{"id":6906,"date":"2021-04-01T19:42:48","date_gmt":"2021-04-01T19:42:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.seafood-harvest.com\/?p=6906"},"modified":"2023-01-23T11:17:02","modified_gmt":"2023-01-23T18:17:02","slug":"golden-triangle-curry-in-all-its-glory","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.seafood-harvest.com\/index.php\/2021\/04\/01\/golden-triangle-curry-in-all-its-glory\/","title":{"rendered":"Golden Triangle Curry in all its Glory"},"content":{"rendered":"

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The region we now call Southeast Asia was once referred to as Indo-China\u2013so named by the west because the countries ringing the Golden Triangle displayed the influences of both India and China.\u00a0 Although the term \u201cGolden Triangle\u201d often refers to opium production, in this case it means exotic curries<\/p>\n

The \u201cReturn of the Oil\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

Burma (now called Myanmar) has more than a hundred distinct ethnic groups, but Burmese cuisine has mostly been influenced by the cooking styles of India, Thailand, Cambodia, and China\u2013the homes of most of the original immigrants.\u00a0 Tibetan people arrived in Burma in the ninth century A.D., and the Mongol Dynasty from China conquered the region in 1272, so the Chinese influence on cooking is significant.\u00a0 However, since the very first settlers of Burma were the Sakya warriors who migrated from India and settled at Tagung about 250 B.C., it is not surprising that curries play an important role in the cuisine.<\/p>\n

\"curry\"<\/p>\n

Burmese cuisine is a culinary treasure; the dishes are easy to prepare and offer delightful challenges to adventurous cooks.\u00a0 The Burmese often quote a proverb: \u201cYou cannot meditate on an empty stomach\u201d to explain their love of good food. The cooking of the country, like that of any other nation, has regional variations. The Shaan people, from neighboring China, use the least amount of spices and use soy sauce instead of fish sauce.\u00a0 The people bordering Thailand make their curries more soupy, and those in the southern region enjoy spicier curries.<\/p>\n

According to my friend Richard Sterling, who has reported on Cambodia, Vietnam, and Laos as a contributing editor, \u201cThe Burmese cook approaches curry in a way as constant as the ancient past or the monsoon cycle.\u201d\u00a0 During his extensive visits to Burma, Richard watched many curries being prepared. First, the Burmese make a curry paste out of their five basic ingredients: onions, garlic, chiles, ginger, and turmeric.<\/p>\n

Some Burmese cooks use other other spices as well, including an occasional prepared curry powder. But the hallmark of the Burmese curry is its oiliness.\u00a0 The cooks use a combination of peanut oil and sesame oil, about a cup of each in a wok, and heat it until it smokes\u2013this is called \u201ccooking the oil.\u201d\u00a0 The curry paste is added, the heat is reduced, and the paste is cooked for fifteen minutes.\u00a0 Then meat is added, cooked, and eventually the oil rises to the top.\u00a0 This state is called see byan, \u201cthe return of the oil.\u201d\u00a0 When the oil floats on top, the dish is done.\u00a0 The oil is not skimmed off the top, but rather is absorbed by the side dish of rice when it is served.<\/p>\n

Fiery Pastes and Carved Fruits<\/strong><\/p>\n

In neighboring Thailand, the people believe that they had more time to evolve their unique cooking because they were smart enough to keep would-be foreign invaders at bay. Thailand is the only Asian country that was not subjected to European rulers; it was rarely overrun by its Asian neighbors, and it has seen relatively very few wars. These unique conditions gave the Thai kings time to spend with their queens and mistresses, to hire the best cooks, and to encourage the cooks to create new dishes and improve the traditional ones.<\/p>\n

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The Thai curries are extensively spiced with chiles.\u00a0 Contrary to popular belief, there is not just one \u201cThai chile,\u201d but rather dozens of varieties used in cooking.\u00a0 When I toured the wholesale market in Bangkok in 1991, I found literally tons of both fresh dried chiles in baskets and in huge bales five feet tall.\u00a0 They ranged in size from piquin-like, thin pods barely an inch long to yellow and red pods about four inches long.\u00a0 When making substitutions, cooks should remember that, generally speaking, the smaller a chile, the hotter it is.\u00a0 At left, prik chee fah<\/em> chiles in Bangkok.<\/p>\n

It is the fresh chiles that are ground up with other ingredients to make the famous Thai curry pastes, but rehydrated dried chile can be substitued in a pinch. Two key curry pastes are the heart of Thai cooking; a red curry paste, called nam prik gaeng ped, uses red chiles, lemon grass, galangal and a number of herbs.\u00a0 The green curry paste is made with small green Thai chiles, but serranos make a good substitute.\u00a0 It looks deceptively mild, like a Mediterranean pesto, but it very hot indeed.\u00a0 These pastes are easily made fresh, keep well for at least a month in the refrigerator, and add a terrific zing to curries, but some very tasty commercial curry pastes are available in Asian markets.\u00a0 A yellow curry paste, colored with ground turmeric, is perhaps the mildest among all Thai pastes.<\/p>\n

