David Thompson's cookbook: Nam Prik Pao--Thai Chile Jam

I've really been enjoying my David Thompson Thai cookbook. I wish I had more time (and patience)--I'd use it a lot more. The recipes are really involved but so far, everything has been great. And I really enjoy reading through it. Recently I made a thai chile jam from there and I've become totally addicted to this stuff. It's a great addition to stir-fries, thai salads, etc.
Here are some pics:

Ingredients:
These ingredients get deep fried (shallots, garlic, chiles, dried shrimp and galanga)



Remaining ingredients (palm sugar, fish sauce, shrimp paste, tamarind)



Shrimp paste getting toasted in foil


Then everything gets blended in a food processor:
before:

after:


Final product:

Put to good use (Shrimp salad):

How beautiful that looks! I can smell the fragrance from here. I don't have that cookbook, but maybe I should break my resolution and get it. I have the McDermott book, but the recipe is slightly different. Yours looks better.

Wow, he's not kidding, I think the sweet/spicy aroma has traveled from New Mexico around the WWW and back to me! That is some beautiful-looking stuff, and quite the complex setup!

I've been thinking I might need to add the McDermott book to my collection as well.
Forgot to add that the extra fine slicing disc for the Cuisinart made this dish a relative snap (the recipe requires 4 c of sliced shallots and 3 c sliced garlic--yield is about 3.5 8oz jars).

Bill/SFNM wrote:How beautiful that looks! I can smell the fragrance from here. I don't have that cookbook, but maybe I should break my resolution and get it. I have the McDermott book, but the recipe is slightly different. Yours looks better.

Bill,

I have the Thompson book, well worth owning for if only for history and background info, not to mention recipes.

ThaiObsessed, terrific pictorial, flavor simply jumps off the screen. Mike Sula made a large batch of Thompson's Thai chile jam a couple of years ago, I was the recipient of a jar and found any number of uses, it also lasts a very long time.

Enjoy,
Gary

ThaiObsessed, terrific pictorial, flavor simply jumps off the screen.

Thanks Gary!

it also lasts a very long time

Not at the rate I'm using it!

I just ordered that Thompson book based on this thread. Never heard of it before. Is it pretty much the definitive Thai cooking resource? I noticed it's almost 700 pages. What in the hell is in this thing? I hear it's about 200 pages of history and the like before you even hit the first recipe, but that still leaves 500 pages. I'm excited.

It's absolutely gorgeous--the photographs are just beautiful. He includes lots of history/culture notes. The breadth of recipes is incredible with all kinds of chile pastes, accompaniments, street foods, etc. I've been trying to make more of the recipes, but they tend to be pretty involved. I've only made a handful of recipes from it (mostly salads, all have been excellent). I may try the Muslim chicken (gai gorla) with steamed eggs this weekend. It involves marinating a butterflied chicken in garlic/shallots/coconut cream/ginger/coriander root, then grilling it, then dipping it into a red curry sauce and putting it back on the grill. The picture looks amazing.

thaiobsessed wrote:I may try the Muslim chicken (gai gorla) with steamed eggs this weekend. It involves marinating a butterflied chicken in garlic/shallots/coconut cream/ginger/coriander root, then grilling it, then dipping it into a red curry sauce and putting it back on the grill.

I have resisted buying this book since I have too many, but that description just blasted my resolve to smithereens. It's all your fault.

Bill/SFNM

Bill/SFNM wrote:I have resisted buying this book since I have too many, but that description just blasted my resolve to smithereens. It's all your fault.

Bill/SFNM

Funny. I was just thinking the same thing myself when I scrolled down and saw your post.

It is indeed a lovely book, for the food porn photos if nothing else. And with 200 pages of Thai food history, it's pretty darn informative.

If I have any bones to pick with it, it's that I can't easily come home from a Thai resto and find a recipe of what I ate: few Thai names are given for the dishes, meaning if I remember "Lug Nut Numb Toes" or whatever, I'm not going to find it. The focus is more on the royal cuisine than the street food, although if you read it through you'll find a lot of favorites, if only described by their ingredients instead of a familiar name like "Pad Si-Ew"

I was going to suggest looking for used copies at Half.com, but the big river place online has it for $26.40 (list $40). Half.com does have it for as little as $20.

