Vapid Thumbtack: Recipes

Both recipes are adapted from Victor Sodsook's True Thai and are excellent (in my opinion) and simple. Peanut sauce is good by itself on rice or on toast. You can use creamy peanut butter, but, frankly, it's better with chunky^[1].

Never buy sweetened coconut milk. My brand of choice is Chaokoh, as it does come from Thailand and has performed well for me. I like Thai Kitchen's (and A Taste of Thai) fish sauce; neither uses pressed shrimp in the manufacture and both are easily found in grocery stores^[2].

As always, please remember that bought red curry paste differs wildly from brand to brand and that your red curry paste may be hotter than my red curry paste^[3]. Or that your red curry paste may contain shrimp. My red curry paste is from Thai Kitchen, as I don't take chances with my allergies.

Chicken Satay with Peanut Sauce

Chicken Satay
1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 can coconut milk^[4]
1 tablespoon red curry paste^[5]
2 tablespoons dark brown sugar
2 tablespoons fish sauce (nam pla)

To make the marinade, combine coconut milk, red curry paste, sugar, and fish sauce in a bowl and mix well to dissolve sugar and curry paste. Cut chicken into thin strips and marinate for about 3 hours in the refrigerator or about half an hour on countertop.^[6]

If you want, skewer the chicken strips and grill them, or just fish the chicken from the marinade and lay them, one deep, in a baking dish and broil until chicken is done^[7], about four minutes.

Peanut Sauce
1 can coconut milk^[8]
1 tablespoon red curry paste^[9]
2/3 cup to 1 cup chunky peanut butter
7 Tablespoons dark brown sugar
2 Tablespoons fish sauce
Spoon the cream^[10] off the top of the can of coconut milk into a large saucepan and place over medium-high heat. Stir frequently until the cream softens and becomes liquid. Add the red curry paste and, when it begins to boil^[11], turn down the heat to medium and add the rest of the coconut milk. Add the peanut butter and cook, stirring constantly, for about a minute. Turn the heat to low and add the brown sugar and stir until blended. Remove from heat and stir in the fish sauce.

[1] Sometimes I only have creamy in the house, so I use creamy and a handful of chopped unsalted roasted peanuts.
[2] Unlike the Squid brand fish sauce, which both uses pressed shrimp and is not easily found in the grocery store. However, I have been assured that the taste is superior to the 'grocery store brands'.
[3] Curry pastes from Asian markets tend to be, um, not geared toward American tastes. That roughly means that they're hot as fire and should be treated that way.
[4] One can is generally about two cups of coconut milk, about 14.5 oz.
[5] Depends on taste and brand of curry paste. Taste, taste, taste! If the coconut milk-curry combo seems too hot, add more coconut milk. But don't taste after you've put the raw chicken in.
[6] I usually refrigerate, as I'm seriously paranoid about making my dinner guests sick.
[7] Chicken is 'done' when there's no pink left inside. That's about 165F on a meat thermometer.
[8] Coconut milk seperates in the can to a thick 'cream' and a thinner 'milk'. For this recipe, the cream and the milk are added seperately. If the can has been agitated (angry can!), the curry paste can be added to the thicker 'milk' rather than to the warm cream.
[9] This depends on taste and brand. I prefer a pretty hot curry-coconut milk mixture, but I always taste it and adjust from there.
[10] The top, thicker bit of the coconut milk can. [11] At this point, the smell of curry paste is unmistakeable. Yum!

http://www.vapidthumbtack.com/recipes/satay.html