Thai Beef Massaman Curry
Thai Beef Massaman Curry
Recipe and history
The complex, deep flavors found in all Thai curries (kaeng), are due not to long, slow cooking times, but to careful preparation of curry pastes. Dry spices and fresh seasonings are lovingly pounded together in a pestle and mortar for at least 15-20 minutes to create an intensely flavored and aromatic paste, crushed smooth, bound with shrimp paste, then cooked in coconut cream to give Thai curries their distinctively sweet and pungent character.
Whereas Indian curries are flavored mainly with toasty, dried spices, the curry pastes of Thailand typically combine just a few roasted spices such as cumin, coriander and pepper, with a base of garlic and Asian shallots and a selection of Thailand’s signature fresh ingredients; lemongrass, kaffir lime leaves, galangal, fresh turmeric and tamarind, chilies and just-picked herbs. The result is a wet paste that gives these curries different layers of flavor and aroma, each one rising to the surface as the curry cooks, from the initial burst of citrus to a final mellow spiciness. Although Thai curries are not hat at all, the word ‘kaeng’ meaning not a spicy dish but a liquid one, refers also to the blandest of soups.
The most popular Thai curries seem color-coded, the color an indication of both taste and heat. Red curry paste is dyed by dried long red chilies and is quite mild. Green curry paste is crushed from fresh green chilies and herbs and is usually very hot, while the yellow paste is the hottest of all, colored by pale dried bird’s eye chilies and the golden-yellow turmeric of the south.
Although called ‘curry’, the Thai curry does not necessarily have Indian roots at all; possibly only a mutual respect for chili-hot food links the two. However, the Thai cook has always soaked up foreign ingredients and techniques and in the north, drier Burmese influenced curries made use of dried spices, while the popular Massaman, (Muslim) curries also feature many of the roasted spices and longer cooking times so familiar from Indian cooking.
Because of the strategic location, making it an essential link in international trade, especially the traditional maritime trade in the past, Thailand, or Siam as it was once called, maintained active and diverse relations with various countries, near and far, covering diplomacy, religion, and even war. Such ties led to the acceptance of other food cultures, which the people then blended with their own. Thai culinary art was transformed. From simple dishes based on food items available in the immediate surroundings emerged sophisticated recipes that resulted from adaptation. Leading the way was the Royal Palace, where the art of living was perfected and emulated among the population, in recipes, eating manner, and the art of food decoration and arrangement. In the Rattanakosin or Bangkok period, a Thai meal comprised more and more foreign elements- Chinese, Mon, Laotian, Burmese, Khmer, Indian, and Japanese. Starting in the Royal kitchen and spreading widely throughout the kingdom. The trend was evidenced in the lyrics for boat-rowing songs composed by the second monarch of the Chakri Dynasty, King Rama II, a supreme artist in his own right. He described incomparable dishes and arrangements at the hands of the queen. The poems are in praise of dishes, fruit arrangements, desserts, and significant occasions marked by the royal barges procession.
Mentioned in the poems are Indian foods such as Massaman curry, saffron rice, condiments, and fried spiced chicken. It can be said that Thai culinary art reached a new height in the reign of King Rama II of Bangkok, and dishes were immortalized by poems composed by the artist king, one of which is quoted below.
The Moslem curry she cooked,
heartily spiced and so hot,
whoever tastes it once,
will look for it all his life.
Fish soup with a piece of stomach
floating rich and fragrant,
inviting me to take spoonfuls
of that heavenly dish.
Pleated dumpling you have dressed,
being fairly reminiscent
of yourself and pleated outfits,
with a careful folded knot.
And pomegranate, just for the thought of it.
Pomegranate seeds glitter brightly,
like precious stones on a dish,
some are fully red,
and inviting as your little ring.
Along with their embrace of other food cultures in the past, Thai people also translated foreign recipes into Thai. King Chulalongkorn, (Rama V) who ruled over a century ago, and was known as a well-traveled and a gourmet monarch, dictated western recipes for soups, stew, steak, bread, sauces, salad, sandwiches, and pastry from English and French into Thai. He also tried out these recipes himself, with his female courtiers as assistants. A comprehensive Thai cookery book, which is considered the first recipe book to have been published in Thailand, the first in a series of five books, as a gift of knowledge for later generations, was put together by Lady Plian Phasakorawong, a pioneer of the Thai Red Cross Society. A century ago, there were no schools for girls. Thai ladies were educated at home, learning embroidery and cookery, and parents with good connections sought to enroll their daughters at one of the Royal Courts, so that they could be properly educated and trained by female royals, to be well-versed in the Thai language, flower arranging, court manners, embroidery, and cooking, with such credentials, they became good wives and mothers in charge of their households. And through them, the fine arts and crafts of the palace became widespread.
With the administrative change from absolute to constitutional monarchy in the Seventh Reign, female members in the royal entourages were granted permission to return to their families. These ladies, young and old were highly knowledgeable in home-making science of the highest order with their reintegration into the society, the way of the palace penetrated the ranks of common people, who were fascinated by the finesse and delicate tastes of palace food, in particular.
In the past a traditional Thai house was wooden and raised high above the ground, emphasizing the free flow of air, taking in cooling breezes from all directions, yet providing shelter from the heat and rain. The space under the house can serve as a living room, store-room. For cooking, a separate unit is built as the kitchen, located away from the living quarters, with complete ventilation as the main feature. This is meant to keep the house free of the penetrating smell of spices and seasoning materials, such as shrimp paste, fish sauce, fermented and salted fish, and also grime and soot, the general characteristics of the cooking place. A traditional Thai kitchen unit is therefore as open as possible.
Thai food and Thai cuisine from the past to the present are distinctive in their charms and characters. The cuisine is a proud heritage of the Thai people that they believe is second to none, and it has been handed down through the generations. Apart from the delicate blend of tastes and the rich nutritional value, the elaborate arrangement of Thai food and Thai cooking reflect the wisdom and culture of the Thai nation. Today, Thai food and Thai cuisine stand ready to make Thailand a proud kitchen of the world.
Massaman or Matsaman is not a native Thai word. It is generally thought to refer to the Muslims with earlier writers from the mid-19th century calling the dish ‘Massaman curry’, massaman being an archaic from the word Muslim.
According to Thai journalist and scholar Santi Sawetwinon, the dish originated in the 17thcentury central Thailand at the cosmopolitan court of Ayutthaya, through the Persian merchant Sheik Ahmad Qomi from whom the Thai noble family of Bunnag descends. Other theories contend that massaman is a southern Thai dish, influenced by Malay and Indian cuisine, or that its name is derived from the Malay word “Masan”, which means “sour”.
The curry is extolled in a poem from the end of the 18th century, attributed to Prince Itsarasunthon of Siam, the later King Rama II (1767-1824). It is dedicated to a lady who is believed to be Princess Bunrot, the later Queen Sri Suriyendra, wife of King Rama II. The second stanza of the poem reads;
Massaman, a curry made by my beloved,
is fragrant of cumin.
