For the Siamese aristocracy of the 19th century, leaving behind the safety of the city’s picturesque gardens, lively canals, and bustling streets to venture into the vast plains – beyond the mountains and into uncleared forests and dense jungles – was a risky affair that few were willing to undertake. They did not enjoy the untamed wilderness nor did they wish to cook outdoors, like hunters, near a stream or a river, and these nobles preferred to use gold-patterned porcelain rather than bamboo or banana leaf utensils.
This Masterclass explores the path of Jungle dishes from their first appearance in Siamese culinary literature and investigates the emergence and culture of jungle restaurants.
Class Content
This is a coconut-based jungle curry of catfish featuring fresh green chilies, sand ginger and an upcountry herbal charm.
This is my take on the famous jungle curry from the Saen Tung district in Trat province. In Trat it is usually cooked with game meat and thinly sliced pineapple shoots (แขนงสับปะรด).
This recipe is adapted from a recipe I obtained from a jungle food restaurant in Kanchanaburi province. The paste is a downgrade of a phrik khing paste – it omits the coriander roots and shallots. In addition, the recipe substitutes the fermented shrimp paste (kapi) with maawn fermented fish paste (กะปิมอญ; gabpi maawn), which is a popular ingredient among the Mon-Burmese population of the western province. The lack of shallots eliminates any sweetness that might impair the sharpness and heat of the dish. Furthermore, a double hit of citrus notes from holy basil are infused into the dish: from the holy basil flowers added to the paste and the holy basil leaves added to the curry.
Despite its name, jungle relish has nothing to do with wild animals or exotic ingredients foraged from a tropical forest. Made up from the most […]
Considered by some to be the most famous, and the most delicious, dish in Thai cooking, the story of Massaman curry is interwoven with trade, politics and religion in 17th-century Siam. The story is filled with mighty kings, legendary explorers and unsolved mysteries, adding an air of magic and power to this already-heavenly perfumed dish, and thickening the plot of this full bodied, coconut-based curry’s birth.
