Thai Chicken in a Peanut, Coconut, Red Curry Sauce Paired with 2008 Koonowla Riesling

Last week I was craving Thai chicken in a peanut, coconut, red curry sauce.  After a bit of research and a pair of attempts, I have satisfied the craving.  Selecting a wine for the pairing was quite easy although many people seem to have challenges pairing wine with Thai food, or more generally with Asian food.

As a final introductory comment, I want to tell you that the recipe (included at the end) is ridiculously easy, and this is literally a 30 minute prep – including the time to pour your self a glass of wine to quench your thirst while slaving away in the kitchen.  When you are craving flavor and don’t have much time or energy, I would put this recipe at the top of your list.

The Food

Following my normal routine for preparing a recipe, I started by considering what other people are doing.  I looked at half a dozen recipes to provide a foundation, then selected the flavors I wanted to emphasize.  In this case I wanted clearly be able to distinguish the peanut, coconut, curry, and balance this with a moderate level of heat (picante).  The recipe is quite successful in forming this balance that allows each of the flavors to shine through.

This dish would go equally well over rice, but I had not prepared rice noodles before and wanted to give it a go.  I’m glad I did – the rice noodles added a wonderful texture to the dish.  Another great thing about this dish is that it is equally good, if not better, the next day.  I ate some for breakfast this morning (hey, it beats the hell out of oatmeal), and found the noodles held up well, and the flavors seemed to be completely saturated.  Oh, and I finished off the leftovers at lunch.  I just can’t get enough of this stuff!  Yum!

The Wine

I decided to take two approaches to wine pairing.  During a test run of the recipe I went the sweet, big fruit, low acidity route, and on round two with a less fruity, dry Riesling with ample acidity.

The first round wine was the 2009 Chateau Ste Michelle Columbia Valley Harvest Select Riesling.  As I said, this wine is sweet, big fruit flavors of peach and apricot, and relatively low acidity.  This wine is a hoot to drink particularly if you are in the mood for something sweet.  At $10 per bottle, this wine is an exceptional value.

The second wine, a 2008 Koonowla Clare Valley Reisling (Australia) filled the role of less sweet and high acidity with less dominant fruit.  We really enjoyed this wine as well.  Mild sweetness is well balanced with fresh citrus flavors and strong acidity.  This is a great food wine and a good value at $20 per bottle.

The Pairing

This pairing is the most complicated I have done yet.  Not because it is impossible to pair wine with Thai Food as some people would leave you to believe, but because we had the same recipe two nights in a row paired with different wines.  To complicate things even more, for the second round of pairing, Golf Buddy Steve and Formerly of Austin Dawn brought another bottle of the 2009 Chateau Ste Michelle Columbia Valley Harvest Select Riesling.

So here is the blow-by-blow.  The first attempt with the 2009 Chateau Ste Michelle Columbia Valley Harvest Select Riesling went exceptionally well.  The sweetness cut through the heat and spice of the curry and chili paste and danced a minuet with the coconut milk.  The bold peach and apricot flavors also played very nicely with our Thai Delight.  Overall, this was an excellent pairing.  With a bit more acidity in the wine, it would have been ideal.

For round two we started with the 2008 Koonowla Clare Valley Reisling.  The combination of citrus flavors and high acidity (and a little help from the mild sweetness) was perfect for the Thai chicken recipe.  The acidity balanced the heat and spice splendidly and the sweet citrus complimented the coconut and peanut flavors with nothing but refined manners.  Chef Sue then commented that she thought the 2009 Chateau Ste Michelle Columbia Valley Harvest Select Riesling from the prior evening was a better pair because of the sweetness; she did not see the acidity argument as compelling as I did.  So sure enough, we broke open the bottle of 2009 Chateau Ste Michelle Columbia Valley Harvest Select Riesling brought by Golf Buddy Steve.  We all did some side by side tasting, assessing it alongside the food and came to the conclusion they both worked extremely well for two very different reasons.

This was a nice discovery and a good example of why general guidelines for wine and food pairing can be misleading.  In this case, it would be perfectly reasonable to suggest pairing a Riesling with Thai Chicken Curry.  However, as we experienced, different Rieslings will react quite differently with the same dish.

