Issue #181: Thai Flavored Sweet Potato Curry
Comfort Food for an Uncomfortable Time, Homemade Coconut Milk and Red Curry Paste Pantry Prep
Anyone else out there craving comfort food these days? Garlicky roast chicken, big bowls of creamy pasta, steaming pot pies, and pumpkin spice latte bars are among the dishes I’ve cooked since last Wednesday morning. Add a cheddar-bacon burger, a broccoli quiche, and a brownie sundae and my @KitchenSense Instagram feed would read like the menu of a “New American” restaurant from the 1980s. I guess I’m trying to deal with the discouragement and uncertainty of this moment by eating food that provides some sort of nostalgia and stability. I’m not sure it’s working.
One of the dishes I made recently that was both soulfully soothing and gastronomically satisfying was this Thai flavored sweet potato curry with chickpeas and spinach. You could say that it was inspired by things I’ve seen on Instagram. But having greatly reduced my social media intake in the last few days, I can’t point to any particular person or post.
The winning combination of coconut milk, peanut, fish sauce, lime, lemongrass, and spices that flavors so many delicious Thai dishes has a universally comforting appeal. The creamy texture of this curry is also seductive. While this may look and sound similar to the pumpkin curry I offered as an alternative to the pervasive pumpkin spice a few weeks ago in Issue #178, the flavor profile and even the texture is totally different. We are decidedly in Bangkok, not Bombay, here.
While I make my own curry paste, peanut butter, coconut milk, and chickpeas (Issue #120)—which I often have at the ready so I don’t have to do it for any one recipe—store bought versions will make a delicious, quick, and easy one-pot meal.
Like many good recipes, you can mess around with this one based on what you have on hand. I had some roasted squash (Issue #19) in the fridge, so I stirred it in to thicken the broth and bump up the fall flavor. You could use chunks of raw pumpkin instead of sweet potato but I prefer the density of the potatoes in this recipe. Greens are a good addition, other vegetables, too. Like most stews and soups, this one is even better the next day.
Without the constant drone of news on the radio and TV during my moratorium from political information, I’m finding I have even more time to concentrate on my cooking. Now would be a good time to fill your larder with homemade versions of some of the pantry items this recipe calls for. I’m including recipes for coconut milk and red curry paste below, just in case you want a couple of projects to keep you busy. It’s going to be a long winter, an even longer couple of years.
RECIPE: Thai Flavored Sweet Potato Curry
Makes about 6 servings
3 tablespoons peanut or vegetable oil
1 small onion, finely chopped
Salt
1 large clove garlic, minced
1-inch knob ginger, unpeeled, grated on a Microplane
2 to 3 tablespoons Thai red curry paste, depending on your spice tolerance, store bought or homemade (see below)
2 tablespoons tomato paste
1 1/2 cups chickpea cooking water, chicken stock, vegetable stock, or water
1 cup coconut milk, frozen, canned, or homemade (see below)
2 makrut lime leaves (optional)
2 tablespoons natural peanut butter
1 tablespoon white miso
2 large sweet potatoes (1 1/2 to 2 pounds), peeled and chunked
1 cup cooked chickpeas
1 cup cooked squash or pumpkin purée (optional)
1 tablespoon fish sauce
Juice of 1 lime
2 cups fresh spinach, arugula or other green (optional)
Freshly ground black pepper
Chopped fresh cilantro, for garnish
Lime wedges, for garnish
Heat the oil in a large saucepan or Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add the onion and a pinch of salt and sauté for 4 or 5 minutes until soft and translucent. Add the garlic and ginger and cook another minute or two until fragrant. Add the curry paste and tomato paste and cook a couple of minutes more to draw out the aromatics. Add the cooking water or stock and, using a wooden spoon, scrape any of the pastes off the bottom of the pan to dissolve in the liquid. Add the coconut milk and makrut lime leaves, if using, and bring to a simmer. Stir in the peanut butter and miso until dissolved. Add the sweet potatoes and chickpeas. Bring back up to a simmer, lower the heat, and cook uncovered for about 20 minutes, until the potatoes are soft. Turn up the heat to medium-high. Stir in the squash purée, if using, and bring to a simmer. Stir in the fish sauce, lime juice, spinach, if using, and some freshly ground pepper, and mix, just until the greens are wilted. Garnish with chopped cilantro and lime wedges and serve with freshly steamed jasmine rice.