I have resisted buying this book since I have too many, but that description just blasted my resolve to smithereens. It's all your fault.

Well, we're even...I just ordered the McDermott Regional Thai Cuisine cookbook from Amazon.
But seriously, the Thompson book is pretty amazing. I'd practically buy it just for the pictures. Joel is right though, when it has more 'typical' (at least typical of what we find here) dishes, they aren't that easy to find/identify. I have a bunch of Thai cookbooks and for me, the Thompson book is for the history and for the unusual dishes. These are NOT quick weeknight recipes though--they tend to involve a lot of prep. And several ingredients he lists are quite hard to find, even in Chicago (anyone know where to buy sour snakeskin pears?) but he's pretty good about listing alternatives.

thaiobsessed wrote:It's absolutely gorgeous--the photographs are just beautiful. He includes lots of history/culture notes. The breadth of recipes is incredible with all kinds of chile pastes, accompaniments, street foods, etc. I've been trying to make more of the recipes, but they tend to be pretty involved. I've only made a handful of recipes from it (mostly salads, all have been excellent). I may try the Muslim chicken (gai gorla) with steamed eggs this weekend. It involves marinating a butterflied chicken in garlic/shallots/coconut cream/ginger/coriander root, then grilling it, then dipping it into a red curry sauce and putting it back on the grill. The picture looks amazing.

Got the book on Saturday and I've already made three recipes from it. Fantastic. One question, though. For all the coconut-based curries, doesn't the amount of coconut milk and cream seem excessive to the amount of meat? I mean, there's recipes that have like 6 oz of meat in them and call for 3 cups of coconut milk and 2 cups of coconut cream. Did I miss an explanatory note somewhere?

Thaiobsessed and Binko,

Are you making your own coconut milk/cream or are you using canned? Thanks.

Bill/SFNM

For the moment, I'm keeping it simple and sticking to canned. That said, I'm avoiding most of the coconut-based dishes right now as I'm trying to watch my calorie intake a little more closely.

Binko wrote:Got the book on Saturday and I've already made three recipes from it. Fantastic. One question, though. For all the coconut-based curries, doesn't the amount of coconut milk and cream seem excessive to the amount of meat? I mean, there's recipes that have like 6 oz of meat in them and call for 3 cups of coconut milk and 2 cups of coconut cream. Did I miss an explanatory note somewhere?

Yes, it does seem excessive. I made the Panang curry with a pound of meat instead of the 6oz, and there was still an incredibly large amount of sauce. I'm guessing that traditional curries may be more soup-like, with less meat/veggies than we are used to here in the land of abundance.

What an excellent book! I never knew making dried shrimp and coconut milk and cream from scratch could be so easy and make such a difference. I got one of those rotary coconut graters from India and attached the grating head to a power drill a la Tim "the Toolman" Taylor. With it I can grate an entire coconut in just a few seconds!

Bill/SFNM

I got one of those rotary coconut graters from India and attached the grating head to a power drill a la Tim "the Toolman" Taylor. With it I can grate an entire coconut in just a few seconds

Ingenious!!! I may have to get one of those from Devon.
Sorry for the late reply (I'm at an internet cafe in Hanoi,Vietnam right now, pictures to follow soon--of Vietnamese food that is, not the internet cafe). I've been using canned milk/cream--about half the amount suggested for the pa nang curry, with more meat (a la JoelF). I thought that was plenty.

Bill/SFNM wrote:What an excellent book! I never knew making dried shrimp and coconut milk and cream from scratch could be so easy and make such a difference. I got one of those rotary coconut graters from India and attached the grating head to a power drill a la Tim "the Toolman" Taylor. With it I can grate an entire coconut in just a few seconds!

