minute or two
Add the capsicum pieces and fry for another minute
Add the mushrooms and allow it to cook a bit
Add in the coconut milk, basil leaves, salt, pepper and sugar and stir 2-3 times over high heat
Don't over cook the mushrooms. It should be done in less than 5 mins
Garnish with basil leaves. Serve hot

Thai Green Curry with Pineapple Basil Rice

Thai is one of my favourite cuisines, mainly because of the beautiful balance of flavours, spice, sweet, sour and coconut milk...
Back in Bangalore, we had quite a few restaurants serving really awesome Thai food, but here, I have had it at two places where they had added besan / chickpea flour for thickening the dish - it was a disaster. I prefer my home cooked Thai food now !
This may not be considered authentic enough, because it doesn't have galangal or kaffir lime leaves, but if you crave Thai curry and you don't have access to these ingredients, this is as good as the real deal...



A nice, flavourful Thai green curry can easily be made with these ingredients which are quite common in any Indian kitchen.

Thai Green Curry with Pineapple basil rice

Recipe Source
For the curry - Adapted from Neeta Mehta's Thai Vegetarian Cooking
For the rice - A good friend in Bangalore

What you need -

3-4 small eggplants
1 large red pepper / capsicum
(You can also use mushrooms, green peppers and yellow peppers)
1.5 cups thick coconut milk
1/2 cup water
1 tsp soy sauce
1 tsp salt
1-2 tsp sugar
2 tbsp oil
3-4 stalks of lemon grass

For the curry paste:
1/2 onion chopped
5-6 green chillies
1 tbsp chopped garlic
1/2 piece ginger / galangal (if you find it)
1 tbsp lemon juice
rind of 1 lemon
1 tbsp coriander seeds
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 cup fresh basil leaves / 1/2 cup coriander leaves
(I used 1/2 cup coriander leaves and 1/2 cup basil leaves)

Pineapple Basil Rice -

1.5 cups basmati rice
2-3 slices of pineapple (canned or fresh)
2-3 cloves of garlic
1/2 tsp salt
3-4 leaves fresh basil

What you do with it -

For the curry paste :
Roast the cumin and coriander seeds till fragrant
Add all the ingredients listed under 'curry paste' and grind to a fine paste using a little water

For the rice :
Clean the rice and soak in water for 10 mins
Cut the pineapple slices into bite size pieces
Tear the basil leaves
Chop the garlic into thin slices
In a large pot, add 3 cups of water and bring to boil, add the rice, garlic, basil, pineapple and salt and cook till done
Add a drop or two of sesame oil, so the rice doesn't get too sticky
You could also put all the ingredients with the water into a rice cooker and cook till done

For the curry :
Clean and chop the eggplants and the peppers and the mushrooms, if using
Heat 2 tbsp oil in a large deep bottomed pan and add the curry paste and fry for 2-3 mins. Keep it on a low flame, or the paste might splatter
Add the vegetables and fry for another 3-4 mins
Break the lemon grass stalks into 2-3 pieces and add to the pan
Add the salt, sugar and soy sauce
Dilute the thick coconut milk with water and add to the pan
Allow to simmer till the vegetables are just cooked. Don't let the vegetables get too soft or mushy
Take out the lemon grass stalks from the curry before you serve

Serve hot with pineapple basil rice

Want some other Thai dishes ? Check here, here and here

Green papaya salad (Thai)

This is my second year in Ahmedabad and like it always happens, though I hate admitting it, we have settled in better - got used to the weather to some extent, though I cant stop complaining about it after living in my dear ol' Bangalore for almost all my life this far...
What has made me feel most 'settled in' here is that I know few more people here now and that I've had visitors almost every month since July...parents, in-laws, cousins, and last weekend, my dear friend from Bangalore was here...

Shopping, eating, chatting up, it was such fun, just like the good old days from college, though we now also discussed hair colours to hide the greys !!

We decided on a Thai menu for lunch - green papaya salad, green curry and pineapple basil rice...
Raw papaya was something we had to go looking for in Bangalore, but here its used pretty frequently in cooking, and I was so excited the first time I saw one in the market



The salad has a lovely combination of heat from the chillies, garlic, sugar and the tangy taste from the lemon...the raw papaya and the peanuts add the crunch factor





Adapted from Nita Mehta's Thai Vegetarian Cooking

What you need -

1 medium sized raw papaya
1 tomato
1/2 cup roasted peanuts

Dressing -

1 tsp soya sauce
3 tbsp lemon juice
4 tsp sugar syrup (I used 3 tbsp of sugar, didnt have time to make the syrup)
1/2 tsp red chilli flakes
1/2 tsp salt
3 green chillies
1 clove garlic

What you do with it -

Crush together the green chillies and garlic to a rough paste Mix this with all the other ingredients of the dressing
Peel and grate the papaya into thick long shreds
(In the book, she says you can cut into juliennes, I tried that once and its really painful - grating is an easier option)
Cut the tomato into four, deseed and cut into small squares
Add the grated papaya and tomato to the dressing and mix well
Cover with a cling film and chill for at least an hour so the flavours penetrate
Mix in half the roated peanuts
Lightly crush the remaining peanuts and top the salad with it

Thai style Noodles

On one of the quieter tree-lined streets in Bangalore, there was this really beautiful restaurant called 'Spiga'. It was a really pretty house and the informal atmosphere made the whole experience so much nicer.
They had an interesting menu, with a few options from various cuisines
I am a big fan of Thai food and invariably ordered that when I went there and it was simply perfect every single time

The street is now busier and is more like a high-fashion street with all Indian and global designers having a showroom there and Spiga has closed down
The good news is that they have opened their restaurant in another area in bangalore, the bad news is that I dont live there anymore *sob*



In memory of all the lip-smacking food i have had at Spiga, I made this Thai style noodles for dinner last night.
I found brocolli and coloured peppers here and I knew I had to make this. I made a little red curry paste, added peanuts, got the veggies together and made a little red curry out of it. Added a bit of soy sauce, sugar, chillies and noodles and it tasted real good, almost as good as the one from Spiga...



