A traditional Thai person would be horrified at tonight's hybrid-fusion Thai yellow curry. "Mai Dai!" Cannot!! Sort of the same reaction I get when they learn I use red kidney beans for vegetarian chili instead of making Thai sweets, or holy basil for making tea instead of fried with chicken - UNHEARD of here!! Clearly I gave up on that fitting-in thing long ago. :)
Today @artemislives is in her earth-forest element as she takes up the @ecotrain medicinal-cooking challenge to work with the yellow-earth elements to create medicinal food to enhance and strengthen stomach energy.
Her offering? Thai Pumpkin-Ginger Yellow Curry, with Okra and Mushrooms.
So. First, a visit to the local fresh market and the curry paste vendor.
What did I buy?
Pumpkin
Young ginger
Okra
Mushooms
Small red onions
Baby corn
Fresh corriander
Often I make my own curry pastes but this afternoon, with one broken arm and the other shoulder tight and sore, endlessly banging our stone mortar & pestle wasn't a great option & supporting our local curry paste man seemed suddenly a top priority. So off we schlepped.
Immediate disaster. No f***ing yellow curry paste, except in a pack. & I don't do plastic packaged pastes.
Yellow curry is not popular here in northen Thailand, being more Indian and Indo-Malay, neither of which have great social standing in the ancient Lanna Kingdoms. So I improvised. Quiet moment of respect for my Dutch Indonesian father who taught me to improvise when the perfect ingredients were not available.
A spoon of northern Thai red jungle curry paste with roughly equal weight in fresh turmeric root. Another quiet moment of respect for @nabithecat, my 13 year old daughter, who pounded and assisted me today with only minimal complaint.
Fresh coconut cream in the wok with roughly equal parts water, the hybrid curry paste and some Himalayan salt. A Thai would always go for fish sauce at the end instead of salt, but I prefer mineral-rich-bone-strengthening Himalayan salt and add it now. Burble gently for a few minutes to get the flavours happening.
And then in go the vegetables.
Burble in an open wok for 5ish mins and then in go the mushrooms. I prefer the local Hed Hom,a variety of shitake mushrooms.
Give it all a stir, and make sure it is mostly submerged in the liquid and let it burble for 10-15ish mins till the pumpkin and the little red onions are almost cooked.
Switch off the heat and add a small mountain of fresh coriander and a generous squeeze of lime.
Voila!
I serve it over earthy, steamed, local, organic, black riceberry rice. With a little cucumber, Thai style, on the side, to improve digestion & in case it's too spicy for you.
The most important ingredients in my medicinal cooking? Love. Intent. Concern. Hope. Joy. And then a little more Love, cos you can NEVER have enough of that, and it heals most everything!
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