Bill/SFNM

That's a great idea! Is the grater you linked to the one you got?
After our last one broke we didn't bother with the flimsy ones we usually see and went back to the old fashioned non rotary type - the one pictured below is from a Thai store (and similar to ones in India).
These are great though takes some practice.



Fresh grated coconut and extracted milk is fantastic. The fresh sweetness is lost in the canned milks. Still the consistency and ease of the (Thai) canned product - I tend to use Chakoh. You also get a whole lot more cream than from extractions.
Bill, are you doing two extractions to get coconut cream and milk? I'm just curious about how much you are getting and if you are happy with the consistency (quality) of the extract.

sazerac wrote:Is the grater you linked to the one you got?
Are you doing two extractions to get coconut cream and milk? I'm just curious about how much you are getting and if you are happy with the consistency (quality) of the extract.

Yes, sazerac, I am using the business end of the one in the link. So far it is holding up well - no idea how long it will last.

For now, I am just doing a single extraction. In terms of yield, I have to admit I went a little crazy with the power-drill thing and ended up with a ton of grated coconut. Most went to make cream, some was used to make Bayless' Yucatan Coconut Pie. The remaining milk and some of the grated coconut went into a Brazilian-style seafood stew. Baked up the rest of the grated coconut and sprinkled it on vanilla ice cream. I don't recall exactly, but I think I went through 6 coconuts, maybe more! Like I said, I went a little crazy. I'll measure the yield more carefully next time.

I'm thrilled with the results, but as a newbie to Thai (long-time eater, short-time cooker), I lack the criteria to know how much quality might improve as I get more experience. Much better that the canned stuff, that is for sure.

Bill/SFNM

Bill/SFNM wrote:
For now, I am just doing a single extraction. In terms of yield, I have to admit I went a little crazy with the power-drill thing and ended up with a ton of grated coconut.
... I don't recall exactly, but I think I went through 6 coconuts, maybe more! Like I said, I went a little crazy. I'll measure the yield more carefully next time.

With your power drill 6 coconuts seems like no problem. I envy that. The elbow grease expended on the manual one has me converted to the cans (for when I just need the milk).
Still, you are loosing a lot of milk by not doing the second extract. From my experience in using coconut milk in Indian cooking - typically there's two extractions. The first (maybe about a cup of water to a grated coconut) yields a 'thick' milk and then a second cup of water (sometimes warm) yields a second 'thin' milk [can't remember offhand if this is done in Thomson/Thai cookery]. Cooking, simmering is usually done with the 'thin' milk with the 'thick' milk being added towards the end. With the canned stuff (not that this is relevant for power graters ) not shaking the can before opening lets you separate the 'thick' coconut milk from the 'thin'... The ample canned coconut 'fat' also lets me add some to the initial cracking = bhunno-ing that Thomson describes and that isn't really feasible with fresh milk extract (at least not in my experience).

Since this thread meandered towards other recipes from David Thompson's cookbook, I changed the post title.
Last night I made a recipe I had mentioned upthread: Muslim chicken curry or gai gorla.
Basically, you marinate a whole butterflied chicken in coconut cream, shallots, garlic, coriander root and ginger, then grill it until it's nearly done, then dip it in curry and stick it back on the grill.
The curry paste includes shallot, garlic, ginger, coriander root, peanuts, dried chiles and coconut--all 'air dried' for a day.
The recipe called for 7 long dried chiles. I had dried thai chiles but they weren't that long. I ended up adding a lot more that what's shown in the pics and next time I'll add even more. Also, I had a hell of time finding cilantro with the roots on. None of the Green City Markets stands had it, nor did Golden Pacific (which surprised me since the roots are often used in Thai cooking. I found a bunch at Harvest Time with a little bit of root (but it was mostly stem).
I heated coconut cream, added the paste ("pounded in a mortar"--actually run through the Cuisinart in my case, I was too lazy to do it by hand), tamarind water, fish sauce, palm sugar and kaffir lime leaves.
I grilled the butterflied chicken over indirect heat (keeping the grill really hot) with the cover on/vent open for a total of about 45 minutes.
David Thompson called for butterflying chicken by cutting through the breast bone, but next time I will cut through the back bone on either side and remove it (as I have done in the past). It's easier to carve that way.
I will definitely make this again. This was a great base recipe and I can see making this with canned pa nang or gari paste as well. Once the chicken has marinated, this could actually be put together in an hour or so without the step of making the paste (though the homemade paste was great). I actually froze the leftover sauce as well.

