Thai Red Curry
You can get the ingredients for this meal at Thai, Vietnamese, or other Southeast Asian markets for a third of what you’d pay for “Thai Kitchen” brand at the supermarket.
Choose the Coconut Cream Powder for this dish carefully. Many brands contain Sodium Caseinate, of non-dairy creamer fame. You want powdered Coconut Milk that only contains Coconut and Dextrin or Maltodextrin. These two substances are short-chain carbohydrates, midway between sugar and starch. My preferred brand of Coconut Cream Powder is “Chao Thai.” For the curry paste get “Mae Ploy” brand; it's the only really good commercial Thai curry paste I know of.
You could also use green curry paste, but it’s far hotter than the red paste, and in my opinion, a bit much for high altitude. It would be nice to have ¼ cup of fresh Thai Basil Leaves for this dish, but it’s better to do without than to use dried Basil. If you’re horse packing, you could do like the Mongolians and bring along some potted live herbs.
Be sure to use real Jasmine rice imported from Thailand for this meal. It has a special flavor and aroma that sets it apart from ordinary long grain rice. It also cooks about twice as fast as other long grain rices, which you will greatly appreciate at high altitude.
- 2 ounces AlpineAire freeze-dried Chicken
- 1 Chinese Eggplant, dehydrated
- 6 ounce can sliced Bamboo Shoots, dehydrated
- 3 (60 gram) pouches Coconut Cream Powder
- 4 Tablespoons Thai Red Curry Paste
- 2 ounce Nalgene bottle Thai Fish Sauce
- 1 cup Jasmine Rice
At home
Peel the Eggplant, as its skin toughens when dehydrated. Slice it ¼ inch thick and steam for 2 minutes. Place on dehydrator tray without slices overlapping and dry for 2 hours at 145 degrees Fahrenheit. After 2 hours, reduce heat to 135 degrees and leave at this temperature for 2–4 hours depending on the relative humidity of the air. The eggplant will be tough and leathery when it’s finished drying. Remember to cool your samples before testing them for doneness, as they’re softer when hot.
The canned Bamboo Shoots dry incredibly fast. Set the thermostat at 135 degrees and check after 30 minutes. The Bamboo Shoots will be hard and brittle when done.
Package the Red Curry Paste in a small plastic jar, it’s not messy so you might be able to get by with something less rigorous than Nalgene. The best brand of Thai curry paste on the market is Mae Ploy. Package the dehydrated Eggplant and Bamboo Shoots separately, because the Eggplant cooks much faster. Put the Jasmine Rice in its own bag.
In camp
The Curry
Put the Chicken and Bamboo Shoots in a 500 ml Nalgene Lexan jar. Pour boiling water over them and leave to soak for at least half an hour. You could break out your stove at lunch time and start the chicken soaking then, because the Lexan jar is heat resistant and water tight.
Put Chicken and Bamboo Shoots in a pan and gently simmer for 20 minutes. While the Chicken and Bamboo Shoots are simmering, put the Eggplant in the Lexan jar and pour boiling water over it. Mix the 3 pouches of Coconut Cream Powder with 1 cup cold water, stir until smooth, and add to Chicken and Bamboo Shoots. Next stir in the Red Curry Paste.
In order to keep the Coconut Milk from curdling, it needs to be stirred continuously while it begins to boil, but once it’s simmering you only need to stir it once in a while. Coconut Milk will also curdle if you put a lid on it while it’s simmering, so don’t cover it unless you’ve turned off the heat. Simmer until beads of oil separate from the liquid, then add the Eggplant and simmer a few minutes until it’s tender. Finally, add the Thai Fish Sauce to taste.
The Jasmine Rice
Now for the rice. Measure 1½ cups water at seal level, or 2 cups at 11,000 feet above sea level. Bring water to a boil and stir in rice. Keep stirring while it returns to a boil to prevent the grains from sticking to each other. Have someone hold the pot steady while you stir; backpacking stoves are sometimes known to tip over. At sea level the Jasmine Rice will need 10 minutes of simmering, and at 11,000 feet 14 minutes. After the simmering is done, the rice should be left to sit with the lid on for at least 10 minutes.
If you were cooking indoors you’d use a very low flame for simmering the rice, but outdoors where there’s windchill, you’re likely to need a medium-low flame. Peeking can make the rice gummy, but you need to make sure the rice is actively simmering. Lift up one edge of the lid just enough to get a glimpse of the water. If you’re careful and don’t release too much steam, you won’t do any harm.
| Total calories: 2096 | ||
| Fat grams | Carb grams | Protein grams |
| 80 | 258 | 85 |
| Fat calories | Carb calories | Protein calories |
| 724 | 1031 | 340 |
| Percentage of total calories | ||
| 35% | 49% | 16% |