Gaeng Hang Lay

A bit different than the Thai curries your momma makes, Gaeng Hang Lay combines the best flavors the North has to offer.

Taste & See: This curry from the capital of the old Lanna kingdom is more complex than spicy. The curry paste packs healthy doses of a number of particularly fragrant herbs and spices which, when left to simmer for a good while [or left in the fridge overnight] create shivers of delight.

I used to live in a little po-dunk province in Thailand called Nan. My host used to make a thick, earthy base in which she'd simmer tough pork on the bone for hours. I would smell it all afternoon, staring maddeningly at the clock. While the spicy sauce did its work, we'd go to the little "Fitness" center in the public park and work up an appetite. Oh the joy that filled my heart when we stepped back into the house, filled as it was with a sweet, full aroma, and sit down to heaping bowls of rice topped with chewy pork covered in delicious Gaeng Hang Lay.


For the longest time I thought it was a product of my host's imagination, as I had never seen anything comparable at restaurants. Since then, I have learned that my coveted curry is called Gaeng Hang Lay and hails from Chiang Mai. According to a fellow Thai food blog, it probably came to Thailand via Burma (hin means curry in Burmese), and is common communal festival dish in the north of Thailand, especially among the Shan ethnic group. The simplest iteration of the curry is pork fried in a mix of chilies, ginger, shallots, garlic and thua nao khep, or dried, flattened soybeans, as well as the hang lay spices. See notes below for more specifics.

Before I left my village home, I made sure to get my host's recipe. One day we sat down together and chopped up a storm: hunks of galangal and ginger, reedy stalks of lemongrass, round shallot bulbs like little purple golf balls, and pesky miniature cloves of garlic with paper thin peels.


With such a mix of raw ingredients it would be hard not to cook good food. In my host's version, everything is finely chopped and pounded in a mortar and pestle, with a handful of roughly chopped ginger sticks tossed in. We did not pre-marinate the meat, use coconut milk or tamarind, or top the final version with peanuts. The finished product was a bit woodsy; chomping through the sinuous pork covered in gobs of curry paste felt like something one should do after a full day chopping down trees or roping cows.

I have cross-checked my host's version against several other recipes and come up with a few alterations/variations. Some use coconut milk, albeit in much smaller quantities than the soupy curries you typically think of, and tamarind paste. In mine, I relied on the good ole' blender to do the work for me instead of a mortar and pestle. I also used chicken pieces rather than pork, marinated in a fish sauce/spice rub the night before. Finally, I provided a bowl of toasted peanuts and Thai basil leaves for crunch and contrast at my guests' discretion.

A few notes on ingredients:

[Peanuts] If you're toasting your own peanuts, broil for just a minute or two, til you see the nuts start to brown. Immediately take them off the hot pan when you remove them from the oven or they'll continue to brown and burn, and you'll set off the fire alarm [as I did the other night] and have to toss the blackened peanuts and start from scratch.

[Substance] You could use this curry paste for a variety of substantive fillings- red pepper and potatoes, tofu, chicken, pork, beef. The pork cut traditionally used is called moo sam chun, or 'three level pork,' because it has meat, fat and skin. It is the pork belly fat cut of meat. I'd avoid seafood- imho the paste is too strong to allow the flavors of seafood to shine through. I think potatoes make a better vegetarian substitute than tofu, as the flavor is better absorbed, but this tofu version was nonetheless quite delicious.


[Galangal & Lemongrass] Galangal is a cousin of ginger but a bit tougher and spicier. Its often in large slices in tom kha gai, a coconut milk soup often found at US Thai restaurants. You can often get galangal and lemongrass stalks at Asian market, but if not, look for powders as substitutes. Not perfect, but better than nothing.


[Heat] You can use dried red chili peppers, though I recommend soaking in hot water a bit first to get them soft enough to blend into the paste. I used bird chilies, approximately 1 for every two people who will be eating the curry [or, about 1/4 the amount of galangal, ginger and lemongrass used.] Personally I could do a bit spicier, but it is always easier to add heat than tone it down later.


[Spice Powder] Gaeng Hang Lay powder, the spices used in the marinade, is available in packets in the US [see the yellow & green pack in the photo of the marinade] but you can make your own with equal parts turmeric, cumin, mace and coriander. If you don't have mace it won't kill you.

[Tamarind Paste] I also added a few tbsp's tamarind paste as an experiment, based on one recipe I found that included it. You can make it by boiling tamarind pods or buy it pre-made. It has a rich sweet and sour flavor that I thought would complement the other flavors well. The end result was pretty tasty, so at worst the tamarind didn't ruin it.

How to make the curry:

Part I: Marinade
Mix about 3 tbsp Gaeng Hang Lay powder with about 5 tbsp fish sauce [contrary to the picture, it really is fish, not squid] and 3 tbsp palm sugar [also easily available at Asian grocery stores; substitute brown sugar if necessary
Pour over about 2 lb of desired meat [or other filling]
Store in refrigerator at least 30 min, preferably overnight

Part II: Curry Paste
Chop equal parts ginger, galangal, and lemongrass; for proportions above I used aprox 1/4 cup of each; I used half the amount of garlic and twice the amount of shallots
Combine in food processor or blender together with 2 tbsp palm sugar, 1 tbsp shrimp paste [this can stink but lasts forever; keep in the fridge tightly closed] and 1 tbsp sweet soy sauce [Indonesian style, thick and syrupy]
Blend until it makes a paste with applesauce-like consistency. I had about 1.5 cups of paste in the end



Part III: The Curry
Heat a little oil in a pan and add chicken in its marinade
Add a few tablespoons of coconut water/milk [not the heavy cream] to tenderize the meat as it begins to cook
Stir in a few tablespoons of curry paste, more or less depending on how intense you want the flavor, once meat has begun to cook
Simmer the whole thing for as much time as you have, at a minimum letting the meat cook through fully [I also used tofu as my vegetarian alternative, which cooks much faster]
Add a bit more coconut milk if you like it creamy, or add coconut milk or water if the sauce reduces too much.


Enjoy!

NB: This recipe is a bit time consuming for all the chopping involved- but oh, so worth it. How about making it with friends Stone Soup style? Have everyone bring a half cup of one item chopped, blend it as soon as people arrive and put the curry on to simmer while you enjoy a round of beer & poker. You'll definitely want beer with this curry, btw; its a hearty, warm your tummy through and through kind of meal and a light beer provides a great complement.