Any man who has swallowed the curry
is bound to long for her.
Due to its Muslim roots and therefore Islamic dietary laws, this curry is most commonly made with beef, but there are also variations on this dish using duck, chicken, mutton, goat, or less commonly so, pork. As pork is haram meat forbidden food in Islam, this last variant is of course not eaten by observant Thai Muslims.
The flavors of the massaman curry paste come from spices that are not frequently used in other Thai curries, cloves, cinnamon, cardamom seeds, nutmeg, cumin, and star anise would, in the 17th century, have been brought to Thailand from the Malay Archipelago and South Asia by foreigners, a trade originally dominated by Muslim traders from the Middle East, Indian subcontinent and from the archipelago itself, but increasingly threatened by the Portuguese, the Dutch and French East India Company. These are combined with local produce such as dried chilies, coriander seeds, lemongrass, galangal, white pepper, shrimp paste, Asian shallots and garlic to make massaman curry paste. This paste is first fried with coconut cream, and only then are meat, potatoes, onions, fish sauce or salt, tamarind paste, sugar, coconut milk and peanuts added.
Both the Khmer and Thai royal families were descended from the Persian (Iranian) and Mon ancestry. The first Persians to have come to Siam was Sheikh Ahmad the Persian Muslim merchant, along with his brother Muhamad Sa-id and his subordinates, who settled in Siam around 1600. Sheikh Ahmad was a native to Qom, Safavid Iran, south of Tehran. Sheikh Ahmad established himself as a rich merchant in Ayutthaya. Then, he came under the service of Songtham, who appointed him as Lord of the Right Pier, who supervised the traders that came from the west, the Persians, Indians, Europeans and Chularachamontri (palace official)- who oversaw all Shiites in Siam.
After subjecting a Japanese revolt under Yamada Nagamasa, Sheikh Ahmad became Samuha Nayok (First Prime Minister). Descendents of Sheikh Ahmad exerted control over Siamese politics, trade, and foreign affairs. Many of them became Samuha Nayok. They also monopolized the post of Chularachamontri. Some of them even converted to Buddhism.
One of Ahmad’s descendants was a man called Bunnag, who was a Buddhist. Bunnag married Nuan, who was the daughter of a wealthy Mon family and who had a sister of Nak. Nak, or Queen Amarindra (1737-1826), was the wife of Thong Duana, King Rama I (1736-1809), who took the name of Buddha Yodfa Chulaloke when he ascended the Siamese throne in 1782, establishing the first Chakri Dynasty.
The Bunnag family of Thailand was as powerful as the Thioun family of Cambodia. Bunnag, the first direct descendent of Ahmad, was then kinsmen to Thong Duang, Rama I. Though Tong Duang emerged as a powerful noble in Thonburi, Bunnag stayed far from the bureaucracy due to his childhood conflicts with King Taksin.
The house of Bunnag was a powerful Siamese noble family of the Persian descent of the early Rattanakosin. By the 19th century, their power reached the zenith, as they were favored by Chakri monarchs and monopolized high-ranking titles. Three Somdet Chao Phrayas came from the Bunnag family. They played a key role in government and foreign relations of the early Rattanakosin period.
It is possible that the Sheik was given the massaman curry recipe by the Bunnag family. The various Ayutthaya courts which had close relations with the Bunnag family since the time of Sheik Achmad Qomi, employed many Persian and Indian Muslim cooks, so it seems all roads point to Persia and the Bunnag family in particular as the source of the massaman curry.
Regarding the Persian (Muslim) culinary conjunctures, the Islamic community of Klong Bang Luang (Thonburi) is centered on the 17th century (masjid) Ton Son, which is now a Sunni Mosque. Originally populated by Persians and their Shiite converts, the area’s population also grew as a result of the Persian exodus out of Ayutthaya in 1767, and a new mosque, (Musjid) Bang Luang, was built during this time. Many of the surviving Ayutthaya nobles close to the Bunnag family also settled in this area, noticeably Princess Bunrod, to whom the poem “Kap Hechom Krueang Khao Wan” was dedicated. A love poem, composed by the then Prince Isaransundhorn, later to become King Rama II. The poem is regarded by many to be the first comprehensive representation of the Thai culinary repertoire. Written sometime during the final years of the 18thcentury. Princess Bunrod became Queen Sri Suriyendra Borama Rachini (1767-1836), Rama II’s wife and mother of King Mongkut (RamaIV, r. 1851-1868) and Prince Pinklao (1808-1866). This poem, more importantly, was a tribute to Princess Bunrod’s legendary culinary prowess. Princess Bunrod’s cooking was so celebrated that Lady Plian, a culinary legend of her own, paid tribute to her almost a century later. Perhaps it was during this time that Princess Bunrod picked up various culinary traits along the confluence of waterways of Klong Bang Luang.
Today, Klong Bang Luang is known as “Yan talat khaek” or khaek market. There were harmonious relations between Thai Shiite and Sunni in Thonburi during the three years they shared the Ton Son mosque after the fall of Ayutthaya. The Sunni and Shiite in Bangkok-Thonburi area practically lived together in this particular community. One of the reasons that led the Muslims to settle in this area was the market selling Halal produce. From the middle of the 12th century until now, the area has been largely populated by Muslims from South Asia.
On whether the concoction of foreign influenced dishes happened in Ayutthaya or in old settlements in Thonburi, this much is certain; the majority of dishes are attributed to trade with the west, which began from the 17th century onwards, led by the Portuguese and Persian trade networks. These networks brought about cultural influences, religions, and most importantly, people to settle on the Siamese shores, enabling further localizations and interacting. Further, western seaborne conjunctures introduced a series of new crops such as papaya (malagor) and various kinds of chilies (prik) to Siam, as a result of great historical event known as the Columbian Exchange. The legacy of these crops introduction is enormous since most Thai dishes today utilize chilies.
The culinary conjunctures that had taken roots from the 16th century onwards made a lasting impact upon Siamese society and its Royal Court in spite of later political development.
As with the history of “Tom yum goong” there are basically four major periods in Thai history. First, there is the Sukhothai (1238-1438), when the Siamese kingdom’s capital was located a bit north of where it is now, the great Ayuttyaya era (1351-1767), when Siam thrived and became a wealthy and prosperous kingdom; the turbulent Thonburi period (1768-1782); and finally, the Rattanakosin era (1782-present), which ushered in the modern Thailand that we know today.
Thai cuisine has evolved along the same lines as Thai history, as many of the innovations that radically transformed Thai cuisine were introduced through the Royal Court and influences from India, Portugal, Persia, and China. The major influences on Thai cuisine depended, and continue to rely on, four basic things; the availability of raw ingredients, the cooking implements used, the way fire is used to cook (method of cooking), and influences from the outside world.
