Gaming Chef Redux

Gaming Chef #5

Ok this weeks recipe is vegetarian….

No wait stay with me here! Vegetarian doesn’t have to equal horrible, and chances are as gamers you don’t get a good number of healthy veggies in your diet anyway, besides its Thai food.

Got ya back didn’t I.

Good.

Now to start its all going to be fresh in the recipe, but you can cut corners by going to an Asian grocery if you have too. I'll tell you how at the end of the article.

Red Curry Paste

Ingredients

20 dried finger length red chilies

1 tablespoon of whole coriander seed

1 teaspoon of whole cumin seeds

1 teaspoon of fresh ground pepper or 10 black peppercorns

3 stalks of lemongrass

1/4 cup of chopped cilantro

1/4 cup of coarsely chopped shallots (or sweet onion)

8 to 12 cloves of coarsely chopped garlic

1 tablespoon of peeled coarsely chopped fresh ginger

1 teaspoon of lime peel, finely minced

1 teaspoon of salt

Red curry paste is a staple in a lot of Thai cooking and you can buy it in canned form, except its really high in sodium, this recipe is easier on the body and has a nice amount of heat. Good curry paste should be made with fresh spices.

Make the curry paste a day before and keep it well covered in the fridge.

First stem the chilies shaking out all the loose seeds. Break them into pieces and put them in a bowl of warm water to soften for about 20 minutes.

In a small skillet under high heat deep-fry the coriander seeds with a little oil until they darken a shade or two, shake the pan and stir often so they don’t burn. Fry them for about 2 to 3 minutes. Tip the seeds out onto a small plate.

Do the same thing with the cumin.

When you're done you can either grind the spices with a mortar and pestle or put it in a small food processor (or coffee grinder which is great for grinding spices and really cheap… just don’t use the same one for coffee if that's your thing)

Add the coriander, cumin and pepper to the food processor and grind till you have a really fine powder. Set the powder aside.

Trim the hard woody ends of the lemongrass and chop it finely.

Drain the chilies and combine them with the lemongrass, ground and toasted spices and the remaining ingredients in a blender or mini processor, Grind it all down into a smooth puree stopping every once and a while to scrape down the sides. Add a tablespoon of water as needed to move the blades.

Transfer to a jar (with a lid). It will keep for up to a month in the fridge,

This will make about a cup of Curry Paste.

Doesnt sound like a lot right, well believe me its plenty. Most curry dishes use a tablespoon or two of the stuff. Its concentrated, smokey and potent and packs a lot of flavor.

Ok, if you tried to make the paste you'll see that it isnt as hard to make as it sounds. But Curry paste without a recipe is somewhat useless. Now lets use it in something.

Red Curry with red sweet peppers, Snow peas and tofu

1 can of unsweetened coconut milk

1 to 2 tablespoons of curry paste from above

8 oz tofu cut into 1/2 inch chunks

1/4 cup vegetable stock

1 tablespoon of brown sugar

1/2 teaspoon of soy sauce (or low sodium soy sauce)

1/2 teaspoon of salt

1 red sweet bell pepper cut into strips

4 ounces of snow peas trimmed

Shake the coconut milk can spoon a third of the can into a sauce pan and bring it to a boil over medium heat. Cook stirring occasionally until it thickens (about 2-3 minutes) Add the Curry paste and cook for 3 more minutes, mashing and stirring to soften the paste and work it into the coconut milk. Cook it for 3 more minutes.

Add the tofu and gently stir to coat in the curry sauce. Add the rest of the coconut milk, the vegetable stock, brown sugar, soy sauce and salt and stir well (but not to hard… remember you have tofu) Bring the curry to a boil then reduce the heat to a simmer. Cook stirring occasionally for 15 minutes.

Add the snow peas and red pepper to the curry and stir. Remove the whole thing from heat and let sit for 5 minutes. Serve with a 1/2 cup of Jasmine rice. This should be nice and spicy with a hint of smoke.

If you want a hotter curry add a little more curry paste. skipping steps

If you need to have this right now, the most obvious step to skip is the curry paste. You can buy red and green curry from any asian market for a song. A tiny can will last you about 3 or 4 meals and it will last in the fridge for a little bit.

If you want to make the Curry Paste recipe but cant get either a grinder or dont want to bother turning whole spices into powder, you can just take the powdered equivelent of cumin and coriander and deep fry them on their own. You just really have to make sure it doesnt burn. add the pepper after for spicy goodness.

You can try other fresh veggies in the curry too, whole fresh green beans would be good, as would chunks of onion, or even the diced green shoots of spring onions (put them on at the end). Soybeans or Edemame would be great too. Try to go with crunchy but not fiberous when you're substituting since the goal is to leave the veggies as raw as possible. Carrots would be good in this recipe if you have the time to dice them or shoestring them (of course you could just get a bag of em). Potatoes wouldn't work well at all.

Discuss it in our forums.

Written by ElJeffe on February 09th, 2006