Paste ingredients (on plates) and curry sauce ingredients


Paste


Curry sauce ready for dipping


Chicken


Plated with Thai grilled eggplant salad


Edited b/c I forgot to mention the palm sugar in the recipe and for grammar.

thaiobsessed wrote:Also, I had a hell of time finding cilantro with the roots on.

I've been on that hunt myself. Thai Grocery [RIP] used to carry cilantro with roots on, but that buggy's out of the barn. There has to be a better source somewhere in Chicagoland than a few scant roots at Harvest Time.

Great looking chicken, I'm getting out my Thompson to look up the recipe soon as I'm done with this post.

Enjoy,
Gary

I recently made a batch of David Thompson's Pa Nang curry (actually I made too, including one large batch for the small household exchange). For the small batch I made the coconut milk/cream which was pretty easy, though I thought the taste difference was modest. As has been noted previously, his recipes call for a lot of coconut milk/cream. I make curries fairly frequently and I actually thought that using that much coconut cream makes it harder to 'crack' (heat enough for an oily layer to form). The paste is great but the next time I make this, I'm going to dramatically decrease the amount of coconut milk and cream (usually I just skim the cream off a chilled can of coconut milk, then add the rest after frying up the curry paste and this has worked for me in the past.) I used my molcajete. I think the next batch will be in the blender to compare and see if the extra legwork (arm-work?) is worth it. For the batch shown I used bottom round, which I seared before braising. For the big batch, I used brisket which I blanched from a cold-water start, then braised per Thompson. I think I liked the former best.

Paste ingredients:


Paste:


Finished curry finished with fresh chiles, thai basil over rice


Edited to add that I have been consistently finding cilantro with roots at Whole Foods (who knew?)

Yum! I wish Sparky were more amenable to curry-type dishes!

Thought I'd bump this thread for two reasons:
Number 1, as a tangent to the recipe thread since I brought chili jam to the picnic. The recipe is copyrighted but I'll give the ingredients and a general idea of how to make it.
Ingredients:
To fry: 4 c sliced shallots, 2 c sliced garlic, 1/2 c dried prawns (more or less to make it more or less funky), 1 cup dried chiles (seeded), 10 slices galanga
Other ingredients: 1 t roasted shrimp past, 1 c palm sugar, 1/2 c tamarind water, 1/2 c fish sauce.

Basically, you deep fry each of the 'to fry' ingredients separately, then whiz them with the shrimp paste in a food processor. You cook all the ingredients until thickened to form a 'jam' (but not too long that you form Thai chili brittle)

Ingredients



In the food processor


The other reason to bump this thread is that IT'S HERE!!! His new book on street food is out (and it's a beaut). Hopefully, I'm weakening the resolve of some of the other cookbook junkies out there. It's almost too pretty to cook from...

I'm eagerly awaiting my copy which, like you, I preordered.

Jyoti

Here's Chez Pim's nam prik pao recipe. It's not too far off of David's, and there's some interesting stories there, too.

Can't wait to see that book!

Hi,

I have a copy of his new book on Thai Street Food, too. It is a coffee table book with stunning pictures.

You may want to borrow a trick inspired by Rene G: use your digital camera to photograph the recipes. Print them out and use them, instead of risking the chance of staining that book.

What is really needed is spiral bound book with the recipes like they did with the Time Life series. When you bought any book, they came as a pair.

I look forward to all the treasure you mine from it.

Regards,

Cathy2 wrote:You may want to borrow a trick inspired by Rene G: use your digital camera to photograph the recipes

That's a great idea. I'm not sure about the resolution on my camera but it's worth a try.

Interesting article about Thompson in the NY Times today