This is how the locals do it

Passport & Plate - Khao Soi Gai (Curry chicken noodle soup)

Thailand | Sunday, February 2, 2014 | 4 photos

Ingredients
Paste

8 large dried chillies
3 teaspoons coriander seeds
1 black or brown cardamom or 1/2 star anise and half a cinnamon stick
8 red shallots, unpeeled
6 garlic cloves, unpeeled
2 tablespoons sliced turmeric
4 tablespoons sliced ginger
6 coriander roots, cleaned and chopped

Broth

1.5 cups coconut cream
6 chicken legs
1 tablespoon palm sugar plus more to taste
2 tablespoons soy sauce or fish sauce plus more to taste
3 teaspoons dark soy sauce
5 cups stock or water or coconut milk
500g fresh egg noodles plus some more for deep frying
half a bunch spring onions, finely chopped
half a bunch coriander finely chopped

Garnish
2 cups sliced red shallots
2 cups pickled mustard greens, sliced
2 limes, quartered
dried chilli oil

 

How to prepare this recipe
Method

Dry fry the chillies in the wok until black and crispy. Let cool then grind to a powder in the motor and pestle. Quickly dry fry the other dried spices until fragrant then grind to powder. Cook the shallots and garlic in a wok with no oil for approx 5 mins until the skins are blackened. A little water added after 2-3 mins helps to soften them. Cook the ginger and turmeric quickly in the wok for about 1 minute with a little water until slightly softened. Grind all the paste ingredients in a motor and pestle into a fine paste.

Simmer the coconut cream in a wok until it splits between the milk solids and the oil. If it's not splitting adding a bit of vegetable oil can help encourage it. Fry the curry paste in the split coconut cream until fragrant and doesn't taste raw anymore (about 5-7 mins). Add the chicken legs then season with the sugar and soy sauces and cook or a few minutes. Add the stock/water or coconut milk and cook until the chicken is falling off the bone (around 45mins-1 hour). Check the seasoning - it should taste salty and slightly sweet. This will be balanced out by the lime added from the garnishes.

Meanwhile, heat some oil in a wok and deep fry some egg noodles until crispy.

To serve, blanch egg noodles in boiling water and put in the bottom a bowl then top with a chicken leg and a couple of ladles of the soup. Sprinkle with some coriander and spring onion then top with fried noodles. Serve red shallots, limes, pickled mustard greens and chilli oil.

 

The story behind this recipe
After almost a year backpacking through south east asia I had finally found a place I wanted to stay for an extended period of time. The little mountain town of Pai, in the north of Thailand. Reached via the unbelievably beautiful but treacherous road from the city of chiang mai, with it’s famous 762 corners (they sell t-shirts so that you can tell people you survived!); it’s three hours of motor biking bliss. The town itself is quiet, quirky, a little hippy and a world away from the pollution, scams and any other downside there is to travelling south east asia. I stayed a few days, made some friends but then was about to travel back down to the city to take a cooking course, not just a touristy one to learn how to make pad thai or green chicked curry, but one with one of Thailands most famous chef’s – a course for real foodies.

As I was getting ready to leave I went to say goodbye to my friend Fern, the pint sized, hyperengergetic, slightly crazy local. Her response to me leaving to take a cooking course – “what f**k man, I teach you cook here for free!” Turns out Fern’s mom used to own a restaurant and had passed her family recipes down to her.

The next few weeks were spent going to the morning and afternoon markets, being introduced to ingredients I had never seen before and definitely couldn’t pronounce, then taking them back to the guesthouse and turning them into a thai feast for most of the guests staying there. Unquestionably, I learned more from Fern and her mum (there were constant phone calls to mum to make sure things were done the traditional way!) than my big city course could have taught me.

Of all the things we cooked in that amazing week, this is the recipe I love most. It’s a noodle soup found only in the north of Thailand, and one of the most delicious things I’ve ever eaten. The rich coconut curry soup is perfectly offset by a squeeze of lime, the slightly tart pickled mustard greens and the crunch of the crispy noodles.