Thai-mato Sauce

By Hot Knives from January 10, 2007

thai ketchup.jpg
We've seen this Thai-Italian fusion thing that's gaining momentum (they both use basil, why don't we put them together?!) and we're not convinced. That said, Thai cuisine has tomato-based dishes of its own that you can recreate easily at home with ketchup.Ketchup's the obvious choice when on a budget or a deadline: It happens to be both sweet and sour, so with a little heat kick the stuff makes a perfect coating for gummy rice noodles, soft cauliflower and crunchity green onion stalks. In fact, chances are the spicy noodles at your local Thai place are made with ketchup anyway, so if you whip up a jar of your own, you're already one-upping the Heinz shit.

Spicy Thai Tomato Sauce
3 Tbs. canola oil
1 Tbs. curry paste
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 Thai chiles, chopped
1 small bulb ginger, chopped
1/2 cup ketchup
1 Tbs. seasoned rice wine vinegar

1. Throw a saucepan on medium heat and add oil. Once hot, toss in the curry paste, garlic, chiles and ginger. Sauté for 5 or so minutes, until aromatic and curry has dissolved.

2. Add the ketchup and vinegar, stirring thoroughly. Heat until ketchup is bubbling on the sides of the pan, then bring to a simmer for 10 minutes. Remove from heat and cool.

3. Fix a stir-fry of your choosing. Cook rice flat noodles or elbow rice pasta, strain and add to finished veggies. Then stir in spicy ketchup, heat until gooey and serve.

Just as an aside, this sauce can go further than just noodle dishes. If you have particularly good veggies, say farmers market fresh baby bok choy, just steam them for 2-3 minutes, throw them in a pan with some garlic and soy sauce, and serve them with a shot glass of spicy ketchup.

bokchoy ketchup.jpg

<< | Posted on January 10, 2007 at 10:01 PM | >>

Comments (2):

URL: http://
Well,

We first noticed it with a shitty, modern-looking storefront in Old Town Pasadena called ThaiTalian (or something close to that) but it is starting to pop up in recipes and Food Network culture. That fat dude Mario is bound to jump into the ring with some horrible carbonata pad thai or lemongrass rice noodle pizza, watch out. In general we do not support fusion.

Tomato-based Thai, on the other hand, is righteous. Naturally-occurring convergence of cuisines is quite a different thing than forcing them to play. Tell us more about Thai French though...

Posted by hotknives @ February 23, 2007 3:14 PM

URL: http://rachelsbite.blogspot.com
wow, that looks so good! i'm not sure if i've seen any thai-italian fusion yet. but maybe i'm just not paying attention. i've seen alot of french-thai fusion . . .

Posted by Rachel @ February 23, 2007 3:14 PM

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