Don’t just make a vegan curry, make an AWESOME vegan curry! In this video I share with you my tricks and tips on how to maximize the umami in red curry without a drop of fish sauce!
You all know I love my meat and fish sauce, but I absolutely LOVED this curry and I did not miss the meat at all, and it’s because of the little decisions you make along the way, and also one secret ingredient!
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About Pai:
Pailin “Pai” Chongchitnant is the author of the Hot Thai Kitchen cookbook, co-host of a Canadian TV series One World Kitchen on Gusto TV, and creator and host of the YouTube channel Pailin’s Kitchen.
Pai was born and raised in southern Thailand where she spent much of her ”playtime” in the kitchen. She traveled to Canada to study Nutritional Sciences at the University of British Columbia, and was later trained as a chef at Le Cordon Bleu culinary school in San Francisco.
After working in both Western and Thai professional kitchens, she decided that her passion really lies in educating and empowering others to cook at home via YouTube videos, her cookbook, and cooking classes. She currently lives in Vancouver, and goes to Thailand every year to visit her family. Visit her at
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Sawaddee ka welcome to hot Thai kitchen today I want
to show you how I make my vegan red curry I know Many of you who follow the show are vegans but
I’d like to suggest that instead of just taking My any of my curry recipes and just switching
out ingredients there are lots of little tricks And tips you can follow that will really maximize
the flavor of your curry in fact I fed this recipe To my very decidedly non vegetarian friend and
they loved it did not miss the meat in it at All and in Thai by the way this dish would be
called gaeng ped mangsawirat gaeng ped is Red curry and mangsawirat means vegetarian in
a general sense there’s no word in Thai that Means vegan in the specific sense that the word
vegan means in English so we’ll stick with monks I realize alright let’s get started so personally
I think the most important decision you can make In making a vegan curry is what kind of Nuggets
are you going to put in it because that really Affects the character of the curry so I’m going
to show you what I like shiitake and mushrooms and Specifically dry not fresh because dried shitake
mushrooms they have this really intense earthiness And a chewiness that the fresh ones just don’t
have so specifically that’s what I’m looking for And so what you do is you soak it in hot water and
they’ll bloom and swell and become this nice chewy Meaty you know like texturally meaty mushrooms and
so what I want to do at this point is I want to Squeeze out all of this water and while keeping
the water by the way I want to cut it by first Removing the stem which I find pretty tough and
just do slices not too thin again you want this to Be substantial a little bit chewy there we go now
the other vegetable that I like to use is bamboo Shoots and you can get it in cans at any Asian
grocery stores right out of the can they’ve got A smell that can be off-putting for some people
so what you want to do is really wash it well and Then I boil it in some water for about 5 minutes
just on a simmer and then drain it and wash it One more time and that will get rid of a lot of
that sort of bamboo smell I don’t know how else To describe it some people don’t mind it in that
case just give it a quick rinse but I think it’s Always safe to do that first and then finally the
last thing I’m gonna put in my curry is tofu but a Very specific kind of tofu so I like medium firm
smooth tofu if possible the firm one I find the Textures a little too almost little to chalky a
little too dense but soft is too soft and it just Falls apart in your curry so medium I think it’s
just the perfect balance absorbs flavor well melts In your mouth adds creaminess it’s just beautiful
so I’ve got some coconut milk here in this pot and By the way if you haven’t seen my 101 video about
coconut milk I highly recommend it I talked about How to choose the best coconut milk for cooking
which I am using in this recipe so I’m gonna Let this reduce as per usual reduce until it’s
thick and in the oil the coconut oil will stay Actually start to separate out from the coconut
milk so this is exactly where you want it to be You see how the in the edges you can see that
the coconut oil clear coconut oil is separating From the coconut milk and then I’m gonna add my
curry paste and so the curry paste that I’m using
Is just store-bought for today but when you are
buying Thai curry paste at the store make sure you Read the ingredients because some brands will have
shrimp paste added to it and so you know that’s Not vegetarian you can also make your own I have a