Final Words

As a final thought, I would like to share my generalized conclusions on pairing wine with spicy Thai food.  Here are a few things too consider:

1. Stay away from high alcohol wines; the alcohol can intensify the heat.
2. Strong acidity is good.  The strong flavors of Thai food need the acidity in the wine in order to go toe to toe.  A less acidic wine will fade behind the big spicy flavors.
3. Skip the tannins.  Tannins combined with spicy food can result in some off color flavors.  This is not true in all cases, but in general, you will not be pleased with the result.
4. Go sweet, but not too sweet.  Sweetness balances the spicy flavors.  More spice and more heat = more capacity to carry a sweet wine.
5. Pass on the Oak.  With all the fun exotic spices in Thai food, I don’t see the vanilla notes common in oaky wines playing well. Here is an example.  I think a bright, citrus laden acid hound of a Sauvignon Blanc would work great with this recipe.  Make that an oaked Sauvignon Blanc, and the result may be less desirable.
6. White wines tend to work best as a rule, but light bodied, low tannin, fruity reds can be equally enjoyable.

Recipe

Ingredients

• 1 package of rice noodles (8 ounces)
• 1 1/2 lbs chicken breasts, cubed
• 2 tablespoons sesame seed oil
• 3 tablespoons red curry paste
• 2 tablespoons chili paste (sambal oelek if you want to be authentic)
• 1 1/2 tablespoons minced garlic
• 2 cans (13 ounces each) coconut milk
• 3 tablespoons fish sauce
• 2 tablespoons brown sugar
• 4 tablespoons chunky peanut butter
• 1 teaspoon soy sauce
• crushed peanuts
• 1 lime

Preparation

1. Bring pot of water to a near boil (enough water to submerge the rice noodles).  Remove water from heat and add rice noodles. Let stand for 15 minutes.
2. Heat sesame oil In a large sauté pan or pot and add red curry paste, garlic, and chili paste. Keep on medium heat for 2 to 3 minutes.
3. Add the chicken and cook until all sides are browned.
4. Add coconut milk, fish sauce, soy sauce, brown sugar and peanut butter.
5. Reduce heat and simmer for 10 minutes.
6. Strain rice noodles and combine with the chicken and sauce. Stir and turn until noodles are well bathed in all that coconut curry goodness.
7. Serve in a bowl and sprinkle with crushed nuts and garnish with lime wedges which can also be used to fine tune the acidity.

In vino veritas, buen provecho.

Craig

Curried Chicken and Potato Roti Paired with Chenin Blanc

Last night was a seminal moment in my burgeoning culinary pursuits.  I made Trinidad style roti.  If you have not been to Trinidad or the West Indies, this may mean very little to you.  However, for those initiated into wonderful world of roti, you know of the great gastronomic treat that I speak of.  A roti is a tortilla like bread (dhal pouri) that encases a of variety of curried meats and/or vegetables.  This curried goodness is beyond description.

For this post, I will be breaking from form.  This post is more about the roti than anything else.  Don’t get me wrong, the Chenin Blanc that golf buddy Steve brought to pair with the curried chicken and potato roti was a match made in heaven (sweet and citrus flavors balancing the spice), but when it comes to roti, I have a hard time focusing on anything else.

I first encountered roti in 2004 on my first trip to Trinidad and Tobago.  At the time, I was the US Coast Guard Attaché in Caracas Venezuela with additional responsibilities for 9 countries in the Eastern Caribbean including Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, and Trinidad and Tobago.  I know, tough life.  I survived.

After my first roti in Trinidad, I was hooked.  But it gets better.  Roti can be found throughout the islands of the Eastern Caribbean, and each country imparts their own character to roti.  What a treat!  My job kept me traveling regularly to each of these islands where I made it my mission to sample roti from every little roti stand and shop I could find.  Once again, tough, but I survived.

After three years of regular travel to the islands, I concluded that my favorite roti came from Trinidad and Tobago.  I can even tell you my favorite roti shop – The Hot Shop on Maraval Road in Port of Spain.  Oh my…what spectacular curried memories!  For quite some time I have dreamed of recreating the experience from The Hot Shop, and I finally succeeded!  Both Chef Sue (a frequent visitor to Trinidad during our stay in Venezuela) and Golf Buddy Steve (who lived in Trinidad) agreed with my assessment of success.  Roti will now be a regular feature on the menu in our home!

