In celebration of the glorious weather that has finally shown up here in the last few days, I cranked up the grill last night for the first time in months. This was the result: a recipe from one of my most beautiful cookbooks: Hot, Sour, Salty, Sweet by Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Duguid. The book is about the foods of Southeast Asia–specifically, the areas of Thailand, Vietnam, and Laos that are traversed by the Mekong River. It’s almost a coffee table book, almost a travelogue, but mostly a spectacularly photographed cookbook. I have all of their books, but this is one of my favorites (and the one I cook from most often, I think).
My version, though, is a far cry from authentic; it’s not even all that close to the recipe as Alford and Duguid interpret it. It’s the suburban-American-housewife-on-a-weeknight version. It’s still absolutely delicious, though.
The most significant change I make is the rice: the Thai version of this street food would apparently involve sticky rice, a Southeast Asian variety of rice that I lovelovelove, but that doesn’t lend itself to spur-of-the-moment dinners. Sticky rice is a short-grain rice (for comparison, Uncle Ben’s is a long grain, while what you probably know as sushi rice is a medium grain) that requires a 24-hour soak, followed by steaming in a bamboo rice steamer. Yes, I have such a steamer, and yes, it’s worth the effort for a special occasion, but on a Tuesday evening when Delaney has Girls on the Run and Toby has the 10th grade writing exam tomorrow? Not so much.
So instead I use a medium-grain Japanese rice (a variety that would ordinarily be used in sushi), and cook it in my rice cooker. It makes, by my lights, the perfect bowl of rice.
Also, the original recipe calls for 3 tablespoons of cilantro roots. Now, if you garden much, you know that cilantro actually grows pretty well here in NC at this time of year. So if you are on the ball enough to have a nice patch of cilantro, and you’re willing to sacrifice enough plants to get 3 tablespoons of roots, by all means–be authentic. I do not have such a patch, and I have never been able to find the roots for sale in our local Asian market. So I just use 3 tablespoons of cilantro instead, leaves and stems.
So here’s what you do.
Thai-ish Grilled Chicken
Serves 4, with riceRice for 4 people
Marinade:
3 T. cilantro
6 large cloves of garlic, roughly chopped
2 t. whole black peppercorns
a pinch of salt1 large boneless, skinless chicken breast (about 1 pound), cut into about 8 chunks
1/2 cup rice vinegar
1/2 cup sugar
2 garlic cloves, pressed
1/4 t. salt
1 1/2 t. crushed red pepper (this amount makes a SPICY sauce–adjust according to your preference, but it’s supposed to be quite lip-tingling)First, make the marinade: put all the ingredients in a mini food processor or blender (I use my spice grinder) and process to a smooth paste. Alternatively, you can use a mortar and pestle, but be prepared for it to take a good ten minutes.
Spread the marinade on the chicken chunks; you’ll have to use your fingers. Refrigerate for a couple of hours.
Next, start your rice (assuming you have a rice machine that will hold it until serving time; otherwise, start it in time to be hot for dinner).
While the rice is cooking and the chicken is marinating, make the sauce: pour the vinegar in a small saucepan; heat to boiling. Add the sugar and stir until the sugar is dissolved. Reduce heat and simmer for 5 minutes. While the vinegar/sugar mixture is simmering, use a mortar and pestle or a small bowl and the back of a spoon to work the garlic (which you’ve already pressed or minced) and salt to a smooth paste; it will seem almost like a liquid. Stir in the crushed red pepper. When the vinegar mixture finishes simmering, add the garlic paste and stir. Leave to cool.
Heat up your grill to a high enough heat for cooking chicken. When it’s hot, put the marinade-coated chicken chunks on the heat, close the lid, and leave them alone until they’re done enough to not stick. Then turn them over, and again leave them until they stop sticking. Continue to cook until a piece of chicken looks done when you cut into it with a knife.
Serve a couple of chunks of chicken on a bed of rice with a good drizzle of sauce.
Two notes: if you examine that photo closely, you may see some tiny blue dots. They are garlic. Garlic sometimes turns blue when you put it in vinegar–don’t let it freak you out.
Also, Toby took that picture. Sorry about that.