Kaeng pa

A waterbased curry with no coconut and no sugar, hot and herbal rather than rich.

Pork. Not vegetarian — contains curry paste, which usually contains shrimp paste, fish sauce, pork.

Ingredients

• 400 g pork loin, in thin slices
• 1 litre water or light stock
• 5 tablespoons red curry paste
• 60 g krachai, in fine matchsticks
• 4 stems green peppercorns
• 150 g pea aubergines
• 150 g green beans, in lengths
• 100 g bamboo shoots, in strips
• 8 kaffir lime leaves, torn
• 3 tablespoons fish sauce
• 1 large bunch holy basil
• 2 tablespoons oil

Method

1. NO COCONUT MILK AND NO SUGAR. Those two absences are the dish. Every other curry here is softened by one or both, and this one is deliberately not: it is hot, herbal, slightly bitter and thin, and anything added to round it off makes it a different curry.
2. Because there is no coconut fat, fry the paste in oil rather than cracking it in milk. 3 minutes over a medium heat, pressed against the pan, until it darkens and smells cooked.
3. KRACHAI AND GREEN PEPPERCORNS ARE WHAT MAKE IT TASTE OF THIS AND NOT OF RED CURRY. Krachai is sharp and medicinal; the peppercorns are left on the stem and bite back. Leave both out and you have a thin red curry.
4. Cut the krachai into fine matchsticks. It is fibrous and chunks are unpleasant to meet.
5. Pork in with the fried paste, turned to coat, 2 minutes.
6. Water in. Simmer 10 minutes.
7. Vegetables by hardness: bamboo and aubergines 6 minutes, beans 4. They should keep real bite.
8. Peppercorn stems and lime leaves in for the last 4 minutes.
9. Fish sauce at the end, and taste. It wants to be properly hot and properly salty, with no sweetness anywhere.
10. HEAT OFF, THEN THE BASIL, folded through until it wilts in the residual heat only.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under Thailand · All recipes