Northern Food

Chiang Mai, Capital of the North, has it's own style of food but not without Burmese and Laos influences. A Northern Thai meal is quite informal, dishes are placed on the table in no set order, to share and to eat as you prefer.

Glutinous rice – Khao Niaow (sticky rice) - is at the centre of each meal with the addition of various side dishes. A soup, a curry (gaeng), a spiced salad (yaam) or stir-fry (padh), spicy chopped meat (laab) or chilli sauces (nam prik).

In one hand you roll some sticky rice into a ball and then dip into your selected dish to soak up the sauce. A selection of chillies and condiments to enhance the flavours. Plates of fresh herbs and fresh or steamed vegetables complete your meal. Dessert is usually fresh fruit.

Adam & I are keen to try some Northern dishes after tasting the khao soy and we find a restaurant that specialises in Northern food. We try to emulate the full Thai dinner experience but because its just the two of us we are limited on the number of dishes we can order. So we choose one curry – A Chiang Mai Pork - as well as a vegetable dish – Stir-Fried Morning Glory - to share, and a sticky rice each.

Chiang Mai Pork Curry (Kaeng hangleh muu), is a Northern-style spicy thick soup without the addition of coconut cream. Kaeng translates as 'with spicy gravy'. This curry is made with pork belly, very tender and spicy but with an Indian curry flavour.




The pork is cut into large chunks with slivers of ginger and chopped garlic. This dish originated in Burma where they serve it with bananas (kai), but other recipes add santol (wild mangosteen) or pineapple squares. Our curry came without the addition of sweet fruit, thankfully. I only really like fruit in savoury dishes where it is a little too spicy and the sweetness cuts through this. It was spicy but not that spicy.




Stir-fried Morning Glory (Paad Pak Boong) comes in a gravy style sauce. All the Stir-fried vegetables here always seem to arrive in an oyster sauce with whole crushed cloves of garlic. If you think the garlic may be overpowering, it's not - the garlic (kra-tiaw) here is smaller, milder and sweeter. I have also found out that Morning glory is also known as Gai Laan in Chinese.









The Khao Niaow – sticky rice - comes in gorgeous individual bamboo woven baskets with a lid to keep it steaming hot. Sticky rice is the perfect accompaniment to anything spicy and juicy, it soaks up the juices and with a spicy salad like laab or tom sum it softens the punch of chilli. It goes well with our pork curry, the meat is so tender it falls apart. In fact, it is so good I have included a recipe.

RECIPE

Kaeng Hangleh Muu – Chiang Mai Pork Curry

Ingredients for curry paste

1 tbsn coriander seeds
2 teaspoon cumin seeds
2 dried long red chillies (about 13cm long)
½ teaspoon salt
1 lemongrass stalk, white part only, finely chopped
2 Asian shallots (tiny red shallots), chopped
2 garlic cloves, chopped
1 teaspoon grated turmeric or a pinch of ground turmeric
1 tsp of shrimp paste
½ teaspoon ground cassia or cinnamon

To make the curry paste

Dry-roast coriander seeds in a small frying pan for 1 minute until fragrant, then remove from pan.
Repeat with cumin seeds.
Grind them both to a powder with a mortar and pestle.
Remove the stems from the chillies and slit the chillies lengthways with a sharp knife. Discard seeds.
Soak chillies in hot water for 1-2 minutes or until soft. Drain and roughly chop.
Using a mortar and pestle, pound the chillies salt, galangal, lemongrass, shallots, garlic and turmeric to a smooth paste.
Add shrimp paste, ground coriander, cumin, cassia and mix until the mixture forms a smooth paste.
Alternatively use a small food processor, blend all ingredients into a smooth paste. Add a little cooking oil as needed to ease the grinding.

Curry Ingredients

500g pork belly cut into cubes - or a healthier option would be stewing pork (cooking time will be longer)
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 garlic cloves, crushed
2 tablespoons curry paste
4 Asian shallots, smashed with the blade of a cleaver or rolling pin
4 cm piece of ginger, peeled and shredded
4 tablespoons roasted unsalted peanuts
3 tablespoons tamarind puree
2 tablespoons fish sauce
2 tbsp palm sugar

To make Curry

Blanch pork cubes in boiling water for 1 minute, then drain well.
Heat oil in a wok or saucepan and fry garlic for 1 minute.
Add curry paste and stir-fry until fragrant.
Add the pork, shallots, ginger and peanuts. Sir briefly.
Add 500ml (2 cups) water and the tamarind puree and bring to a boil.
Add fish sauce and sugar, stir, put lid on, turn heat down and let simmer for 1.5 hours or until the pork is tender. (less fatty cuts of meat will take longer to tenderise)

This recipe serves 4 . Serve with sticky rice or steamed rice and stir-fried greens.

If you try the recipe at home, leave a comment to let me know how it turned out for you!