The Sukhothai era, and arguably the Thai Kingdom, was born when two tribal leaders seceded from the ruling Khmer Empire and established a Thai-ruled land at Sukhothai. The dynasty that resulted lasted for centuries, in the process spawning a Thai alphabet and what was later termed a ‘golden age’ for Thai history. This was not a focus on food, but an era that ruling monarchs were forced to wage many wars to keep intact the fledgling country, which at one point spanned parts of Burma, Laos, and the Malay Peninsula. In this time cooking methods were basic, pestle and mortar reigned, clay pots, steaming, boiling, grilling and basic salad making.
There was some domestication of animals, fish, and wild boar were often eaten, but there was no refrigeration, meaning food was heavily salted, and often seasoned with a mix of garlic, Asian shallots, peppercorns, coriander root, and palm sugar. Fruit, eaten with rice, was also a popular alternative when major sources of protein became scarce.
During the Ayatthaya period, Siam became one of the richest kingdoms in the East, rivaling even France in terms of size and wealth. This era achieved its apex during the reign of King Narai the great (1657-1688), when Siam became one of the most powerful kingdoms of the region, expanding north, east and south.
The biggest development in Thai cuisine actually happened earlier, halfway across the globe, when the Portuguese discovered the ‘new world’. When they came to Asia in the 1500’s, they brought with them many of their recent discoveries; tomatoes, potatoes, eggplants, sugar cane, and chilies. By the early 1600’s, after having started trading with the Portuguese (The first Europeans to make contact with the kingdom), Thais started growing chilies themselves.
New horizons developed in other areas of Thai cooking, too, courtesy of other visitors to the Ayutthaya court, which was friendly to traders from all over the world. Emissaries from other lands such as India, Persia, and China came to the kingdom, and they brought their cuisines with them. Alongside more raw materials, innovations such as shrimp paste (kapi) and fish sauce (nam pla) from the Chinese were introduced to Thai cooking, as well as the use of coconut milk in savory dishes (from the Indian’s, who used coconut milk in their own cooking and the Moors and Portuguese, who drank milk).
This meant dishes like curries, which had been herb and spice-based, reached an entirely new dimension with the addition of coconut milk. Diners should rejoice; sweet green curry (kaeng kiew waan), massaman curry (kaeng massaman), were all born this way.
Eggs were also introduced to Thai food, something unheard of before. An entirely new collection of dishes like steamed curry fish custard (hor mok) and numerous desserts came into being. One interesting fact back then, all old Thai recipes called for duck eggs, because chickens were scarce and considered precious, they won money in cockfighting contests.
Cooking techniques also broadened from mere grilling and boiling, opening the door to steaming for savory dishes such as the ‘hor mok’, a Portuguese-inspired creation. In this revolutionary dish, fish flesh (Smelly, muddy river fish) is scrapped off of the skeleton and mixed with curry paste and duck eggs, to mask the odor and set the mousse. It is flavored with palm sugar, coconut milk, fish sauce and kaffir lime leaves, then steamed in banana leaf cups. This dish, which utilized all the new innovations and ingredients of its time, it is one of Thailand’s earliest examples of fusion cuisine and remains immensely popular to this day.
The Rattanakosin, modern day Thailand. All empires come to an end and Ayutthaya was no exception, being sacked by the Burmese in 1767. For a brief period of time, Thonburi took Ayutthaya’s place, headed by a Chinese-born nobleman and soldier who became known as King Taksin the Great. His reign was marked by a series of military victories, most notably Vientiane and the incorporation of Chiang Mai and the Lanna kingdom into greater Siam.
Taksin was eventually toppled by a rebellion and executed. His place was taken by his excommander in chief, who became known as Rama II. The Rattanakosin period, marked by peace and prosperity was born.
The Rattanakosin era led to as many culinary innovations as during the Ayutthaya period. While many of those during the Ayutthaya period featured the addition of ingredients, many Rattanakosin innovations involved an expanded range of cooking methods.
Like the Ayutthaya dynasty, kings Rama I, II and especially III were focused on trade, resulting in a wealthy state and new sources of culinary inspiration. Among the most pivotal traders and immigrants to Thailand during the period were the Chinese, who came to the country in droves, setting up communities largely in the southeast as well as Bangkok’s Chinatown (Yaowara). From then on, the Chinese would revolutionize cooking implements (adding woks and pans), cooking methods (adding stir-frying) and even sources of starch.
The Chinese contributions to Thai food are by no means minimal. The mere introduction of pans and woks added reams of new dishes to the culinary lexicon, including anything fried or stir-fried (phad), be it vegetables or meat, such as stir-fried meat in oyster sauce (phad neua nam man hoi).
Stir-frying also necessitated the addition of more sauces to add flavor, hence the appearance of soy sauce (si-ew), also Japanese shoyu, know during this period as ‘nam pla yippon’ (Japanese fish sauce).
The cooking opportunities that arose from the introduction of noodles are still being explored today. Not only did they bring us noodles in soup (guay thiew) and all its various permutations; in beef broth with meatballs, or with fish, or with chicken, but in a mix of various innovations of the period, they also brought us various types of stir-fried noodles: in gravy (guay thiew lard na), fried in soy sauce (guay thiew phad si-ew), and, eventually, Thai-style phad Thai.
The Chinese also introduced Thais to a new source of protein, namely, duck. Although Thais used duck eggs, ducks themselves were not eaten until the Chinese did so first. A whole new stream of dishes ensured. Duck noodles (guay thiew ped), minced duck salad (larb ped), rice topped with roast duck (khao na ped) and roast duck curry (kaeng pet ped yang) among them.
To this day, anything containing duck, along with anything stir-fried, or any noodle dish, for that matter, is considered Chinese and still demands the use of Chinese chopsticks to eat with.
Another inadvertent pioneer in Thai cuisine was King Rama IV, who sought to modernize the country by entertaining large numbers of westerners at his court. In order to do so, he hired their cooks, Chinese born chefs who had cooked for British colonial officers. These cooks introduced their own interpretations of ‘western cooking’, stews and minces, to Thai cooking, so with western ingredients with Chinese style seasonings, these Royal court cooks changed the way Thai’s eat today.
Massaman curry makes use of quite a few herbs and spices and there is abundant anecdotal information documenting the historical use of herbs and spices for their health benefits. Early documentation suggests that hunters and gatherers wrapped meat in leaves of bushes, accidentally discovering that this process enhanced the taste of the meat, as did certain nuts, seeds, berries, and bark. Over the years, spices and herbs were used as a way to mask unpleasant tastes and odors of food, and later, to keep food fresh.
Ancient civilizations did not distinguish between those spices and herbs used for flavoring from those used for medicinal purposes, when leaves, seeds, roots, or gums had a pleasant taste or agreeable odor, it became in demand and gradually became a norm for that culture as a condiment.
Spices were also valuable as items of exchange and trade. The bible mentions that in 1000 B.C, Queen Sheba visited King Soloman in Jurusalem and offered him “120 measures of gold, many spices, and precious stones.”