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\nA visitor to a Thai home or restaurant is won over not only by the aromatic food but also the elegant way it is served.\u00a0 Commonly accompanying Thai curries are elaborately carved fruits and vegetables, which often resemble large flowers.\u00a0 Rosemary Brissenden, author of Joys and Subtleties: Southeast Asian Cooking<\/em>, described the art: \u201cFruit and vegetable carving is traditionally a highly cultivated art. Anyone who has watched the infinite calm of a Thai woman carving a piece of young ginger into the likeness of a crab with its pincers at ready will bear witness to this. Thai salads are also artistically arranged, and food historians believe that such elaboration dates back to the days of royal culinary competitions, when the dishes had to look as spectacular as they tasted.<\/p>\n

Of Lemongrass, Galangal, Giant Catfish, and Frog Legs<\/strong><\/p>\n

While the foods of Thailand have been covered with increasing frequency in books and magazine articles, and articles and books appear on Burmese and Vietnamese cuisines occasionally, hardly any information is available on Cambodian and Laotian foods.\u00a0 This is one of the unfortunate results of warfare and unstable political situations in the two countries.\u00a0 Again, I have depended on Richard Sterling for most of our information on Cambodian and Laotian curries.\u00a0 He was brave enough to travel to these countries in the early \u201990s collect some curry recipes for me.<\/p>\n

In Cambodia, which is now called Kampuchea, the Khmer cooks depend on chiles, lemongrass, galangal, and fish sauces in most of their curries.\u00a0 Galangal, at left, is an Asian relative of ginger.\u00a0 \u201cThe Cambodians are great eaters,\u201d Richard told me. \u201cTheir calendar is full of historical feasts, and any gaps are filled by weddings, births, funerals, and auspicious alignments of the stars. Theirs is a land of abundance. They enjoy regular harvests of rice, wild and cultivated fruits, fresh and saltwater fish, domesticated animals, and fowl and game. They love to eat meat. Pork is the most popular and it is excellent, as are all the meats. An English journalist I dined with said of her beefsteak that it was the best she ever had. I didn\u2019t tell her it was luc lac, or water buffalo.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Richard adds, \u201cIn Cambodia, as in India, there are as many curries as there are cooks. But all true Khmer curries have five constants: lemongrass, garlic, galangal, and coconut milk; the fifth constant is the cooking technique, dictated by the texture of lemongrass and the consistency of coconut milk.\u201d<\/p>\n

In nearby Laos, two distinctive styles have emerged.\u00a0 One is that of the Laotians, whose cuisine is very similar to that of the Thais except that lemongrass and galangal are only rarely used in their curries.\u00a0 The other cooking style is that of the Hmong, a tribal people of southern Chinese origin. The Hmong cuisine, naturally, was inspired more by the Chinese, so soy sauce replaces fish sauces.\u00a0 Shallots, ginger, and chiles are also common in Laotian curries. All of the ingredients are pounded together in a mortar until they are very smooth, and then are cooked in coconut milk until a silky sauce is formed.<\/p>\n

\"catfish\"<\/p>\n

\u201cA good Laotian curry sauce is similar to the consistency of hollandaise,\u201d says Richard.\u00a0 Meats and fish<\/a> are commonly curried in Laos, but not vegetables, which are eaten on the side.\u00a0 Of particular interest are the huge Asian catfish found in the rivers of Golden Triangle countries, seen at left.<\/p>\n

One of the most interesting Vietnamese curries Richard found combines frog legs and cellophane noodles; this was understandably one of the curries beloved by the French, who occupied Vietnam between 1858 and 1954, except for the Japanese conquest during World War II.\u00a0 For this article, I suggest Vietnamese Chicken Curry, but you can substitute skinned and cleaned frog legs-especially from extra-large bullfrogs-for the chicken. The following recipes are fun to try, but the cook should not limit the meal to the cuisine of just one region.\u00a0 While the curries are cooking, remember the Burmese saying: \u201cEat hot curry, drink hot soup, burn your lips, and remember my dinner.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thai Red Curry Paste (Nam Prik Gaeng Ped<\/em>)<\/h2>\n

\"curry\"
\nA popular ingredient in Thailand, this curry paste can be added to any dish to enhance its flavor. It is, of course, a primary ingredient in many of the famous Thai curries.\u00a0 Traditionally, it is patiently pounded by hand with a heavy mortar and pestle, but a food processor does the job quickly and efficiently. It will keep in the refrigerator for about a month.\u00a0 Marinate a dozen shrimp in this paste, stir fry them quickly with the paste in canola oil, and the result is an instant lunch or dinner.<\/p>\n

Ingredients<\/h4>\n