Reliving My Youth

A couple of times when I was a teenager, mom shipped us to Thailand to spend summer break with the relatives and learn about our roots. The first time I was 13 and it was so exciting to travel alone. Except I had my 8 year old brother in tow, and that was annoying.

Since we stayed for 2 to 3 months at a time, we weren’t treated like tourists (that is, our relatives didn’t take time from work to show us around) and we were too young to venture out ourselves. The aunts and uncles worked during the day, so us kids mostly just hung out in the neighborhood. And because the adults had to leave 2 hours early to account for the horrendous Bangkok traffic, the cousins, brother and I had to procure our own breakfast, lunch and snacks. Every meal we ate came from one street vendor or another. No matter what else we’d eat during the day, we always made a trip to a particular vendor to get skewered, grilled fish balls brushed with a delicious sweet chili-garlic sauce. We’d wait patiently while the old man turned the perfectly round, skewered balls over a hibachi-type grill. I just could not get enough of these snacks. Even though I haven’t had them in years, I still remember how delicious they were.



I’ve tried to replicate that delicious street snack, minus the street, oppressive humidity and pesky baby brother. Maybe that’s why the version I made could never compare to the ones I ate every single day that summer long ago, but they turned out pretty good, if I do say so myself.

Cocktail shrimp balls with sweet chili-garlic sauce
Makes about 35 cocktail-sized shrimp balls

• 2 pounds shrimp, shelled and de-veined
• 3 tbs cornstarch
• 2 tbs fish sauce
• 2 eggs
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 5 kaffir lime leaves, minced
• Sweet chili garlic sauce (recipe follows)

In a food processor, add the shrimp, egg, garlic, lime leaves and fish sauce and process just until you get a paste. Add the cornstarch and process just until incorporated.

To make the shrimp balls, transfer the paste to a large bowl. It will be very sticky, so you’ll want another bowl of water next to you to wet your hands every so often. I made balls about the size of one tablespoon, but you are welcome to make them a little larger. As you’ll notice, they are hard to form in perfect balls. That’s okay; it’s rustic! For two pound of shrimp, you could get about 35 to 40 balls depending on how big you make them.

Not the prettiest picture, I know. I wanted to show what the paste should look like, just so no one freaks out when they see how sticky it is.

To steam the shrimp balls, I use my wok fitted with a bamboo steamer. Use whatever set up you want. Just be sure to line the bottom of the steaming basket with parchment to keep the paste from sticking to the basket. Once the water boils, they will take about 3 or 4 minutes to steam. You’ll have to steam in batches, unless you have an industrial sized steamer. Don’t crowd the balls; they puff up during steaming. They will deflate once they cool off. I like to remove the balls to a rack to cool.

After the shrimp balls are steamed, you have a few options. They can be served as they are, warm with the chili garlic sauce for dipping. This is the way to go if you are impatient or a health nut. If you are in the mood, you could skewer and grill them. If they are still warm or room temp, they won’t take very long at all. Brush a little sauce on them occasionally. Watch them though! The sauce can burn quite quickly due to the sugar content. Since I can’t be bothered to start up my Weber just for a few shrimp ball skewers, my second favorite way to enjoy them is sautéed in my wok, tossed in a little of the sauce. The sauce caramelizes nicely giving a deliciously ooey-gooey coating. Stick them with toothpicks or short skewers, and serve with some of the sauce for dipping. Your family and guests will love you.

If you don’t have a crowd of people to feed, the shrimp balls can be frozen after they are steamed. Freeze them in a single layer on a cookie sheet. Once they are frozen, throw them into a Ziploc bag, pressing out all the air. If you've got a food vacuum sealer, even better! Thaw the balls in the fridge overnight before heating.


This sweet chili sauce is so simple to make, you’ll never need to buy the commercial stuff again! It's just simple syrup spiked with a little vinegar (or lime juice or tamarind puree if you like), chili and garlic. Heck, you could put minced up ginger, green onions, diced white onions, diced cucumbers or even kaffir lime leaves in it too!

If you find this sauce is too sweet for your taste, just add a little more vinegar and/or fish sauce. Also, I cheat and use the Lee Kum Kee (LKK) chili garlic sauce. Despite its fiery appearance, the LKK sauce is not very spicy. Even Sonny can eat it when I use it in foods. If you want to do it the “authentic” way, add about 2 or 3 minced garlic cloves and as much red chili flakes or sambal oelek as you can stand. And don’t worry if the sauces is not as thick as the commercial stuff; it’ll still taste great.