According to ancient myths, Shen Nung likely wrote “Pen Ts’ao Ching” or “The classic herbal” around 2700 B.C. The early publication mentioned more than 100 medicinal plants including the spice cassia, which is very similar to cinnamon. Later, more comprehensive Chinese herbal, “Pen Ts’ao Kang Mu” was published in 1596 by Li Shih Chen. Other historical evidence suggested that cassia was an important spice in South China when the province “Kweilin”, meaning “Cassia forest”, was founded around 216 B.C.
Early on, nutmeg and cloves from Moluccas were brought to China. Anecdotal evidence that Chinese courtiers in the 3rd century B.C carried cloves in their mouths so their breath was sweet when addressing the emperor. During the 5thcentury, ginger plants were grown in pots and carried on long sea voyages between China and Southeast Asia to provide fresh food and to prevent scurvy.
Spices and herbs (e.g.; black pepper, cinnamon, turmeric, cardamom) have been used by Indians for thousands of years for both culinary and health purposes. Spices indigenous to India (e.g.; cardamom and turmeric) were cultivated as early as the 8th century B.C. in the gardens of Babylon.
During the ancient Roman Empire, trading largely came from Arabia. Traders supplied cassia, cinnamon, and other spices and deliberately kept the source of their products secret. The intent was to have a monopoly on the spice trade and the Arabians spun great tales about how they obtained the spices in order to keep the value high.
In the beef massaman curry recipe that follows it calls for many fresh herbs and spices, both in the sauce and in the curry paste, to be served with Thai jasmine rice, let’s have a closer look at some of these ingredients. Like the history of many spices, the history of cloves goes back many centuries. In fact, this spice was one of the first to be traded and evidence of cloves has been found in vessels dating as far back as 1721 B.C. Native to the Moluccas islands, as many spices are, cloves were once a treasured commodity prized by the ancient Romans.
But it was not just the Romans who enjoyed cloves. The Chinese were said to use them as far back as 226 B.C. Apparently they chewed the floweret’s prior to having an audience with the emperor so that their breath would not smell bad.
Cloves were one of the most precious spices of the 16th and 17thcentury, and control of them spurred expeditions as well as wars. In 1522, Magellan’s ship returned from its fateful trip around the world (Magellan himself was killed in the Philippines at the battle of Mactan) with a ship loaded with cloves and nutmeg, much to the delight of Spain. Of course, everyone wanted in on the trade since cloves were worth more than their weight in gold. In 1605 the Dutch found their way to the Moluccas and dipped their hand into the spice trade.
In fact, the Dutch wanted a monopoly on cloves, so they went about destroying clove trees that sprouted up anywhere outside of their control. This ended up causing quite an uprising because native tradition was to plant a clove tree upon the birth of a child and the life of the tree was psychologically tied directly to that of the child. If something happened to the tree that did not bode well for the particular child with whom it was associated. The native islanders came to hate the Dutch wherever they extended their tree burning campaign.
But monopolies never last forever. It did not take long for others to try their hands at the clove trade. By the 18th century cloves were being grown in other places including Zanzibar, Madagascar, Brazil, Mauritius, Ternate, Tidore, and Tanzania, among other places. With the dissolution of the trade monopoly, the prize of cloves came down and eventually cloves became a favorite spice for all classes of society, the world over.
This spice gets its name from the French word ‘clou’ which means nail. The clove is the dried flower bud of an evergreen tree. The essential oil is said to have many medicinal properties and has been used for centuries to cure many ailments. Most interestingly, cloves have long been used to aid dentistry as they have local anesthetic properties. Cloves can be used to stimulate the mind as well as prevent nausea, diarrhea, ease coughs, aid in digestion, and even treat conditions like malaria and cholera.
Cinnamon, which is actually the dried bark of the laurel tree, has been used since antiquity. This powerful spice was used in Egypt, Rome, and China. Native to Sri Lanka, cinnamon can be produced from many species of laurel. The ‘real’ cinnamon comes from the C.cassia tree.
The history of cinnamon dates back to about 2800 B.C. where it can be found referenced as kwai in Chinese writing. It was used medicinally for colds and flu as well as problems of the digestive system. One of the world’s most important medicinal spices, it was also mentioned by Pliny, Diosocrides, and Theophrastus.
Historically, cinnamon is even mentioned in the bible. Moses used it as an ingredient for his anointing oils. In ancient Rome, it was burned during funerals, perhaps partly as a way to ward off the odor of dead bodies. The ancient Egyptians used it in embalming mummies because of its pleasant odors and its preservative qualities.
Today cinnamon is one of the most common of all spices. However, it was once rare and highly sought after. In fact, the quest for cinnamon was a major factor leading to exploration of the world. In the 15th century sailors from Portugal braved the horn of Africa and famously, Columbus set his sights to the west. Due to the high cost of ship building and the risks inherent in sea voyages, plus a virtual monopoly on the overland trade route by the Venetians, only the elite could afford to use it. Back then, cinnamon’s primary use was to mask the smell and taste of spoiled meats. Cinnamon was perfect for the job as it also has phenols which inhibit the growth of the bacteria which causes meat to spoil.
The history of cinnamon goes further than its medicinal uses. It is also about control and profit. Because cinnamon was so highly sought after and for many years produced in only one place, anyone who controlled its flow would profit immensely. Portuguese traders made their way to Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) around the southern tip of Africa in the 15th century. They increased production, enslaved the native Sinhalese, and did what they had to do to do away with competitors. Soon the Dutch wanted in on the action and by 1640, had displaced the Portuguese and gained control of the cinnamon monopoly. In 1796, English control of the seas allowed them to take Ceylon from the Dutch.
Since 1796 the production of cinnamon has spread to other areas. Today cinnamon is cultivated in many places in the tropical areas of the planet. This has led to abundant supply in a free market, making it affordable for most people. While it is still much in demand, the supply keeps up. It is now a commodity much like coffee.
Nutmeg is a spice that has long been prized for its medicinal properties. The history goes back to the 1st century as evidenced in writings by Pliny, the Roman writer. In India Vedic writing, it is recommended for headaches, fever, and bad breath. Arabian writing praises as good for curing stomach ailments and as an aphrodisiac.
Nutmeg is actually the seed from an evergreen tree. The scientific name for the common type is Myristica fragrans. This tree is indigenous to Australasia and tropical regions of Southeast Asia. There are a couple of species of trees used to produce nutmeg, the fragrant nutmeg is the most common, the Papuan nutmeg and Bombay nutmeg are less common.
Prized in medieval times for its uses in cuisine, nutmeg was brought to Europe in the middle ages by the Arabs through the Venetians. The spice was very popular and very expensive. It was even rumored to ward off the plague and cause self-abortions. While it might not ward off the plague, it is an abortifacient. Pregnant women should probably avoid nutmeg. Nutmeg in high doses can be toxic.
