6 days ago
Got a Can of Curry Paste? Make Pad Prik King.
Good morning. I'd grilled 50 cheeseburgers, as many hot dogs, 18 brats and six veggie burgers, all of it over charcoal on one of those Americana grills you can get pre-assembled at the big-box store for less than it costs to buy a single porterhouse at Gallagher's in Manhattan. It was a glorious service for kids, parents and grandparents, everything perfumed with smoke and consumed with supermarket salads and chips, a terrific reminder of the pleasures of cooking outdoors for people you care about deeply. I could do that all summer and be happy.
But not every week. Overdo it with live fire and commodity ingredients and you'll find yourself bored. There's a reason cookouts are special. They're treats. If you had to cook that way always, they wouldn't be.
So this weekend, I'm sticking to the kitchen in the house. On the docket for dinner tomorrow night: pad prik king (above), a dry Thai chicken curry made with red curry paste and makrut lime leaves. If I can find some Chinese long beans at the market where I generally get the lime leaves, I'll use those as well, though if you can't, the dish works nicely with European green beans. Jasmine rice on the side, please.
Featured Recipe
View Recipe →
For breakfast the following morning: the blueberry muffins that used to be served at the Jordan Marsh department store in Boston. There's a terrific story behind that recipe. It's an adaptation of one published in 1847 by Esther Howland in her 'The New England Economical Housekeeper, and Family Receipt Book,' a 19th-century best seller that was essentially the 'How to Cook Everything' of its time.
Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