RECIPE: Coconut Milk
There’s nothing wrong with canned coconut milk, though I prefer frozen if you can find it. I’ve seen two brands of frozen coconut milk from Thailand available in Asian markets in the U.S., and they both boost the flavor and texture of a finished Thai curry. But once, when I mistakenly ordered a too-big bag of desiccated coconut online, I learned how to make my own. Not as good as coconut milk made from fresh coconut, the homemade version is still pretty good and very easy. And I’ve been making it myself and freezing it in one-cup containers ever since.
Makes 1 quart
8 ounces (225 g) shredded, desiccated coconut
1 quart (1liter) boiling water
Place the coconut in a powerful blender. Add the boiling water. Cover and let sit for 20 minutes. With the top of the blender tightly on, blend on the highest speed to create as smooth a purée as possible. Pour through a fine mesh strainer or a double layer of cheese cloth to strain. Press and squeeze as much of the liquid out of the solids as possible. Divide the “milk” into 1-cup containers, label, and freeze until needed. As in cans, the coconut milk will separate. Simply stir it back together to re-emulsify.
I’ve tried to find something good to do with the pulp, but have not been happy with any of the results. It goes into our compost. Open to suggestions.
RECIPE: Thai Red Curry Paste
Makes about 5 tablespoons
There are as many different versions of red curry paste as there are Thai cooks. Different recipes often call for a slightly different combination of ingredients. For Nate’s benefit, I make mine more mild than some so I can get all the flavor without all the heat. The only hard things to find are the cilantro root, which is key, and the galangal, both of which you can find in the freezer section of some Asian markets. If I buy a bunch of fresh cilantro that has the roots attached, I wash and freeze them until I need them. If you can’t find galangal, just add some more ginger.
5 dried long red chilis, seeded or not, depending on your spice tolerance
1 tablespoon coriander seeds
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
10 white peppercorns
Pinch ground mace and/or a pinch nutmeg
Generous pinch salt
1 large clove chopped garlic
1 small shallot, minced
2 or 3 fresh red Thai chilis, seeded, for milder paste, and chopped, or another fresh red chili you like
2 tablespoons chopped ginger, no need to peel it
2 teaspoons chopped galangal, or an additional tablespoons of chopped ginger
2 tablespoons chopped fresh lemongrass from the center of the stalks
1 teaspoon finely grated makrut lime zest or regular lime zest, or 1 makrut lime leaf, deveined and minced
1 teaspoon Thai shrimp paste or 1 tablespoon fish sauce
In a small, dry sauté pan, combine the dried long chilies, coriander seed, cumin seed, and white peppercorns, and set over medium heat to toast while swirling the pan constantly. Once you can smell their aroma, remove the spices from the heat to cool. Using a mortar and pestle, a spice grinder, or a powerful mini chopper, grind the toasted spices to a fine powder. Remove to a small bowl, add the pinch of mace and/or nutmeg, and set aside.
In the same grinding device, combine a generous pinch of salt with the garlic and shallot and pound or mince to a paste. Add the fresh chili and continue pounding or mincing. Add the ginger, galangal and lemongrass, and keep at it. Add the makrut zest and shrimp paste or fish sauce and keep pounding or mincing to make as smooth a paste as possible. Then add in the ground toasted spices and keep going to make a flavorful, deep red paste. You can use the red curry paste right away, or store it in a small jar in the fridge almost indefinitely.