Nutmeg is native to the Banda islands of Indonesia. When the Portuguese rounded the Cape of Good Hope in Africa in the late 1400’s, they took control of the spice trade because they could transport nutmeg far more cheaply in the hold of a ship than it could be transported by caravan. Soon the Dutch became the predominant traders of this precious spice. At the time, the only source of nutmeg was on Run Island. Because the British also wanted in on the lucrative trade there were many struggles between the British and the Dutch over control of the island.
During the Napoleonic wars, the English finally gained control of Run Island and proceeded to plant nutmeg trees in Grenada and Zanzibar. This ensured that the British would not lose complete control of the nutmeg trade should they ever decide to give up the island again. The expansion of nutmeg production also had the effect of making nutmeg accessible to more people at lower prices.
Today, nutmeg is produced in many places including India, Malaysia, various Caribbean islands, New Guinea, and Sri Lanka. About 10,000 tons a year is produced and mainly used in the U.S, Japan, Europe, and India.
While nutmeg is quite affordable today, this was not always the case. In fact, throughout history nutmeg has been quite expensive. A few hundred years ago, a small bag of nutmeg would have brought enough money for the holder to be financially independent for the rest of his life!
The history of cumin goes back over 5000 years. The ancient Egyptians used it as a spice in foods as well as in the mummification process. The Greeks and Romans used cumin as a spice and also applied it for medicinal purposes. Interestingly, it was used to make the complexion paler.
There is a reference to this spice in the bible. The planting of cumin is described and the knowledge of beneficial farming practices is ascribed as coming from God.
Originally from Persia and the Mediterranean, cumin is a small seed that comes from the Cuminum cyminum herb, a member of the parsley family. This seed has a distinct flavor and warm aroma. It is a major ingredient in chili powder as well as curry powder. It is associated mostly with Indian, Mexican and Vietnamese foods, but the ancient Greeks kept a dish of it on the dinner table, a practice which continues today in Morocco.
Like many spices, cumin has a rich history and in fact, according to the Bible, cumin had such a powerful medicinal value that it could be used as money! One of the common plants seen growing in Medieval Monasteries, the health benefits of cumin is documented by the Ancient Greek and Egyptian physicians.
In the middle Ages, a time when spices were relatively rare, cumin was one of the most common spices. It was thought to promote love and fidelity. People carried it to weddings and walked around with it in their pockets. It was reputed to keep lovers and chickens from wandering. Thus, married soldiers were sent off to battle with a fresh baked loaf of cumin bread.
Today, cumin is cultivated and grown in many countries including Malta, Sicily, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Mexico, and China. It is quite easy to grow and adapts well in many climates. While use of this spice has declined since the height of its popularity in the middle Ages, it is making a comeback, probably due to the renewed interest in ethnic dishes and spicy food.
There basically two types of cardamom seeds, green and black. They have very different flavors, so don’t think about substituting one for the other. They have been around for thousands of years, and were allegedly grown in the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, one of the seven wonders of the Ancient World. They are native to the subcontinent, Sri Lanka and Malaysia, but now are grown commercially in Guatemala and Tanzania too. Cardamoms are the third most expensive spice in the world, after saffron and vanilla, but as you do not need to use many at a time, they do not really seem to be all that expensive.
They have had many uses, in religions, they were used as incense and Cleopatra is reported to have used their smoke to perfume her palace, particularly when she was expecting a visit from Mark Anthony. It was highly prized in the ancient world as a spice, for its medicinal properties and its smell. It was used to cure mouth infections and digestive problems. Now it is chewed to get rid of bad breath, and the Arabs and Turks used cardamom seeds to flavor their coffee, either putting freshly ground cardamom into the coffee, or putting a seed pod into the coffee cup.
It is also supposed to break up kidney and gall stones, and used in different fields of traditional Indian medicine.
It apparently came to Europe with Alexander the Great’s returning soldiers. The Greeks used it as a perfume, as did the Romans, and it was valued by the ancient Greeks for its medicinal qualities and as a culinary spice. The ancient Egyptians used it to clean their teeth.
The green cardamom pod is sweeter than the black one, which has an earthier flavor. You can use green cardamom seeds in apple pie along with cinnamon, but use the seeds from black cardamoms in savory dishes, such as curries.
According to historical accounts, the Portuguese introduced the chili to Thailand in the 16thcentury, after the Spanish initially transported them from the New World to Europe. Some accounts suggested that chilies, because of their high concentration of vitamin C, were eaten by sailors together with ginger, as a preventative against scurvy, long before it was discovered that oranges could perform the same function. I do not usually remove seeds from any kind of fresh chili except when I use the larger kinds of dried red chilies for making pastes with a roasted flavor. Then I soak the chilies in hot water for 15-20 minutes and dry, and then remove all the seeds so the roasted dried pods are more flavorful.
Lemongrass, related to citronella, this bulbous, grayish green grass is a favored herb in Southeast Asian cuisines, where its delicate, lemony essence permeates a wide assortment of dishes. In Thai cooking, lemongrass is used most frequently to flavor soups, salads, and curries.
Lemongrass is a very fibrous grass and comes in long, slender stalks about a foot long, normally with its course, flat, grassy blades already cut off. Choose thick, light green stalks that feel firm all along its length and that are not dried out and wilted. They usually require further trimming before they can be used. Cut off the woody root tip of each stalk until the purplish-tinted rings begin to show. Remove the lose, dry outer layers and use only the faintly colored, dense inner stalks that holds together when cut into shorter segments. When using in curries or soups, cut just into the stalk, exposing its fragrant interior, smash with the back of a chef’s knife to bruise and release the aromatic oils before adding to the dish.
Beyond its popularity as a culinary herb, lemongrass is highly regarded by traditional herbal doctors for its profuse healing qualities. It has been used for centuries to treat colds and flu, stomach cramps and indigestion to name a few. Its essential oils are reputed to contain a substance similar to insulin and, therefore, can be used in the treatment of diabetes.
Galangal called ’ka’ in Thai and also known as ‘Laos root’ is an immensely pungent and fiery rhizome related to the common ginger, but with a personality distinctly of its own. Its abundant usage in Thai cooking, almost to the exclusion of ginger, has earned it the title of Siamese or Thai ginger. In short, it is to Thai cooking what common ginger is to Chinese cooking.
The fresh root is fleshy, knobby and very firm, to the point of being woody when its fully mature. When very fresh, its ivory color, with hardly any separation between skin and flesh, and its young pink shoots, glossy outer sheen, a unique mustard-like flavor with a sharp bite.
Galangal is a magical ingredient when it’s added to hot-and-sour soups and helps mask the fishiness of seafood’s and heaviness of red meats, thereby making them taste cleaner, more delicate and more succulent. When buying, look for the smaller, younger, and tender ones, the larger roots can be very hard, making slicing a tedious chore.