recipe for how to make it just make sure you omit The shrimp paste and you can either just leave it
out altogether or add some miso paste instead if You happen to have it I wouldn’t let go and buy a
thing of miso just for that now as you can see the Coconut oil is basically frying the paste which
is what we want now here’s my secret ingredient Tomato paste that’s right now before you freak out
on panic why did she daring tomatoes is something That we put in red curry in Thailand anyway and
so the flavors work now the special thing about Tomatoes is one of the few plant foods it’s really
high in glutamate which is that umami factor and When you start taking animal products out of a
dish you also lose a lot of glutamate as well so By adding this tomato paste we just basically like
umami concentrate you really add that factor back Into the curry okay so that’s my little secret
right there and I’m not adding a lot so you’re Not gonna taste this like a tomato wee curry I’m
just adding enough for it to be hmm I wonder what That is but it’s so good the oil is separating
from the pace I’m going to add now the rest of My coconut milk and I’m also going to add about
one cup of the mushroom water that we had from Earlier I don’t want to add too much and have
the the flavor of the mushroom be overpowering But this also has a lot of umami flavor in there
now I’m gonna give this some time for the curry Paste to dissolve into the liquid so the broth
is boiling now let’s season this thing so instead Of fish sauce I’m gonna go in with soy sauce I
like to add just a dash of golden Mountain sauce It’s another type of soy sauce but the flavor is
different and I find the flavor a little sharper A little more oh it’s hard to explain the more
intense and I think just a little bit of it in This curry really really works okay so just a
couple of dashes look sweetness we’re gonna need Some palm sugar just to balance out all of that
saltiness some kaffir lime leaves okay these ones Right here I’m just going to roughly tear just
to bruise them get all the flavor out that really Brightens up gives more life to the curry and now
all our nuggets are going in so the mushrooms and The bamboo shoots and at this point I’m gonna
add the tofu but notice I add the tofu last once You add the tofu I try not to like stir it too
much otherwise the tofu starts breaking because Even though this is medium firm it’s not firm and
spread them out so you don’t have to stir in order To spread them out later so now I’m just gonna
ever so gently push things around so the mushroom Other mushrooms the tofu becomes submerged and
it’s looking just a little thicker and we’re gonna Add a little more of that mushroom broth just to
thin things out even though this is technically Cooked enough already to eat you want to give it
time to simmer so that the tofu has time to absorb The flavor and so do the bamboo shoots so the you
know you want to give a chance for ingredients to Get to know each other before you eat them okay
mmm it smells so good in here now you have no idea
And it’s been about 10 minutes I find that that’s
the minimum but that’s enough 10 minutes is enough For the tofu to start to get flavorful now for
some color I’m adding these interesting-looking Peppers I’ll show you the pepper in a second and
they just need like another minute or so and here Here’s what the guy looks like so at the store
this was labeled long red pepper and I don’t Know if that’s just my Asian grocery store being
typical or it’s actually called long red pepper If you guys know let me know in the comments so
I’m gonna just turn this off now I’ve got some Thai basil here this is so important this is
going to add a floral aroma that is absolutely Crucial in the deliciousness of this curry hmm
and the residual heat will wilt the basil that Yeah over some hot jasmine rice one thing to
be careful about tofu is when tofu is hot it Is really hot and it stays hot for a really
long time so gotta open it up and air it out A little bit I am telling you there’s something so
satisfying between the creaminess of the tofu that Essentially melts as soon as you start chewing it
and the chewiness of the mushrooms like together So good and that sauce ah it’s so flavorful and
it’s all in the little decisions that you make Right little you know the little bit of tomato
paste and the choice of doing both soy sauce and Golden mountain sauce and the choice of dried
mushrooms over fresh mushrooms makes such a big Difference so I really hope you give this a try
whether or not you’re vegetarian I think this is Such a delicious dish in and of itself the recipe
has always to be on husky kitchen comm when you Make it send me a photo on Facebook Twitter or
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