Prik POW!

One of the first of a series of old blog entries from a year I spent in Thailand. This one covers the hazards of cooking with unfamiliar ingredients and tools.

Today had a great moment.  About 5 seconds before I almost died of chile smoke inhalation.  Here is the story . . .

After getting off of work in the morning, I grabbed a bite to eat on the street (pineapple and corn), and headed home.  I got online back at Unitech, and decided it would be interesting to try my hand at Thai cooking.  So I searched for some recipes and came across the site allthaifood.com.  (It turned out to be  a veritable treasure trove of Thai cooking goodness.  I will definitely be visiting it again.)  The best dish I have had so far, at this great restaurant by the name of Jae-nue, is called prik pow.  So this is what I searched for.

Prik pow is basically translated as roasted chile.  It’s ingredients include garlic, shallots, and dried red chiles, along with a little bit of sugar, fish sauce (I substituted with soy) and shrimp paste (I substituted with chile sauce), all fried together in a wok.  Veggies and meat or tofu are usually added to it.  It is a very nice dish; savory and a little spicy.

I went to a market a few streets away to pick up the ingredients (also stopped at a 7-11, they’re everywhere here), and returned, on a mission.  It took a while to prepare everything, to chop the garlic, shallots, and chile, and make sure everything was available in the right amounts, but finally, it was time to turn on the wok.  The sound of the oil beginning to sizzle gave me a nice feeling inside; I indeed was cooking authentic Thai food.

The first ingredients went rather well.  The garlic and shallots fried nicely, and they looked good when I took them out.  This was the great moment.  Food sizzling, delicious smells, and a great view of the city.  Then came the chiles.  They quickly began sizzling in the wok, and before I knew it they were turning black.  This required decisive action.  I clumsily shoved them over the edge onto a plate, dropping one or two on the floor in the process.  But to no avail, they were all to a large degree burnt.  A moan sounded from my room (I was cooking on the patio) and, looking back, I saw Diana (who had been using my computer to get online) falling to the wayside, taken down by a blast of spicy smoke.  ”Weak girl,” I thought.  I then preceded to lean into the  smoke as I reached for the next ingredient, and I felt a strange sensation.  Nothing I’ve felt before.  Chile in my lungs.  It burned.  I turned off the wok and desperately gasped for air, doubled over, red eyed, my life flashing in front of me . . .

It actually wasn’t quite that bad, but it did burn.  After a little recuperation I, undeterred, turned on the wok again and proceeded to pour chile sauce onto it.  This is something that shouldn’t be done.  It sizzled and splattered, covered the porch�"and part of myself�"with oil, and continued to until there was nothing left of the sauce but little black crumbs.  I turned off the wok again.  This time I would be smart about it.  I put all the ingredients in, and turned the wok on it’s lowest setting.  And there we go, presto!  It worked.  That was a good feeling.  I let it fry a little while, mixing it together, and then put it in my bowl.  Ready to eat.  Then, of course, I remembered you need rice for this sort of thing.  Not very pleasant by itself, a little too pungent.  So I set it down and made an uneventful batch of rice in a rice cooker, and enjoyed my prik pow 15 minutes later . . .

It actually tasted decent, I think.  There was the burnt flavor of the chile, but other than that, not a bad piece of work, if I may say so myself.  However, the patio was a massive mess, and there are definitely a few things I need to work on.  But this was a very good lesson I think, I’ll try to profit from it next time I cook prik pow.  Maybe tomorrow?

Author's Note

I love criticism! Let me know what it needs!

Reviews

[Marie]

This is a pretty decent piece of work. A good receipe for anybody who wants to try this sort of food, and a good warning in case anybody actually does try cooking it.