Green Curry with Fish/Shrimp Dumplings Gkaeng Kiow Wahn Loogchin Bplah/Gkoong

Ingredients

• 4 cups coconut milk (about 2 cans)
• Homemade curry paste (see below)
• 1-2 Tbs. palm or coconut sugar, to taste
• 2 long Asian eggplants, sliced at a slanted angle 1/4-inch thick; or 12 round Thai eggplants (ma-keua bproh), halved or quartered
• 1/2 cup pea eggplants (ma-keua puang), if available; or use fresh shelled peas
• 2-3 kaffir lime leaves; tear each into 2-3 pieces
• 1-2 green jalapeno peppers, each cut into 6-8 long slivers
• 1-2 fingers gkrachai root (finger-shaped rhizome), thinly sliced in diagonal pieces
• 1 cup Thai sweet basil leaves and flowers (bai horapa)

Dumplings:

• 2/3 lb. ground fish paste, or small white fish fillets
• 2/3 lb. fresh shrimp, shelled and chopped finely
• 1/4 tsp. ground white pepper
• 3-4 Tbs. fish sauce (nahm bplah), to taste
• 1-2 Tbs. tapioca flour

Green Curry Paste:

• 4 dark green jalapeno or serrano peppers, chopped
• 15-20 green Thai chillies (prik kee noo), chopped
• 10 white peppercorns, finely ground
• 1 Tbs. coriander seeds, lightly toasted till aromatic, then ground
• 1/2 tsp. cumin seeds, ground
• 1 tsp. course sea salt
• 2 Tbs. chopped lemon grass (use the bottom end of stalk, sliced thinly in rounds before chopping)
• 1 tsp. chopped Thai galanga
• 1 tsp. grated zest of fresh kaffir lime; or substitute with finely chopped reconstituted dried kaffir lime peel
• 2 tsp. finely chopped cilantro roots, or substitute with 1 Tbs. chopped stems
• 3 shallots, chopped
• 6 cloves garlic, chopped
• 2 tsp. gkapi shrimp paste

Prepare the paste ingredients. If using dried kaffir lime peel, soak first to soften. For galanga, use the fuller-flavored, reddish brown root imported from Thailand. Grind the dry spices finely in a dry stone mortar or spice grinder.Set aside. Pound the herbs a little at a time, starting with the hardier ones, until each is reduced to a paste. Combine the pounded herbs and ground dry spices and pound together with the gkapi shrimp paste to form a fine, well-blended paste. Set aside.

If ground fish paste is not available in Asian fish markets in your area, use small, white-flesh fish fillets and chop as finely as possible with a cleaver or in a food processor or blender. Then pound the fish with a heavy stone mortar and pestle until it is completely reduced to paste and no longer distinguishable as fish. Do likewise with the shrimp. Keeping them separate, sprinkle some ground white pepper, a little fish sauce and about one tablespoon tapioca flour to each. (You do not need to add these ingredients to ground fish paste bought from the fish market.) Knead into the ground fish until sticky, then the shrimp. Set aside.

In a large pot, heat about a cup of the thick coconut cream from the top of a can of coconut milk (or the rich milk from the first pressing of coconut pulp) over medium to high heat. Reduce until oil begins to separate or the cream looks thick and bubbly. Add the curry paste and fry in the cream for a few minutes until aromatic. Pour in the remaining coconut milk and bring to a boil. Season to taste with fish sauce and balance with palm sugar. If using pea-eggplants, add them next and simmer about 10 minutes over low heat, uncovered, before adding the other eggplants and kaffir lime leaves. If substituting with peas, add them together with the sliced eggplants. Bring sauce back up to a boil and simmer a few minutes or until the eggplants begin to soften.

Using two teaspoons, drop the fish and shrimp paste mixtures in small, bite-size chunks into the curry sauce. Return to a boil and add the slivered jalapeno peppers and gkra-chai pieces. Continue to cook until eggplants are tender and the dumplings cooked through (they float when cooked). Stir in the basil until it wilts. Remove from heat and serve hot with lots of plain steamed rice.

Notes and Pointers:
There are many kinds of small eggplants in Thailand. Round ones the size of tomatillas, which we call ma-keua bprawh, are very good in this curry. Deeper green on top and graduating to a lighter bottom, these are seedy eggplants and taste nothing like the large purple aubergines. Cooked until softened, they soak in the curry flavors and add a thickness to the sauce. Other smaller members of the eggplant family are ma-keua puang and resemble large green peas, though their taste is entirely different. They are bitter, but when simmered in the curry sauce they impart an extraordinary roundedness to the sauce. Much of their bitter bite dissipates when they have completely softened with sufficient cooking. Both these eggplants are available in Thai and Southeast Asian markets, especially during the warmer months of the year, though the latter is usually harder to find. Specialty produce markets and gourmet supermarkets have also started to carry them.

There is a variety of long eggplants in Thailand that is green in color rather than purple like the ones you find in Chinese and Japanese markets. They are sweet and very flavorful and are excellent in greet curry. From time to time, I have seen them sold at farmer's markets. If you can find them, try them in this recipe.