On a Thursday a few weeks ago, I met a friend for an after-work cocktail in a Nolita bar. With the weekend just around the figurative corner and Chinatown around the literal one, I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to pay a visit to Bangkok Center Grocery, the place for just about all your Thai cooking needs, to pick up some ingredients for a project I’d dog-eared a really long time ago in David Thompson’s tome on Thai cuisine. When I arrived at Mother’s Ruin, my friend took one look at me, raised her eyebrows and said, “Uh, what have you got there?” I looked down at the giant pack of banana leaves and the wispy end of a lemongrass stalk poking out of my tote bag and told her I had stopped in Chinatown for some key ingredients before our meet-up. “Of course you did,” she replied. If I showed up to an after-work function with a 3-foot burdock root sticking out of my bag, no one would be surprised.
Friends and colleagues may tease me, but they were the ones who missed out on the incredible Thai curry I made inside those very banana leaves a few days later.
I will begin by saying that I have never had a Thai dish quite like this one. Which is really unfortunate because I’ve obviously been missing out on something spectacular. I will also say that “curry” is a rather meaningless English word, and if you are expecting this to be a soupy situation you will be disappointed. Instead, you will make a curry paste, which sounds intimidating but is not, especially if you do not let David Thompson shame you into using a mortar and pestle to make it, even though I am sure it’s better that way. The food processor was invented for a reason.
Once you have your curry paste made, the house will smell amazing. Now comes the fun part. You cook some fresh coconut (I used frozen grated coconut, which worked just fine) with oil, the curry paste and more fish sauce than seems absolutely necessary. And then you mix in the most giant shrimp you can find and stuff it inside of banana leaf packages that you secure with toothpicks. Fire up your grill and cook for 10 minutes.
When you open these packages, you will be astonished at what’s happened inside. The whole thing comes together, sizzling and fragrant. The shrimp are pink and the coconut is moist. Portion out some jasmine rice and mound this on top. Then try not to eat the entire recipe in one sitting.
Ingredients
- 2 cups freshly grated coconut (or frozen)
- 3 tablespoons oil
- 1 tablespoon palm sugar
- 3 tablespoons fish sauce
- 6 large uncooked shrimp, peeled and deveined (I used colossal shrimp)
- 6 kaffir lime leaves, shredded
- 1-2 banana leaves
- Handful of Thai basil leaves
- Toothpicks soaked in water for at least an hour
- 8-10 dried long red chiles, desseded, soaked and drained
- Large pinch of salt
- 1 tablespoon chopped galangal
- 3 tablespoons lemongrass
- 1 teaspoon finely chopped kaffir lime zest
- 1 tablespoon scraped and chopped cilantro root
- 2 tablespoons chopped shallots
- 2 tablespoons chopped garlic
Instructions
- First make the paste. Put all the paste ingredients into a small food processor or blender and pulse to process into a smooth paste. You might need to add a little water to facilitate the blending. Do not overwork.
- Combine the grated coconut with the oil and 3 tablespoons of the curry paste. Cook over low heat in a small pan or heavy wok until the paste is fragrant and a little oily. Season with sugar and fish sauce and remove from heat. Cool. Stir in prawns and lime leaves. Clean banana leaves and cut into rectangles crosswise (I used 4 rectangles but it depends on the size of your leaves). Place 2 rectangles on top of each other, shiny sides out. Line with basil leaves and then spread the mixture over a third of the leaf. Fold to form an envelope and secure with toothpicks. Chargrill over medium heat for 10 minutes.
Notes
From Thai Food