Sweet Chili garlic Sauce

• ½ cup sugar
• ½ cup water
• ¼ cup rice vinegar
• 1 tbs fish sauce or more to taste
• 1 tbs chili garlic sauce (or 2 minced cloves garlic + as much chili flakes as you can stand)

In a small sauce pan, add the sugar, water and rice vinegar. Bring to a boil and continue to boil until it thickens a little, about 5 minutes after it comes to a boil. Take it off the heat and allow it to cool slightly. Throw in the garlic, chili and fish sauce. Stir and taste. Allow to cool to room temperature before serving. It will thicken a little more when cooled, although it will never be as thick as the commercial stuff.

If this recipe has piqued your interest, you may also like Thai fish cakes.

Isaan-style Sausages

It has come to my attention that I’m a dork. Apparently I can do things like determine protein kinetics on a nanosecond time scale, but I’m unable to tell my left from my right. In my previous post, I kept referring to my left side bar when everything is really in the right side bar. So for the person(s) who found it totally annoying that I kept saying left when I should have been saying right:

Check out Charcuterie in the right side bar! Check out the Foodie Blogroll in the right side bar!

Did that make ya’ll feel better? Now on to more important (and less embarrassing) matters...

I made another sausage! This time I made a fragrant, garlicky, spicy sausage using the “Thai trinity” (lemongrass, galangal and kaffir lime leaves) as the flavor base. The only thing that was missing was the sour component characteristic of this type of sausage. It is achieved by fermenting the sausage at room temperature for 1 to several days (see note). Wasn’t quite ready to go there, but soon, I promise! Even without the sourness, this fresh sausage turned out very tasty. Good thing too; I made 5 pounds of it!

Isaan-style Sausages

15 kaffir lime leaves, finely chopped
3 stalks lemon grass, finely minced
1 tbs minced galangal
2 heads garlic (about 20 or so cloves), minced
Fresh bird’s eye chillies, to taste (start with 5 then go up from there)
1 bunch cilantro, minced
4.5 pounds boneless pork shoulder, diced
1/2 pound pork (back) fat, diced
2 cups cooked, cold sticky rice, kernels separated (other long-grain rice will work)
1 ¼ oz kosher salt (more or less to taste)
1 cup very cold water

Note: If you have the nerve to try fermenting the sausage, you'll need to add 1/4 tsp of pink salt per kilogram (approx 2.2 lbs) of sausage. Hang the sausage for 1 to several days at room temperature (approx 70 degrees is optimal). Keep it out of direct sunlight. A cool basement is probably the best choice if you have one. Test the level of sourness by cooking a small piece bit every day. Once you determine the sausage is sour enough, freeze whatever you don't plan to eat right away.

Season the diced meat and fat with the lime leaves, lemongrass, galangal, garlic, chillies and cilantro. Stick the meat in the freezer for about an hour. The meat should be well chilled, just starting to freeze. Your grinding equipment should be well chilled as well. I like using the coarse die for sausage. It leaves the texture just course enough to know you're eating real meat. Grind the meat into a bowl set on ice. To the ground meat, add the salt and water. Mix well. Lastly add the rice and mix again. Take a small portion to cook to determine if it’s seasoned properly (put the rest in the fridge while doing this). If it’s all good, then stuff the sausage into hog casings and enjoy! It's great served as a snack with ginger matchsticks, fresh roasted peanuts, and chillies. Being the simple person I am, I like to eat mine with sticky rice. I bet it would be yummy as a base for fried rice or noodles too. Remember, freeze whatever you can’t eat within two or three days.

Here are some other sausage recipes on my list that you may like to try: Burnt Lumpia's Longanisa and Mrs. Marv's Thai-spiced chicken sausage.

Green Curry

Green curry is my favorite Thai curry. Whenever I visit my parents, I request it. In fact, mom will usually have a pot waiting for me. Interestingly, I rarely order it when I eat at Thai restaurants because it’s usually served too sweet and thick for my taste.

Green curry with Thai eggplant and chicken. Photo added Dec 2008.

To buy or to make curry paste, that is the question. Mom usually buys it. I make my own, for a couple reasons. 1) It really doesn’t take much time because I usually have all the ingredients on hand. I make a big enough batch to last a month or so. 2) I know what’s going into it and how old it is. This might just be me, but it’s a little unsettling when the manufacturers have to say “processed under the strictest hygienic conditions.” I would recommend trying to make your own at least once.

