Last night I had some friends over for Thai food. I was a little nervous because I haven't cooked Thai food in ages. It's a pain in the ass to round up all of the ingredients -- you gotta go to the Thai store for the herbs, pastes, sauces, etc., then I like to get the organic meats from Whole Foods, the veggies from the Greenmarket, etc. By the time I've gathered everything, I am too exhausted to cook. Thai food and Indian food -- I get a headache just thinking about making them.
The grocery store situation in major cities is definitely changing when it comes to inclusion of international foods. I remember that when I first moved to Windsor Terrace in Brooklyn, a primarily Irish- and Italian-Catholic community, the local Key Food grocery store had an "international foods" aisle which included all the Goya products and a whole array of disgusting La Choy (or whatever it's called) brand products; I was appalled that it was located directly across the aisle from all of the dog food and cat litter. Keep in mind that grocery floor planners know exactly what they're doing -- at my old Berkeley Safeway on College Ave., the tampons and feminine products were located in the same aisle as the PMS friendly cookies and potato chips.
But these days, soy sauce, Japanese short-grain rice, miso, and all sorts of Asian staples are readily available at normal supermarkets. It's a far cry from the canned chow mein and water chestnuts days of yore. And it gets better every year as people become more accustomed to foods of different cultures and request products at their local supermarket. Still, Thai ingredients like good curry paste, holy basil, lemongrass and kaffir lime leaves make a trip to the Thai market worthwhile. This time, I went to the excellent Bangkok Center Grocery on Mosco St. in Chinatown. (Who knew there was a "Mosco St."? Not I!) They have beautiful fresh kaffir lime leaves, lemongrass, fresh curry pastes, frozen specialty vegetables, and the best mortars and pestles in a clean, well-lit and fairly roomy shop.
The menu for the evening:
Tom Yum Goong
Sauteed sweet potato greens
Glass noodle salad
Red curry with beef and pumpkin
The easiest dish (besides the sweet potato leaves), and probably the most impressive, was the red curry with beef and pumpkin. The beef was tender and the pumpkin was creamy and sweet; the curry was incredibly fragrant, redolent with aromatic leaves. My secret, and the secret of practically every Thai family? Store-bought curry paste. I mean, who has time to sit there with the mortar and pestle, taking their frustrations out on some resilient herbs and spices? This time, I used a refrigerated paste they had in packets at the Thai grocery store. Highly recommended.
Red Curry with Beef and Pumpkin
2 cans coconut milk -- do not shake!
2 tbsp. red curry paste
1 lb. stew beef, chunked
1/2 medium kabocha pumpkin, peeled and cut into large chunks
Handful of Thai basil
10 double-leaves of kaffir lime leaves
2 red finger chilies, sliced thinly lengthwise
Turn the heat on high on a large pot or dutch oven. Open up your coconut milk cans and spoon the fatty coconut cream off the top. Melt it down in the dutch oven with the curry paste until bubbly and well mixed, 1 minute. Add your beef and cook until nicely browned, 5 minutes. Pour the remaining coconut milk into the pot along with five lime double-leaves. Cook on medium-low heat for 1 hr. or until the beef is nice and tender. Add the pumpkin and the red chilies and cook til the pumpkin is tender, 5-10 min. Remove from heat. Chiffonade the remaining kaffir lime leaves. At the last minute, add the basil, chiffonaded lime leaves. Serve with jasmine rice.
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A public service announcement for all you vegetarians, kosher-keepers, and shellfish allergic -- don't eat the curry! One of the main ingredients in curry paste is fermented shrimp paste.
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