Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Thai style chickpeas & fried rice

Dear foodies,

I've made thai curries and noodles at home, but it was always using the store bought pastes. So this month, with the pretext of being the host I pushed myself to make the curry pastes at home. Apart from those, I also wanted to look for the recipes that I wasn't familiar with. Going by the fact that a mere 10-15% of Indian food gets showcased in restaurants, I knew that thai food too would have many gems waiting to be uncovered. Looking at the various entries coming in, its clear that many of you also did the same too, and tried newer dishes in your kitchens. It was also surprising to see the diversity and cultural influence each country has on another. There were salsa's that I only thought existed in Mexican food, the spring rolls that we usually attach to Chinese food and our very own samosa's being a popular Thai street food.

While flipping through recipes in Vatcharin Bhumichitr's 'Thai vegetarian cooking', a recipe for chickpea curry caught my eye. I love chickpeas in all their forms - plainly cooked as a flavor packed sundal, or a spice filled choley, a tangy chaat or tikki, toasted up as a cricpy snack or pureed into a hummus, its versatile and enjoyable in every preparation. And a Thai inspired dish can surely not be left out without a warm welcome into my kitchen.

The book mentions that this recipe comes from a Buddhist monastery located West of the capital city, Bangkok. The monks in the temple follow a vegetarian diet and so include a lot of beans and tofu to add protein to their meal. Simmered with fragrant cilantro and potent garlic in a mild coconut sauce, spiced with peppercorns and hints of basil, this is a recipe you must add to your repertoire. I made slight changes to the recipe, it also called for potatoes but I skipped them. And this curry tastes better the longer it sits.
Thai style Chickpea curry
(Gaeng Kari Tua)
Ingredients:
  • 1 cup - Chickpeas, canned or pre-soaked and cooked dry beans
  • 2 nos - Tomatoes, medium sized
  • 1 tbsp - Cilantro roots, finely chopped (I used the tender stems instead)
  • 1 tsp - Garlic, finely minced
  • 1/2 -1 tsp - Peppercorns, coarsely ground
  • 1/2 tsp - Curry powder/garam masala
  • 3/4 cup - Coconut milk - I used the lite version
  • 1 Tbsp - Tamari, low sodium
  • 6-8 nos - Basil leaves, lightly torn
  • 3/4 Tbsp - Oil
  • 1 tsp - Sugar
  • Salt to taste
Method :
  1. Mince together the cilantro stems and garlic, add the coarsely ground peppercorns to this and pound together. Heat oil in a pan, add the fry this paste for a couple of minutes on medium heat.
  2. Add coconut milk and stir well to incorporate the paste. Add all the remaining ingredients to this and simmer for ~10-13 mins until the chickpeas soak up all the flavors and become tender. Garnish with a few more basil leaves and serve warm with jasmine rice.
This curry is so easy to put together and tastes fabulous. It even beats my quick choley, with no onions to chop and no'cook-onion-tomato-until-oil-separates' step! Since it uses minimal ingredients, all of them shine through and you see what each one adds to the dish. The only heat in this recipe comes from the peppercorns and the subtle basil leaves taste lovely in this dish. I had this with quinoa instead of rice and it tasted just as good or even better :)

I also made this fantastic fried rice a couple of nights back. A few weekends back I took on the task of preparing the curry pastes at home, I referred to a bunch of recipes, but mainly used the recipes given by the Jugalbandits. I used the penang curry paste in this fried rice since it was the milder of the curry pastes I made. Fried rice I think is one of those dishes that has as many recipes as there are cooks. Each one is unique in its own way, but the one thing they have in common is flavor and short cooking times, and this one is no exception :)
Thai Basil fried rice
(Khao Pad Krapow)
Ingredients:
  • 1.5 cups - Rice, cooked and cooled
  • 1/4 cup - Green bell peppers, finely diced
  • 1/4 cup - Carrot, finely diced
  • 1/4 cup - Tofu, crumbled
  • 1/4 cup - whole Moong bean sprouts
  • 1/2 cup - Snow peas, roughly chopped
  • 1/2 tsp - Garlic, minced
  • 1/2 tsp - Red pepper flakes
  • 3/4 tsp - Turmeric
  • 1 tsp - Penang curry paste
  • 1 tsp - Tamari, low-sodium
  • 1 tsp - Sugar
  • 10-12 nos - Basil leaves, thinly chopped
  • 1 Tbsp - Oil
  • Salt to taste
Method:
  1. Heat oil in a wok and 1/2 the basil leaves, red pepper flakes and garlic to the cold oil. As it heats up the oil will absorb the flavor of the two ingredients. Be careful to not burn them though :)
  2. Next add the turmeric, diced bell peppers, carrots, sprouts and curry paste. Cook on medium high heat for 3-4 minutes. Meanwhile blanch the snow peas, in a microwave safe bowl, add enough water to cover the chopped snow peas, a few pinches of salt and cook for 2 mins. Let it sit in the warm water for a few more minutes then drain then under running cold water.
  3. Add soy sauce, sugar, drained snow peas and the cooled rice to the wok. Toss well to blend all the ingredients without breaking the rice grains in the process. Garnish with the other half of the basil leaves, and taste to adjust seasonings before serving it warm.
This was a very flavorful rice, I made it when my brother was here this weekend and he enjoyed it too. The fresh curry paste adds a lot of fragrance, flavor and freshness to the rice. The best part is you can add a ton of veggies and it will taste fab in this dish. I had made some potstickers that night and added a couple of spoonfuls of leftover filling to the rice. I had used the same set of veggies along with some crumbled tofu to fill them and so they gelled well with the flavors in the fried rice. The basil I used on both these dishes came from my tiny patio garden. After killing the first plant, I got another one and its been doing great so far, been more than week, yippieee :D


