There is a favourite dish I have at the restaurant called “bpoo pat pong gari” which is basically Stir-fried Crab with Curry Powder. It can be quite expensive depending on the size and weight of the crab. Maybe as much as 800 baht. But, it is really delicious. As you can imagine, I don’t have it that often so I was pleasantly surprised the other week to see a different version of this dish selling at the new food shop. Instead of crab, this version used chicken, gai pat pong gari. It also only cost 25 baht!
I was planning on blogging about this dish the other week but someone ate it before I had a chance to take a picture. If you have ever been with me to a restaurant, you know you have to wait for me to take pictures first! I have been back to this food shop half a dozen times since and they have always hadother curries. Anyway, I was at this food shop on Monday with Steve from the blogs and the food vendor promised me that his wife would cook it for me the following day. And they did, which was sweet of them.
In Thai, “pong gari” means curry powder. I think I told you before that both curry and gari are based on the same Indian word. It is quite easy to cook this dish, though you just need to make sure you have some curry powder! Basically, chop up some garlic and fry it over a medium heat until golden brown. Add the chicken and turn the heat up to high. Fry for a few minutes and then add some water until it just covers the chicken. As soon as only half of the water remains, add the curry powder and season with fish sauce, soy sauce, oyster sauce and sugar. Add the onion and also tomatoes if you like. Beat up two eggs and mix with some milk. Add this to the pan and stir until the sauce thickens. Just before it is ready, add the red chili. And that’s it! Another good example of a curry without coconut milk.
