We have a new Thai restaurant that just opened up in town. It's actually the only Thai restaurant in about 250 miles....So we tried it out. I ordered a green curry with chicken and Honey ordered Pad Thai with chicken. They have the 1-Star to 5-Star heat scale so we both ordered 5-star.
Well, the dished were served, we tentatively took our first bites, and I promptly dug out the little keychain vial of red chile blend powder. After a generous dusting of hot chile powder, we enjoyed the rest of our meals.
The next week, we decided to give it another try. I picked up 2 orders of Pad Thai with chicken to go. When ordering, I told the server we wanted it 7-stars. She looked at me in surprise and said, "are you sure?" Yes, I assured her we wanted 7-stars. (I almost ordered 8-stars.)
When the server gave the order to the kitchen, I heard someone say, "7-stars?!? Are You Serious?!?" And the server assured him 7-stars was the order. A little while later, the server came out of the kitchen coughing and eyes watering. She said our orders were too spicy in the air.
When we tasted our to-go Pad Thai, I have to say it was BETTER than the 5-star, we could actually taste a little heat in the sauce. But it still wasn't hot enough to get a burn or even much of a tingle going. We hit the dried pepper stash and laced it up with some dried peruvian white habanero powder.
Now I do have to say the food was fresh, delicious and prepared wonderfully. It just didn't have the heat we were looking for in a Thai food dish.
Which is how we ended up here in the Drunken Chef thread- On the way home from work yesterday, Honey asked what was for dinner in the Drunken Chef's kitchen and I knew we had to do a properly hot curry!
Here' you go!
chicken, veggies, a habanero, sambal, garlic, coconut milk, Chinese-style noodles, cilantro-
forgot the sambal and broth in the first picture, but ended up not using the broth
I steamed the carrots and green beans, then sauteed them in sesame oil and a little olive oil with the habanero, garlic, onions, and red bell peppers. The sauteed veggies are on the right, just added the chicken on the left.
Everything all sauteed up, with about a tablespoon of red curry paste and 2 big spoons of sambal in the middle, coconut milk going in-
Dinner is served!
Now THAT was a spicy curry! Just a nice burn in the mouth, the kid had to drink a glass of milk with his, but he still ate his whole bowl. Honey and I just thoroughly enjoyed the heat.
I think it's official, the SalsaFamily has been completely assimilated into the Chile Pepper Continuum!
Heck, even the dog has been assimilated! He'll eat chips and hot sauce right along with the rest of us. He'll curl up his lip when he first smells the sauce and then eats it anyway.