Garlic the infamous member of the onion family finds its way into just about every savory Thai dish, giving the background flavor that enriches all sorts of dishes, from mild to spicy. It is crushed, chopped, and minced for stir-fried dishes; pounded to a paste for curries. Asian garlic, similar to the variety grown in Thailand, generally has smaller cloves with papery-thin skin and can simply be smashed up and added to dishes.
Shallots in Thailand are called ‘Asian shallots’ they are red in color, not like the brown French shallots, but can be substituted if you can not get your hands on the small, red, Asian variety. Shallots give a greater depth of flavor when chopped and pounded to make curry pastes; Thai people use red shallots very generously and like garlic, they are a fundamental ingredient in Thai cuisine.
Coriander, also known as (Cilantro) and ‘ Puk chee’ in Thai, is the most, leafy aromatic herb. In Thai cooking, the whole plant is valued, from the tender leaves to the firm roots. The sweetly scented leaves are tossed into soups at the last minute (cooking the leaves dissipates the refreshing flavor) and eaten raw in salads, sprigs serve as the ubiquitous garnish, and roots and bottom stems get smashed and added to soup stock and stews, or minced and reduced with other herbs to make curry and chili pastes.
The roots have a deep, earthy flavor lacking in the leaves and stems and is an important Thai flavoring ingredient. Pounded with garlic and white peppercorns, it makes a fragrant and basic seasoning mix. It is hard to substitute any other part of the plant for the root called for in recipes. If you are able to find coriander with roots, rinse them well and use the roots along with an inch of the bottom stems to which they are attached (they freeze well in a tight zip-lock plastic bag).
Some people do not like coriander, claiming it has a soapy taste. This dislike stems from previous experiences with dishes in which the flavor of coriander was way overpowering. When properly balanced with other robust herbal and spice flavors, it gives an exquisite dimension that adds depth and character to a Thai dish.
Coriander is a known medicinal herb in Asia that offers many benefits, including aiding digestion and removal of toxins from the body.
Coconut milk is not the juice found inside a coconut, but the diluted cream pressed out from the thick, white flesh of a well-matured coconut.
To make coconut milk, finely grated coconut milk is steeped in hot water until it is cool enough to handle. It is then squeezed until dry; the white fluid is strained to remove all the pulp. When allowed to sit for a while, the coconut cream rises to the top. Commercially, coconut cream is obtained by pressing grated coconut flesh without water, using a specialized, heavy piece of machinery.
More hot water is added (second run) to the pulp and the process is repeated to yield a lighter fluid, or coconut milk. So the first process yields coconut cream, and when the process is repeated for a second time we get the thinner coconut milk. An average mature coconut yields about one cup of coconut cream and one to two cups of coconut milk depending on how light a milk is desired.
For most working families with limited time to cook, making fresh coconut milk from scratch from a whole coconut is too laborious a process, especially when it can be easily substituted with canned coconut milk. The taste of fresh coconut is not easy to replicate with processed products, so one day give it a go and taste the difference. A good place to start is not in your western supermarket, but in an Asian store. Two preferred brands are ‘Chao Koh’ ao ‘Mae Ploy’, both being made in Thailand.
If using a fresh coconut, break it with a hammer or crack it open on a hard floor. Keep a bowl handy to catch the coconut water inside, but if you are superstitious remember in Southern India that a coconut should not be broken after sundown, around 7pm. But at all auspicious events, a coconut is broken on the ground-the equivalent of cutting a ribbon to open an event in the western world. I do not recommend using light-coconut milk or powdered, you will be disappointed.
The potato, from the perennial solanum tuberosum, is the world’s fourth largest vegetable crop, following rice, wheat, and maize. The Inca Indians in Peru were supposedly the first to cultivate potatoes around 8000 B.C to 5000 B.C.
In 1536 Spanish conquistadors conquered Peru, discovered the potato, and shipped them to Europe. Before the end of the 16th century, families of Basque sailors began to cultivate potatoes along the Biscay coast of northern Spain. Sir Walter Raleigh introduced potatoes to Ireland in 1589 on 40,000 acres of land near Cork. It took nearly four decades for the potato to spread to the rest of Europe.
Eventually, agriculturalists in Europe found potatoes easier to grow and cultivate than other staple crops, such as wheat and oats. Most importantly, it became known that potatoes contained most of the vitamins needed for sustenance.
In the 1840’s a major outbreak of potato blight, a plant disease, swept through Europe, wiping out the potato crop in many countries. The Irish working class lived largely on potatoes and when the blight reached Ireland, their main staple food disappeared. This famine left many poverty-stricken families with no choice but to struggle to survive or emigrate out of Ireland. Over the course of the famine, almost one million people died from starvation or disease. Another one million people left Ireland, mostly for Canada and the United States.
The history of ginger goes back over 5000 years when the Indians and ancient Chinese considered it a tonic root for all ailments. While ginger originated in Southeast Asia, it has a long history of being cultivated in other countries. At an early date it was shipped to Ancient Rome from India. It was used extensively by the Romans, but almost disappeared from the shelf when the Roman Empire fell. After the end of the Roman Empire, the Arabs took control of the spice trade from the east. Ginger became quite costly like many other spices. In medieval times it was commonly imported in a preserved form and used to make sweets.
Ginger (Zingibar officinale) is a warming spice and comes from the same family as cardamom and turmeric. It has been used in Asian cooking for centuries. It also became a popular spice in the Caribbean where it could be easily grown. In the 15th century, ginger plants were carried on ships, which is probably how they were introduced to the Caribbean as well as Africa. Today, ginger is grown throughout the tropics.
It is only in recent years that ginger has become more valued as a spice than for its medicinal properties. It has been used to add taste to butter milk drinks as far back as the 11th century A.D. Widespread use in foods did not occur until roughly 200 years later when ginger was used in cooking meals and in ginger pastes. It is said that Queen Elizabeth I of England invented the gingerbread man, which became a popular Christmas treat.
Ginger has been a trading commodity longer than most spices, but it came into its own during the 13th and 14th centuries, when the Arabs traveled to Africa and Zanzibar, they planted the rhizomes, thus spreading the cultivation of this herb.
Today, ginger can be found in any market store and purchased for a few dollars, but back in the 14th century 500grams of ginger held a value equal to that of a whole live sheep!
In the spectrum of Thai flavors, it is shrimp paste (kapi), and fish sauce (nam pla), that give Thai cooking its salty taste. Not just salty, but a complex sea-salt flavor, these essences by and large take the place of the table salt used in western cooking and soy sauce flavor by the Chinese.
The two flavorings share common roots and their taste is unmistakably ‘Thai’. Fish sauce is the liquid drained from salted, fermented small fish dried out in the sun, while the residue of a similar process involving shrimp can be made into shrimp paste.
Although the odor can be unappealing, when used in cooking shrimp paste adds powerful depth and flavor. The paste is used to bind together curry pastes and dominates the distinctly Thai “nam phrik’ dips.
