Jungle Curry With Catfish

Today, Thai cooking was a bit overshadowed by something affectionately known as sausage fest. I'll let you use your imagination as to what that might have been. However, a few words are in order about today's Thai food before I drift off to sleep.

Today at the farmers market, for the first time in a while, I was able to find coriander root. In previous recipes I've thus far had to omit it, and that's never ideal.  Leaving something out can limit or even ruin the finished product. I haven't been too distraught over a lack of coriander root, but I was delighted to put it in today's jungle curry

Jungle curries are hot and spicy, partly owing to the fact that they lack coconut milk. In the case of this curry, it also has a lot to do with the number of chilies used.  In the paste alone, I used 12 rather spicy bird's eye chilies.

Cooking this curry provided many opportunities to sneeze and cough. The addition of fried shallots at the end gave this very spicy curry a delightful nutty flavor. The large number of chilies meant that this curry was perhaps the spiciest curry I have ever made, but my tasters and I agreed that there was nothing gratuitous about it.