G'day. If you're new here, and you are interested in the Melbourne food and drink scene you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed or the email newsletter below. Thanks for visiting and enjoy eating and drinking in Melbourne. Cheers.
INGREDIENTS
3 cups coconut milk
1 cup chicken/prawn stock or water
tad of salt
palm sugar
cup of cubed pumpkin
6 fresh deveined and peeled prawns and six dried shrimp, rinsed
ground white pepper
Paste
1 tablespoon or so dried prawns
salt
3-4 red shallots, chopped finely
3-4 coriander roots, chopped finely
8-10 white peppercorns
It wasn’t have been Jamie Oliver’s fault. At least I don’t think so. I started off in Sydney with a small pestle & mortar. It was far too small and semi pounded coriander roots spilled onto the floor.
And so it was a graduated to a shiny new Magimix, an object of my desire from my youth having for years eyeing up ones owned by chalet girls. Now several hundred dollars of machinery sits abandoned on my work top. Instead a rather large Jamie Oliver-type pestle and mortar – way larger than my original – takes pride of place.
It cost about $30 odd from a local Asian grocery.
Tonight J is compressing dried shrimp to what I can only assume is to the density of a black hole. Having studied theoretical physics I know this isn’t a good thing. Our neighbourhood could be sucked in to this dark matter. And I know for a fact that neither Stephen Hawking (we don’t have wheel chair access) nor Carl Sagan (he’s dead) are coming to supper.
More to the point I have a flash back to some cookery show where the chef was laughing at some poor sod attempting to pound rather than grind with the above. I’d read how Aussie Thai cooking guru David Thompson had spent an aeon being tough how to use a pestle and mortar properly by some over zealous granny in Thailand. Apparently, the point was that the ingredients shouldn’t spill out of the top. And as this is one of the recipe’s from his book Thai Food we should at least try and do a proper job.
last year I became so self conscious about my technique that I just had to find out what the correct technique was. Quite simply it is that the ingredients are ground by what I can only describe as a whisking action rather than compressed to that light bending stuff.
naturally, the kitchen intervention does cause some friction. But I figure a bit of heat in the kitchen is better than a cataclysmic light bending event.
I takeover the preparation of the paste for the Dried Prawn and Coconut Soup with Pumpkin. I grind – not pound, remember – the prawns until they become a sort of fluff. Next the coriander roots go in (isn’t it great to have a use for them) plus the shallots, peppercorns and salt.
I grind with a whisking type motion and try and keep all the ingredients from overflowing onto the chopping block and eventually the floor. Needless to say they go everywhere. I don’t know how long it takes me but my am aches and I get bored.
The paste is stirred into the coconut milk and stock/water are heated with a pinch of salt and sugar (to taste)the pumpkin and the remaining dried shrimps. When the pumpkin is cooked, it is ready.
FOOD FASCIST
1. Dried shrimps are a tasty and safe alternative to addictive drugs like Pringles.
2. Grind don’t pound in the name of Allah!
3. This should take 30-40 mins from start to table – unless like J manage to slow time and drag it out for 90 minutes. That’s black holes for you.
4. If Stephen Hawking is coming to supper, please ensure wheelchair access (Beware, he drinks like the late Queen Mother – but through a straw).
5. Quickly think of something to do with the left over coconut milk.
No related posts.
{ 12 comments… read them below or add one }
Has anyone dared to ask what, exactly happens if one pounds, not grinds?
One’s dinner guests turn around in disgust and go home? One is sucked into an especially sinister black hole reserved for culinary clots? Has anyone conducted a trial to see if anyone can tell the difference in the final dish? Just curious, that’s all. Love DT’s book though, and hope lots of other people post ideas as to what to do with the rest of the coconut cream (I did use it in muffins once - bit heavy, but tasty)
J
I think the difference is the culinary clot is sucked into the blck hole – or at least a timewarp – never to emerge or at least finish the dish. Pounding will eventually work but grinding is much quicker so the guests will notice unless they drink so much they get drawn into their own dark hole. You’re right it is a great book.
I’ve been inspecting technique since this post and there are very few who grind, even Neil Perry pounds. One good trick I saw to stop things suddenly leaping out of the mortar, is to lay a piece of plastic over and pound through that, or I suppose one could just grind the proper way.
I thought NP might be a pounder!
No comment.
i wonder how Kylie kwong does it?
Has anyone dared to ask what, exactly happens if one pounds, not grinds?
one spends the next week finding bits on the kitchen ceiling!
And they are there together with squashed moths and mossies.
Pounders need sugar soap and a mop to clean their ceilings. Though pounding can be fine for European pastes such as Pesto or Tapenade.
I think that bashing around and pounding is far too abrasive as some leaves do not respond well to it, but rolling allows for the essence of things such as Citronella (lemongrass) and Galangal to emerge while breaking down the fibre.
Just as with Pesto, Asian curry pastes do not taste as robust when made in the Magi-Mix as the ingredients have been cut but not bruised enough to release key flavours.
Last time we were in Bali I came very close to lugging home one of their stone mortar and pestles as they have dinner plate sized flat mortars. They roll the pestle to make their paste which is the correct action. But on realising that after Mr Stickyfingers had bought a hundred DVDs and assorted CDs, packed up with a garbage bag full of dirt cheap gear from RL Polo, it was going to be impossible.
Sticky, sure the Magimix is a sell-out but I keep one just to remind myself of chalet girls in Europe. Next time wind in Mr Sticky and go to Luang Prabrang and buy one of their amazing deep wooden ones although I do fancy one of the Balinese grinders. Sorry, had one too many for lunch with my sugar daddy…
If you’re right handed, I’ve found placing the left hand over part of the mortar with the pestle place between the index finger and thumb works pretty well. It’s what I’ve learnt growing up, watching my mum (who’s originally from Laung Prabang) using it.
The pestle we use is wooden, and the mortar I think is made from clay.
William, I was in Laung Prabang last year and my big regret was not bringing home one of the big wooden pestle and mortars they have there.