Fish sauce is poured into almost every dish and is the main ingredient in most of the dipping sauces added to the table for saltiness. Although initially off-putting, the sauces pungent aroma and taste mellow when combined with other ingredients. ‘Nam pla raa’ is a northern version made from fermented freshwater fish, its strongly fishy taste reminiscent of the more intense pastes of the past.
Kapi is packaged in small plastic containers or glass jars and labled as ‘Shrimp paste’. The only ingredients listed are shrimp and salt. The color varies from pinkish or purplish grey to a dark grayish brown. The consistency also varies, from soft and pasty to dry and hard, depending how long the fermented shrimp was allowed to dry in the sun. Most brands cover the top with a layer of wax to seal in the freshness. Remove this waxy layer before using, and keep it refrigerated (it keeps indefinitely). The stalls and markets in the bustling coastal towns of Rayong, Hua Hin, Petchuri, Chaiya and Trang sell enormous quantities of their fresh, high-quality and very fragrant kapi. When you go to buy shrimp paste to cook with, always use the same country of origin as the recipe you are cooking. Shrimp paste differs from nation to nation, so purchase a product from Thailand for use in Thai dishes. If cooking a Penang curry, buy the “Pulau Betong’ brand from the famous part of the island on the south-western tip, the quality of this shrimp paste is excellent.
Palm sugar comes from the sugar palm tree, and is produced from sweet, watery sap that drips from cut flower buds. The sap is collected each morning and boiled in huge woks on the plantation until a sticky sugar remains. This whipped and dropped in lumps on cellophane, or filled into containers. Because it is not highly processed like brown sugar, the color can vary from batch to batch, even within the same brand.
The color can vary from creamy beige to a dark rich caramel color, and the consistency soft and gooey, or rock hard. Generally the darker, stickier palm sugar is richer and has more flavors. Much depends on the type of palm tree, time of year when the sugar is tapped and, to some degree, the heat and fuel source used to reduce the nectar. Palm sugar keeps well when stored in a cool, dry place and does not need to be refrigerated. Palm sugar is a great sweetener, balancer agent and flavor enhancer for curries and robust sauces.
Be careful when buying, as sometimes the label says ‘coconut sugar’, they are very different. The best substitute is soft brown sugar.
The peanut plant probably originated in Brazil or Peru, although no fossil records exist to prove this. But for as long as people have been making pottery in South America (3,500 years or so) they have been making jars shaped like peanuts and decorated with peanuts.
European explorers first discovered peanuts in Brazil. The Incas used peanuts in sacrificial offerings and entombed them with mummies to serve the spirits in the afterlife. Tribes in central Brazil also ground peanuts with maize to make an intoxicating beverage for celebrations.
The Portuguese transplanted peanuts to West Africa while the Spanish introduced them to the Philippines. Peanuts became a staple of the African slaves on their voyages to America.
By the turn of the century, botanist George Washington Carver arrived at Tuskegee Institute in Alabama. Farmers were faced with boll weevils decimating their cotton crops, which was their livelihood. Carver promoted crop rotation practices and the cultivation of peanuts. Furthermore, he developed more than 300 uses for peanuts from recipes to new products and even non food uses.
Soon, mechanized machinery simplified harvesting and processing. Street vendors began selling roasted peanuts from carts, as did vendors at circuses and baseball stadiums. Peanuts and peanut butter became an integral part of the armed forces rations in World War II. Their popularity grew with the growth of the U.S population. Today peanuts contribute over four billion dollars to the U.S economy each year. Although the U.S is a major exporter of edible peanuts to various countries around the world, they are grown in Africa, China, Australia, and Argentina.
Tamarind; the reddish brown, curved seed pods of a lovely tropical tree hold several large seeds encased by moist, sticky, dark brown flesh that varies from being very sweet to very sour. The later is used as one of the primary souring agents in Thai cooking, imparting a delicious fruity tartness to soups, salads, stir-fries, and curries.
When buying tamarind, it comes in a ready to use puree in a jar or plastic bag from most good Asian stores; however, it is not as good as freshly made. Once opened it must be refrigerated, and even so, can spoil after a couple of weeks.
Besides using it in cooking, wet tamarind is a valuable silver polisher, the large silver factories in Chiang Mai use plenty of it to shine their tooled silver bowls and jewelry to an impeccable sheen.
Thai jasmine rice (khao hom mali)-Thailand’s best known rice, is something increasing numbers of people are becoming familiar with and have come to love eating, as the popularity of Thai food continues to soar worldwide. In fact, it has become so widely distributed and so synonymous with Thai cuisine abroad that some people have developed a misconception that jasmine rice is the only rice most Thais eat on a daily basis. This is not so, as Thailand grows and consumes many other good-eating varieties and some regions of the country actually prefer other kinds of rice to jasmine rice.
Vastly different topography, weather patterns, soil conditions, and consumption preferences combine to determine the varieties grown in each of Thailand’s many regions. For instance, the mountainous north, the monsoon rains come early and end quickly, so varieties that grow and ripen fast are cultivated. On the other hand, growing conditions in the northeastern region are ideal for jasmine rice and lots of it is grown there, but like the northerners, people in the northeast (Isan) prefer sticky rice, so little of the jasmine rice they grow is consumed there. Most of it is trucked off to Bangkok for shipping to foreign markets, where it fetches a good price to earn the country a good chunk of foreign exchange each year. In each of the regions, there are varieties indigenous only to small pockets and these are strains that native peoples of the area are likely to grow for their own consumption. Indigenous rice is easier to grow and is pest-free as they have selectively adapted to the conditions in particular areas-perhaps over centuries or even millennia. They are also usually higher in nutrients than introduced hybrids.
Agricultural policies from as early as the ancient Sukhothai period of Thai history through the centuries of bustling international trade of the Ayutthaya period and into the modern era have actively encouraged the people to develop land into rice fields, for the nation’s food and income security and as a strategy to extend and maintain ruling power.
In Chiang Mai, you will see impressive remains and hear lots of mention of the old and glorious kingdom of Lanna (a million rice fields), and in the Sukhothai area where the first Thai kingdom was established more than 7 centuries ago, you will hear accounts of the first examples of the written Thai language in its best-known passage alluding to a prosperous kingdom where ‘in water there are fish, in the fields there is rice…’
There is evidence that irrigation canals (klongs) were already in place at the birth of the country in the 13th century. Today, irrigation still remains a crucial service the state provides to its people to grow rice. In the early part of the Rottanakosin era (late 18th, early 19thcentury), as much as 95 % of farmland was allocated for growing rice and Siam prospered from exporting rice to China. Rice farming continues to be the primary farming activity nationwide and the Thai word for farmer, ‘chaona’, literally means ‘rice field person’.
