Friday, December 10, 2010

A tale of two Ingredients...

I've been cooking a whole lot less since I moved back home. Infact I had started this blog to document all the fabulous food I cooked in Chicago- short ribs, pork chops, spare ribs, baby back ribs, caterpillars, ox tail, collard greens, mustard greens, fennel and potato etc. etc. But back home in Mumbai, I allow mom's cooking to take over and spoil me.

However every now and then I get very inspired to enter the kitchen and experiment. Despite the fact that I had not slept the previous night due to a delayed flight my sister was on, I was really inspired to play with two ingredients that were in my kitchen tonight. It is also really wonderful to cook for someone who wholeheartedly enjoys and savors every bite of what you cook. I wanted to make my sis a delicious welcome home dish.

So what are my two ingredients you ask?

Well my friend The Knife of Finely Chopped gave me one pickled Chiang Mai sausage that he got back from Thailand. He was worried I may not cook pork at home when he showed me the sausage but I grabbed it from him, thanked him and put it in my bag. Ofcourse I'll cook a Northern Thai sausage. My favouritest restaurant in Chicago was this little place by my house called Sticky Rice that served Northern Thai cuisine and on the menu was this pickled Thai sausages with shredded ginger and coriander leaves.

The second ingredient is my favourite Thai hot sauce called Sriracha sauce which I have not found anywhere in Mumbai much to my disappointment. Sriracha is very popular in the United States and is made by the company Huy Fong Foods.  Its a sauce that has its own Wikipedia page. In fact if any of you came over for dinner at my place in Chicago would know that this sauce and I could not be separated. Janu has come to my rescue and has brought with her a few bottles of Sriracha. Yeh!

Ingredients
 So for the stir fried Chiang Mai sausage:
2 Onions sliced
1/2 yellow pepper sliced
1/2 red pepper sliced
2-3 spoons of ginger minced
2 spoons of garlic
generous helping of sriracha sauce- though warning it is quite hot
2 potatoes peeled and diced and boiled in the microwave
Salt to taste
Saute the garlic, ginger and onions in oil. Add a few sprigs of corriander leaf
Add the yellow and red pepper
Squirt some sriracha sauce. and add some more.. Our heat factor is pretty high.
Add potatoes (I added extra to separate some for mom who is vegetarian)
Slice the Chiang Mai pickled sausage. What a surprise to see the green chili. I smelt them, they were definitely pickled green chilies.
Slowly stir the mix.

Add some water and let it simmer for 20- 25 min on a low heat till the meat is darker and no longer translucent looking.

Almost ready


Janu!

The family together at the dinner table after 2 years.
So Janu what was the verdict?
After one bite she wanted my vegetarian mom to try it. The sauce was warm, rich and tangy. The flavours were complex. The pickle juices from the sausage blended in with the spicy Sriracha to form a beautiful curry base. The onions, peppers and  potatoes added the perfect texture and wholeness to the dish. When Janu loves something words escape her to describe the dish and she was not quite willing to share the bowl of the Chiang Mai Sausage stir fry with dad and me.
The sausage meat itself was tender and had a vinegary, spicy pickled bite to it. There were subtle flavors of galangher and lemongrass and ginger. The pickling liquid- assuming some sort of vinegar and fish sauce seeped into the onions and potatoes making a a beautiful broth. The flavor was exquisite.
I was quite pleased with the experiment. Thanks Uncle Knife for sharing.

15 comments:

  1. I crave Sriracha !!! Now i want one..
    Love the post !!!

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  2. omg zazu - this was an awesome welcome home dish!! i seriously loved it. i can already tell im going to have a lot of fun actually getting to try all the innovations you blog about. lucky me!!!!

    oh and i am very open to a 'welcome home day 2' dish as well. Day 3, 4, 5... will also do :D

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  3. Uncle Knife @#$%%!

    By the way both Dr Miranda and her daughter were raving about the chillies in the sausage while a patient almost fainted from food poisoning in the reception

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  4. HAHAHAHAHA! You import Siriacha to India! awww - that is cute, yeah - but incredibly funny. Big hug! Send me some papa ka masala no! Oi - also, make some dum aloo and put up a recipe no... imma craving some, am not gonna cook myself any, so might as well feast my eyes on piccies.

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  5. Hey zazu
    sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo i found this link online that gives a recipe on how to make the thai sausage from scratch...

    http://importfood.com/recipes/norththaisausage.html

    wanna try making it?

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  6. Knife Uncle,pls go back and get some more so that Jyotika can make it for the rest of us

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  7. @ Nikhil: If you ever find it in Mumbai let me know- I shall stock up.
    @ the Knife- uncle was a name you gave yourself- refer to post in May.
    @Janu- u are so funny. dreaming of making thai sausage.
    @ Megoosie- Can you imagine- no sriracha in Mumbai
    @ Sassy Fork- I second that. More Chiang Mai Sausages.

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  8. Hiii, what a lovely space and delightful goodies!!
    bdw, u can get anything in Bombay now , at ur door step , if its available online , go to http://www.shopyourworld.com/ and call them to know more!
    Nope , if i sound like im their representative, i am not ,jus one happy customer , coz even when u travel , its always the pver weight issue and then paying extra and if it something u always want then jus go for it!
    The moments in the kitchen are priceless!
    S, sauce rocks , jus a bit goes a longg way!

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  9. Never tried pickled Thai sausage. Now I will. And have added Sriracha to my list. And where's my share!!!

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  10. Only for 'Dear Agony Aunt' sort of questions

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  11. This sounds so yummmyyy! I just made a glass noodle salad Sweet Chinese sausage and green chilles. Sriracha was available for a while, I couldn't do without it, either! But it went off the shelves and have not found it since. There is a rather inspid version of it available from the Real Thai brand but its disappointing. Rushina

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  12. This looks SO good!! &you look so pretty in your yellow dress :)

    xo,
    raven

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  13. can i invite myself ?

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