Green curry paste:
Adapted from The Food of Thailand (see right side bar)

• 1 tsp ground coriander
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• 8-10 small green chillies, seeded
• 2 lemon grass stalks, whites only and finely sliced
• 1x1/4 inch (or there abouts) piece of galangal finely chopped
• 5 kaffir lime leaves, finely sliced
• 5 cloves of garlic, finely sliced
• 4 Asian shallots or the equivalent amount of regular shallot
• 5 coriander roots or 1 bunch of coriander stems, finely chopped
• handful of Thai basil leaves or sweet basil leaves
• 1 to 2 tsp fermented shrimp paste (kapi paste)
  

Keep in mind: 1)Despite what people say, ginger can not really be substituted for galangal, which has a slight lemony flavor. I suppose you could use ginger and up the amount of lemongrass by 1 stalk or add an additional 2-3 lime leaves. I’ve never done this, but I don’t see why it wouldn’t work. Thai-Viet grocers usually carry fresh galangal, and they will definitely have dried galangal. You can reconstitute it in water before chopping. If you can get fresh, then I would buy a bunch, slice it and freeze it in portions. I also do this with my lemon grass, chillies, and lime leaves. 2) It’s hard to find coriander roots. I once found it at New Seasons (local to Portland), and I think they may have it at Whole Foods. It is definitely worth finding, but I just use the coriander stalks instead. 3) If you are afraid of the shrimp paste, start with only 1 or half a tsp (depending on the type you’re using). It’s like cooking with anchovies, which some people are afraid to use for fear of a fishy taste. 4)Asian shallots are the size of pearl onions.

I like to start by chopping up all the ingredients very finely. The old fashion way to make the paste is to pound the ingredients until you have something that resembles the consistency of Elmer’s white glue paste. Honestly that will take forever, and I’ve never ever been able to achieve this by pounding (which I did for about 20 minutes!). What I do is throw everything into a food processor and add about ¼ cup of peanut oil (or vegetable oil), then puree until I get something that resembles thick pesto. If you’re going to use a processor, you don’t have to go through the trouble of chopping everything meticulously, except maybe the galangal, lemon grass and lime leaves. These things are quite fibrous and may cause some food processors to stall or you’ll get a chunky half-paste. Don’t stress if your paste doesn’t resemble the store bought stuff. What you should strive for is something that resembles the consistency of thick pesto. Usually this recipe makes enough paste for 3 or 4 uses. I freeze the stuff in 2-3 tbs portions.

If you want to use it for marinading, start with one portion (about 2-3 tbs) paste and add 2 tbs brown sugar, 3 tbs coconut milk (optional) and about ¼ cup low sodium soy sauce. I allow chicken pieces (with bone and skin) to marinade for as little as 2 hours up to 8 hours for a whole bird.

Before you attempt this recipe for green curry, please read the following disclaimer (and the editor’s letter on page 14 in the March 2007 issue of Saveur). I have never measured any of the ingredients before. I tried really hard to get a working recipe, but really it’s a guideline. You may like it sweeter or saltier. Let your taste buds lead you.

Green curry (serves 4):

• 2 ½ cups coconut milk (not low fat, you’ll need at least 2/3 cup cream)
• 2 tbs green curry paste (homemade or store bought)
• 1 to 2 tsp brown sugar (more to taste)
  
• 2 tbs fish sauce
• 1 tbs sliced galangal
• 5 kaffir lime leaves
• 1 cup chicken stock
• 3-4 boneless, skinless chicken thigh, sliced (pork is also commonly used)
• bamboo shoots, well rinsed and drained
• other veggies such as sliced red bell pepper, green beans, etc
• ½ cup half and half
• Handful of Thai basil leaves, roughly torn.

In a heavy bottom large pot on medium heat, cook 1 cup coconut cream/milk until it separates. This may take 15 minutes. Then continue to cook for about 5 more minutes with frequent stirring to prevent burning. The volume of the liquid will be greatly reduced. Add the curry paste and fry for about 2 minutes. Stir as needed to prevent burning. Add the rest of the coconut milk, sugar, fish sauce, lime leaves, galangal and chicken stock. Let it simmer for about 5 minutes, then check seasonings. Add more sugar or fish sauce to taste. When you’re happy with the taste, add the bamboo shoots and any veggies that may take longer to cook (like green beans). After a couple minutes, add the chicken and remaining veggies, spreading the chicken out in the sauce. Close the lid for 7 minutes to let the chicken cook. If the chicken needs more time, give it a gentle stir and let it cook until done. My mom is convinced that too much stirring will dry out the meat. After you turn off the heat, add the half and half and basil leaves, and give it a gentle stir. Let the curry sit for 5-10 minutes to let the flavors develop, then readjust the seasoning if necessary. Serve with jasmine rice.