Virgil Evetts
My daughter Olive (nine months) has now decided that Madre and Padre’s food is vastly more appealing than her own. If she’s up and about at meals times she quickly crawls over to the table and installs herself at our feet and like an overseized baby bird, begs for tiny morsels with greedy little chirps. Right now this is just indulgence on our part. The bulk of her food still consists of various purees and paps, and as much breast as she can wrangle, but it won’t be long before she’s supping with us exclusively. Well that’s the plan. Go ahead and laugh.
To some extent I feel like we have a fresh canvas in Olive. She has yet to learn to dislike anything really. When her uncle came to live with us as well-padded 11 year old, he was already conditioned to dislike pretty much everything we considered edible, favouring pies, fish fingers and an ocean of tomato sauce and little else. It took a concerted effort, involving uneaten meals and slammed bedroom doors, to recondition his tastes, but he came around eventually and now cooks like a pro, has sophisticated, adventurous tastes and an interest in balanced healthy eating. An achievement we’re quietly proud of, but it would be nice to avoid some of these struggles with Olive. Our plan is to slowly but surely introduce her to some of the more assertive flavours that feature commonly in our cooking. We eat a lot of food with a South East Asian accent which typically involves great swathes of garlic, ginger, onions and chilli. Obviously one can’t subject a baby to the last one. Chilli induces pain after all, so I think that would warrant as child abuse.
In most dishes, chilli can be added towards the end, after a small baby sized portion has been set aside. Job done. But what to do when chilli is more than just a bit player? We eat Thai curries at least once a week, sometimes more, and the fact is, whether red, green, orange or yellow these dishes all use chillies, in quantity to provide not just fire, but colour and flavour too. Surely the universe doesn’t expect us to give up our beloved and in my opinion essential curry fixes? Stupid universe.
So I’ve been experimenting with home-made curry pastes. These are always superior to anything shop bought, but at least under my watch always end up gut-bustingly hot. Home grown chillies are such an unpredictable lot. The solution, in the end was just too obvious: Capsicums, peppers, whatever you like to call them – big, bright beauties with the entire complex nuance of chillies (from which they are genetically indistinguishable), but none of the heat.
Conveniently there are capsicums colours to suit all Thai curry types (although yellow curry paste is mostly coloured with turmeric) and I’ve so far tried red, orange and green with excellent results. Green curry, often the hottest of the genre, is particularly fine when made with green capsicums instead of the fiery green chillies. The wonderful, multilayered flavours are unclouded by usual incendiary discomfort and it is, I think a better dish for it. Purists would no doubt disagree, but I’ve never had much time for them anyway.
I don’t know why such a simple modification didn’t occur to me sooner. A bit embarrassing really. I like heat but truth be known, my home-made pastes always ended up being an exercise in pain and rapid breathing, albeit a delicious one. I can now control the heat quite precisely by adding it in the form of dried Thai chilli flakes just before serving, or as the case may be from now on, as an optional table condiment.
Incidentally, through the course of my recent curry pastes experimentation I’ve also discovered the following:
A small stick of carrot makes a perfectly good substitute for the ubiquitous (and utterly flavourless) coriander root.
Young kaffir lime leaves work just as well as the limes’ zest in curry pastes.
There is no advantage at all in ‘roasting’ the shrimp paste, as most recipe suggest. None apparent to me anyway.
So- here follows my no-fire green curry paste. It’s based on a luxuriuous and complex Royal Thai version, just sans the murderous heat. Use with whatever meat, seafood or vegetables tickle your fancy.
No-Heat Thai Green Curry Paste
1 medium sized red onion
5 garlic cloves
5 fresh kaffir lime leaves
1 large green capsicum, stem and seeds removed
5cm piece of galangal- peeled
½ teaspoon of kapi (Thai shrimp paste) or belecan (Indonesian shrimp paste)
½ teaspoon coriander seeds
½ teaspoon cumin seeds
½ teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 finger sized stick of carrot
2 stick of lemon grass
1 teaspoon salt
Method
Place all ingredients in a blender or powerful food processor and reduce to a very fine, smooth paste.
Use immediately or refrigerate for later use (will blacken if frozen). This paste can be used with any green curry recipes, such as this one or even this one.
Glad I found your article basically I love chilli but it does not love me medical condition .
Can you suggest or do you have a list or receipts without the use of chilli , any assistance appreciated.
Thanks for this! As a recently-diagnosed sufferer of colitis, I now find chilli very difficult to take (very disappointing, as I love eye-wateringly hot curries). I’ll be trying this recipe out soon – I hope it satisfies my need for curry, without the pain!!
Thanks for the recipe Virgil, I have also toned down the heat in my thai curries too. My children are happy to try a new food, but let me know if they don’t like it. My 8yr boy loves chilli hot food, but my 6yr old boy hates it, so the chilli flakes come in handy, I buy a jar a month. I get fustrated with children (visitors for sleep overs) who only eat this, or dont’ like this or that. I feel their life experiences are limited by their food choices – where is the adventure?
Recently I took my 2 boys out to a local Indian restaurant, and they were amazed at the children at the other table who ordered Fish&Chips – My 8yr old commented – “What was the point of going to an Indian resturant if you didnt try the food” He just loves Onion Bhaji with Hot Spicy tamarind chutney.
Have fun with Olive, she will surprise you with what food she loves to eat.
What a great idea! Good luck with the adventurous eating bubba. As kids we ate whatever our Cantonese parents ate although very spicy food was toned down. I hope to do the same when we have kids.
Update:
Olive is currently eating said green curry for lunch. She loves it!
My kids have broad tastes, my 8 yr old girl adores curries, and still ‘oh yum!’ when I am picking silverbeet for roast chicken. My 11 yr old son likes chilli so hot it makes him sweat, I can’t eat it that hot. My 13 yr old broke it to me gently last week that he doesn’t like broccoli, when he has always eaten it without complaint! Who knew!
Interestingly Megan, my son was the same. He ate anything until he was about 7 and then he became more and more mainstream. It wasn’t until his late teens that he got back to eating most things.
My now 6 year old used to eat all sorts of things from smoked salmon and fish to olives, hot curries pesto. Now that he is bit older he has more limited food likes. So disappointing but I have hope it will change. Comparatively speaking he is still quite adventurous compared to other kids his age so all I can hope is that continued exposure to a varied diet and not buying into fads children might have (like only eating certain coloured foods-ludicrous!), will eventually turn him back into the eater he was.
Well done! I’m looking forward to trying this. Almost 18 month old Aman has shown a preference for curry style – Indian and Thai – dishes from an early stage. The more flavour the better. In fact it is the only way I can get iron-rich meat into him – chopped small and well cooked in tasty sauce. He doesn’t seem to mind a little bit of chilli heat as long as there’s some water around to wash it down and he actually likes raw onion and garlic (go figure!). So don’t worry about the lack of chilli, it shouldn’t have to be a long term state of affairs. Just introduce it very gradually in a few months and before you know Olive will have a palate to rival yours.
Good to know a bit of chilli doesnt cause screaming fits. A Korean chef I met told me that his baby boy took to eating kimchi cos he felt left out!
Nice article Virgil. It’s always a problem getting younger people to enjoy spicy food. You could always have a side of lime pickle or something similar to give yourself a bit of kick for a change from the dried chilli flakes (or have both!!!). My daughter won’t touch spicy food except for wasabi (go figure).