Rice farming in cultivated fields has been done on the land that is now Thailand for at least 5000 years, 1000 years earlier than India and China. Archaeologists have found traces of rice husks and chaff in the pottery excavated from ancient burial sites in the northeast that date back at least 5,400 years. At another site in the northwest, a thin stone tool in the shape of a knife for harvesting rice and pottery containing rice husks, dating back to at least 5,000 years, have also been found. From the archaeological evidence, some researchers believe that the Asian rice species might very well have originated in the inland valleys of the northern parts of Thailand, the Shan state of present-day Myanmar and adjacent areas of Laos where the annual monsoons, warm humid climate and fertile lowlands offered an ideal environment for its domestication. In ancient times, it is likely that nomadic tribes began settling down to cultivate rice by selectively gathering wild rice from the forests and from swamplands to grow and gradually improving the rice strains by selective breeding.
Around the turn of the 20th century, Thai rice was exported to Europe through rice traders in India. It did not sell as well as Indian rice since the latter had beautiful, uniformed long grains while Thai rice was irregular in quality with much of the grains broken. King Rama V, in his extensive travels to many parts of Europe around that time, made an important observation. His Majesty noted that the irregularities in Thai rice most likely came about because Thai farmers planted too many varieties and there was no attempt to standardize and select strains with superior qualities to grow for export. To encourage the identification of superior strains that the country could promote to improve the quality of Thai rice exports, His Majesty inaugurated the first indigenous rice contest in 1907. In the ensuring years, several indigenous varieties with fine attributes were discovered, tested in field trails, and then promoted by the government to farmers to grow for foreign markets. One of the strains was Pin Kaew, submitted by a woman from Sriach in Chonburi province, which went on to win the converted 1st prize at the World Rice Contest in Canada in 1933. It became Thailand’s top rice for many years.
But it was not until the early 1950’ss when a truly earnest campaign was carried out to collect native rice strains nationwide in search of other high-quality varieties to promote and export. Some 6000 samples were collected between 1950 and 1952. Promising samples from the Panat Nikom district of Chonburi province were planted alongside other selected strains from the north, northeast and central regions in field trails to compare quality. Of the 199 samples planted at the rice research station, several superior strains were discovered, among them jasmine rice 105 (dok mai 105), later known as ‘hom mali 105’, the number corresponding to the row the rice was planted in the trails. In 1959, a selection committee conferred on jasmine rice 105 the highest recommendation because of its pure white, long slender grains and sweet pandanus leaf fragrance (not jasmine fragrance as misled by its name). Jasmine rice is not infused artificially with essence of jasmine blossom as so many westerners think. In actuality, the rice is naturally fragrant, but the aroma is not that of jasmine flowers, but closer to that of ‘pandan’ leaves. When the native rice was first discovered around 1950 and brought into cultivation by a farmer in Chonburi province, it was cherished because the grains, when milled, had a beautiful long shape, a shiny translucence and was white like jasmine blossoms, accompanied by a distinct sweet aroma. Initially, it was given the name ‘white jasmine blossom rice’ and in Thai (khao Kao malin or Khao kao dork mali), but sometime later people mistakenly began calling it ‘fragrant jasmine’ (hom mali) rice and the name somehow stuck.
Jasmine rice is most commonly grown as an in-season rice watered by the monsoon rains, since it is a light-sensitive variety of rice. While there are varieties that would flower and set seed any time of year, light-sensitive strains will flower and set seed only when the length of day is shorter than the length of the night. Farmers, therefore, prefer to plant such rice during the main monsoon season (July to October). Jasmine rice stalks begin to flower by October when the days are shorter than the nights. To many discerning Thais, in season rice tastes better than off season rice grown with irrigation water.
Today, with continued government support and stringent quality control standards, all rice destined for export must pass the government stamp of approval before it can be shipped. The active involvement of the government in the promotion of Thai rice abroad has placed jasmine rice in the spotlight on the world stage. Among discerning Asian’s in many countries, jasmine rice is considered the best-tasting rice in the world. The Chinese, for instance, are so fond of jasmine rice grown in northeastern Thailand, especially the provinces of Surin, Yasothon and Roi Et, that they would like to have a monopoly on all rice grown there. The jasmine rice from these provinces is particularly fragrant and has a better texture than jasmine rice grown in other areas.
Thai Beef Massaman Curry
INGREDIENTS
Curry paste;
2 dried long red chilies
1 lemongrass stalk, trimmed, white part only, finely sliced
2.5 cm piece of galangal, peeled, finely chopped
10 cm piece of cinnamon stick, crushed
10 black cardamom seeds (do not use green)
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
1 teaspoon coriander seeds
½ teaspoon white pepper
½ teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
6 garlic cloves, finely chopped
4 Asian shallots, finely chopped
4-5 coriander roots, cleaned, chopped
1 teaspoon shrimp paste
Curry paste method
1. Remove the stems from the chilies and slit the chilies lengthways with a sharp knife. Discard all the seeds and soak the chilies in a bowl of hot water until soft, remove and dry. Roughly chop the chilies.
2. Using a pestle and mortar, pound the chilies, lemongrass, galangal, cloves, cinnamon, cardamom seeds and nutmeg into a paste. Add the garlic, shallots and coriander roots. Pound and mix together. Add the shrimp paste and pound until the mixture is as smooth as a paste. Alternatively, use a food processor, spice grinder or blender to grind or blend all the ingredients into as smooth a paste as possible. Add a little cooking oil, to assist in the blending if needed.
3. I personally do not dry fry the spice for this curry, but with all Indian recipes I would. It’s up to you. But I do for the curry sauce. Use the paste as required or keep in an airtight jar in the fridge. The paste will keep for up to 2 weeks in the refrigerator and for 2 months in a freezer. Since I always make my paste with the labor of love with a pestle and mortar, I always make more than I need.
Thai Beef Massaman Curry
INGREDIENTS
2 pieces of cinnamon stick
10 black cardamom seeds (do not use green)
5 cloves
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 tablespoons massaman curry paste
800 g beef rump steak, cut into 2.5 cm cubes
410 ml (1 2/3 cups) coconut milk
250 ml (1 cup) beef stock, homemade
3 potatoes, peeled, cut into 2.5 cm pieces
2 cm piece fresh ginger, shredded or grated
3 tablespoons fish sauce
3 tablespoons palm sugar
110 g (2/3 cup) roasted, salted peanuts (without skins)
3 tablespoons tamarind puree
METHOD
1. Dry-fry the cinnamon stick, cardamom seeds and cloves in a saucepan or wok over low-heat. Stir all the ingredients for around 2-3 minutes or until fragrant. Remove from the pan.
2. Heat the oil in the same pan or wok and stir-fry the massaman paste over a medium heat for 2 minutes or until fragrant.
3. Add the beef to the pan and stir for 5 minutes. Add the coconut milk, beef stock, potatoes, ginger, fish sauce, palm sugar, ¾ of the roasted peanuts, tamarind puree and dry-fried spices in that order slowly. Reduce the heat to low and gently simmer for 50-60 minutes until the meat is tender and the potatoes are just cooked. Taste, and then adjust the seasoning if necessary. Spoon into serving bowls and garnish with the rest of the peanuts (crush the peanuts for the garnish). Serve with the rice of your choice.
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