What you need -

1/2 cup peanuts
2 tsps soy sauce
1 cup coconut milk
1 cup brocolli florets
2 coloured capsicums
1 onion
1/2 cup chopped spring onions
chilli flakes
1/2 tsp sugar
1 tsp salt

(You can add tofu or mushrooms to this)

For the paste -

4 red chillies
1 tbsp coriander seeds
1 tsp cumin seeds
5 cloves of garlic
1/2 inch piece ginger
1/2 tsp lemon rind
1 tbsp lemon juice
1/2 onion

What you do with it -

Roast the peanuts and crush them into small pieces
Chop the peppers lengthwise. Wash and keep aside
Chop the onion into large pieces lengthwise

Cook the noodles as per the instructions
I dropped it in how water with a little salt, for about 5 mins
Drain water. Add a tsp of oil and spread it in a large plate to avoid it getting all sticky

Soak the chillies in warm water for about 10 mins
Put thru a blender all the other ingredients under 'For the paste'
Add half the roasted peanuts and blend one more time

In a large deep pan, add the paste and fry, adding a little oil
Add sugar and salt
Add the onions, capsicums and brocolli
Add the soy sauce and stir on high heat
Lower the heat and add the coconut milk
Cover and allow to cook for 6-7 mins

To serve, place the noodles in a plate and spoon the curry over it
Garnish with roasted peanuts and spring onions

Vegetarian Massaman Curry with Burnt Garlic Rice

There is this really nice cookery show called 'Good Food', hosted by the very elegant Seema Chandra which is telecast on NDTV, and now NDTV Good Times. Its also shown as part of a package called 'Active cooking' which is provided by one of the leading DTH service providers here in India. It features 6-9 new recipes everyday and runs thru the day, which is a big help for me !!

I always enjoyed this show and was hooked to it - am sure the guys noticed and they quickly made it into a pay channel, and like you can imagine, I promptly subscribed to it.
They have interesting recipes from all across the globe and I love the ones hosted by Seema Chandra. She visits interesting people, the ambassadors of various countries in India, celebrities, authors of cook books, even politicians, and asks them to cook up something



On one such show, I saw this Massaman curry, which looked pretty much Thai, but I thought it sounded more Indonesian, perhaps because of the 'Massaman'. It had spices and coconut milk and that totally suits my palate. The recipe is from the show - this was by a chef from a leading restaurant in Delhi, and this little info here is from Wikipedia, when I googled to confirm if it was actually Thai or, Indonesian like I imagined.

"Massaman curry is a Thai dish that is Muslim in origin. It is most commonly made with beef, but can also be made with duck or chicken.

The flavoring for Massaman curry is called Massaman curry paste (nam prik kaeng masaman). The dish usually contains coconut milk, roasted peanuts, potatoes, bay leaves, cardamom pods, cinnamon, palm sugar, fish sauce, and tamarind sauce. Muslim, and later Portuguese, traders brought spices such as turmeric, cinnamon, cumin, cloves and nutmeg from the Middle East and India to the south coast of Thailand.
The name Massaman is thought to be derived from the word "Musulman", the older form of the word "Muslim"."

It really has an interesting combination of spices - I made a vegetarian version with yellow capsicum and broccoli and I made a burnt garlic basil rice with it.

Update: Asha said I could send this to the Vegan Thai event being hosted by Priya this month. This event features cuisines across continents every month, all Vegan, and is the brainchild of Vaishali of Holy Cow.
Thanks Asha. Priya, this is all yours...

What you need -

Massaman Curry Paste

5 red chillies
rind of 1/2 lemon
1 onions
6 pods garlic
2 tsp chopped ginger
1 tbsp cumin seeds
1 tsp fennel seeds
1 stick of cinnamon
2 cloves
4 peppercorns
2 tbsp coriander seeds
seeds of 2 black cardamoms
1/2 tsp grated nutmeg

Massaman curry

2 yellow capsicums / bell peppers
1 medium sized broccoli
(You can use baby corn, potatoes also)
2 cups coconut milk
rind of 1 lemon
1 tsp sugar
2 tsp jamarind juice
1 black cardamom
1 cup roasted and crushed peanuts
1/2 tsp turmeric powder
1.5 tsp salt
2-3 tbsp oil

Burnt garlic and Basil rice

1.5 cups rice
5-6 pods garlic
2 tbsp basil leaves
1 tsp salt
2 tsp oil

What you do with it -

For the Massaman curry paste, just grind all the ingredients in a blender

Chop the capsicum into bite-sized pieces and the broccoli into florets
Heat oil in a large pan and add the massaman curry paste and turmeric powder
Fry for 2-3 mins and add the capsicums and broccoli and stir fry for another 3-4 mins
Add coconut milk and all ingredients except peanuts and the lemon rind
Cook on low heat for 3-4 mins and then add the crushed peanuts and lemon rind
Stir and allow to cook for 2 mins

Chop the garlic lengthwise
In a deep bottomed pan, add the oil and fry the garlic in it till it turns brown
Add basil leaves, rice and salt
Stir for 2-3 mins
Add water, cover and cook on a medium flame till done
Should take about 15 mins