So there you go, two flavor packed, quick dishes in one long post because I was lazy to do them separately. These ofcourse go to IAVW - Thai that I am hosting this month for Vaishali. I will be doing the round-up over the weekend and so if you have any recipes in the pipeline, send them to me by Saturday and I will include them in the final post.

26 thoughts:

Ramya Vijaykumar said...

Thai style chickpeas curry is mouthwatering and so is the fried rice its so delectable...

Mangala Bhat said...

Wow! i loved both dishes .and pics .awsome .:)

Indhu said...

love the chickpeas dish... I too love chickpeas - can have it in any form... and this recipe is soo easy... a must try...
yummy looking fried rice too!

amna said...

The discovered the yumminess if basil recently and love it in fried rice!

Soma said...

That chickpeas is such a lovely thing you did!! I will have to do this soon! i mean really soon. I love the smell of basil... i usually get a bunch with roots in the water & the entire living area becomes fragrant!coconut milk & basil, I can just imagine.

Renuka said...

Wow...the curry and rice looks delicious..

chef and her kitchen said...

oh my god...Loved both the dishes...I am just drooling over both the dishes....lovely and yummy....Nice clicks too

Varsha Vipins said...

Awesome Priya..:)

Unknown said...

Both the dishes look great!! Gud click of the chickpeas

Le @HC said...

definitely worth a try, esp because of
"no frying till oil seperates" hungama..:) Yeah sometimes or most of the times, we would like to cook something faster and tastier, isnt it.. Enjoyed the pics too..

Parita said...

Both the curry looks delicious..i got to try thai cuisine at home soon :)

Priya Suresh said...

Wow thai style chickpeas looks simply superb...While basil fried rice makes me hungry!Both looks delicious!

Lavanya Raj said...

Both the dishes seems to be rich in flavour..

I really loved basil along with Thai Currie's.

Thanks for Beautifully hosting the event!

Anonymous said...

hi priya
awesome dishes. pictures are as usual superb. i wish i get a chance to taste them. too lazy to cook1

Pavani said...

Lovely Thai dishes. Chickpea curry sounds simple & delicious. I love Jugalbandits penang curry paste, usually have some in the freezer all the time, using that in the rice is a neat idea.

Priya said...

Ramya, thank you :) The simplicity of the chickpeas curry was really surprising.

Mangala, do let me know if you try them :)

Indhu, they are very versatile naa...do try it out sometime.

Nags, it was through Thai dishes that I got introduced to it too. Pesto came second.

Soma, yes, they don't come off as having a strong flavor but subtly touch everything they are used in. Where do you find them with roots ?
The chickpeas are super easy to make, I am sure you will like it :)

Renuka, thank you soo much :)

Priya said...

Prathibha, :) thank youuu. I am loving the flavor combos in thai cuisine. Do give them a try and let me know how you like it :)

Thank you Varsha!

Sharmilee, thank you :)

Le, yup, fast and tasty for sure. The choley & rajma get boring after awhile and this was a refreshing combination.

Parita, you definitely must! There is one more day for the event, may be you could try :D

Lavi, yes, basil does have a special place in thai cooking and it works really well in both these dishes. I was apprehensive about using it in the choley, since I always used cilantro, but this tasted very good.

Anon, these are perfect dishes for a lazy soul, and I am part of that club :D thanks for dropping by.

Pavani, yes its really convenient having a stock of the pastes. I had underestimated their potency in comparison with store bought ones.

Indian Khana said...

Both the dishes looks yum...nice clicks

Vishali said...

wow I am drooling here Priya.....I guess I shld be ur neighbour :). Good one dear!

Vani said...

How wonderful they both look, Priya!

TBC said...

I've never seen chickpeas look so glamorous before!
I can imagine how flavorful the rice must have been with all that basil. :)

Vaishali said...

These are both so beautiful Priya, and beautifully presented. I love this version of the chickpea curry. And you're right, there's so much about regional cuisines that remains unexplored when one eats at restaurants.

Pavithra Elangovan said...

what a lovely presentation and colours are looking great..

A_and_N said...

I love the rice. Period. I guess I will have to wait it out to eat that no? :)

Nithya said...

your dishes as well as the photography makes me feel too yum yum..:) LOVELY blog. mean it.. :) Keep it going.. I am a fresher to the kitchen and just came by ur blog and its really really cool..surely gonna be following.. :) take a look at my blog when u find time..

Sig said...

Made the chickpeas the other day and loved them!!! The whole kitchen smelt like Thailand and it tasted great. I added a tiny amount of chilli to get a bit more of a hit but it was so yum :) A new fave!

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