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.