So now on to the recipe.  My recipe is based on a number of recipes I discovered.  If you care to see them your self and arrive at your own interpretation, here are some links:

• http://www.simplytrinicooking.com/2008/10/dhal-puri-roti.html
• http://berdina.tripod.com/rotirecipe.htm
• http://recipeisland.com/blog1/recipe-type/main-course-recipes/caribbean-dahl-puri-roti/
• http://www.easycaribbeanshop.com/index.php/caribbean-recipes/caribbean-bread-roti-buns/dhal-puri-roti-trinidad-recipe.html
• http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/emeril-lagasse/west-indian-curried-chicken-roti-recipe/index.html

Curried Chicken and Potato Roti Filling

 

Ingredients

• 4 tablespoons curry powder
• 3 skinless chicken breasts cubed – 1”
• 1 large onion chopped
• 4 medium red potatoes
• 1 can chick peas
• 1 cup vegetable stock
• 1 cup milk (your choice of fat content, but I would not recommend skim milk)
• 1 healthy tablespoon of garlic
• 2 tablespoons honey
• extra virgin olive oil
• salt

Preparation

Combine the cubed chicken breasts in a bowl with 2 tablespoons of the curry powder, 1 teaspoon of salt and 3 tablespoons of olive oil.  Get your hands in there and make sure all the cubes are well coated with curry love.  Cover the bowl and let it get happy while you make the dough for the dhal pouri (up to the point when you first let the dough rest).

Just a note on the curry powder, you can use your favorite, or you can make your own.  Emeril’s West Indian Curried Chicken Roti recipe includes a wonderful curry powder that you make from scratch.  I took this route and loved it.  The photograph below is the roasting process before grinding the combined spices.

After you get the dhal pouri started, boil the potatoes and cube them when they are done (1” cubes).  Coarsely mince half the can of chick peas in a food processor and set aside. 

Coat the bottom of a large pot or Dutch oven with olive oil and heat.  When the oil is hot, send in your chicken that has been relaxing in the curry powder.  Turn once in a while with the objective of getting the chicken browned on all sides.  Add the onion, chick peas (both the whole ones and their minced brethren), garlic, 2 tablespoons of curry powder.  Stir on medium high heat until the onions soften.  Add cubed potatoes, honey, vegetable stock, and milk.  Bring to a simmer and allow the juice to reduce to your favorite consistency (the thickness of the sauce is one of the key differentiators between the West Indies – it ranges from very dry in Barbados to quite a bit juicier in Trinidad).  For my tastes, it was about 90 minutes of simmering.

Dhal Pouri

The recipe here comes from Felix at Simply Trini Cooking.  I have made a couple of adaptations, but all the credit goes to Felix.

Ingredients

• 1 cup split yellow peas
• 1/2 teaspoon saffron powder
• 3 cloves of garlic
• 1 teaspoon minced garlic
• 1 jalapeno pepper
• 5 cups all purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon  salt
• 1/2 teaspoon cumin
• olive oil
• butter as necessary for skillet
• 3 cups water +/-

Preparation

Combine the flour baking powder, and salt in a large mixing bowl.  Add room temp water, one cup at a time, kneading.  Adjust consistence with addition or reduction of water until you get a firm yet moist consistency.  Form into a ball, coat with olive oil and set aside for about 20 minutes.

Divide the dough into eight equal portions and form balls.  Coat with olive oil and leave to rest for another 20 minutes.  While the dough balls are resting, it is time to make the dhal.  Boil the peas with the saffron and garlic cloves.  Continue to boil until the peas are easy to bight through yet firm.  Dried split peas can vary, so timing to get to this texture will also vary.  You don’t want the peas to get too soft or they will turn to paste in the food processor.

When done, strain the water off the peas and garlic and place in a food processor with minced garlic and diced jalapeno pepper (deveined and seeded).  You want a fairly fine texture – pieces should be just smaller than the size of uncooked quinoa.  Add cumin and salt to taste.  Take each dough ball and stretch until roughly twice the original diameter.  Place 2 to three tablespoons of the dhal in the center, fold the edges up to reform a ball and repeat for all eight balls.  Let rest for 15 minutes.

Roll out the dough.  This is one of the tricky parts, but I found a method that works great.  I have granite counters, so I can’t vouch for how well this will work on other surfaces.  I spread a thin coat of olive oil on the work surface and rolled out the dough as thin as possible – just before the dhal would break through the surface.  Once rolled out place in a preheated and lightly buttered skillet (the tawa is used in Trinidad, but I have not seen one in the U.S. – a large non stick skillet works fine).  Cook on medium high heat until just before bubbles form and just as small spots of brown appear on the cooked side.  Flip and repeat.  Overcooking will result in hard pouri.  If you are to err in a direction, it is better to err on the undercooked side so the pouri remains flexible.

Place the finished dhal pouri on a plate, place some of the curried chicken and potatoes in the center, and roll up much like you would a burrito.  Alternatively you can have the dhal pouri on the side.

In vino veritas, buen provecho.

Craig