A friend of mine (we’ll call him Jeff) quietly confessed his secret. “I dabble in Thai food,” he practically whispered. Jeff must have known he could confide in me. After all, he had reviewed my Chicken Curry & Potatoes with Mustard Seed Hash. So, I quickly reciprocated and confessed, “I’m, uh, thinking of doing a Thai potato hash.” With a knowing smile, he gave me the thumbs up and thus was born my Thai hashcapade!
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| Butternut Squash Sweet Potato and Shitake Mushroom Hash with Thai Yellow Curry |
The only problem was what style to make? Veggie? Meat? Red, green or yellow curry? I consulted The Ultimate Thai and Asian Cookbook by Deh-Ta Hsiung, Becky Johnson and Sallie Morris. This massive cookbook full of gorgeous photos and 300+ recipes is my go-to Thai bible, especially for making curry from scratch. I quickly found my culinary muse in a lovely veggie dish called “Sweet Pumpkin and Peanut Curry”. Perfect! Now off to Uwajimaya for the best ingredients for any Asian dish!
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| Simple, fresh vegetables and a few canned goods to zip this hashcapade along! |
Have you ever been to a place that makes you feel like you’ve landed in a foreign country? That’s how I feel whenever I enter the sliding glass doors of Uwajimaya. Wonderful aromas, Asian characters (fonts, not people!), massive sacks of rice, dried fish flakes and the best place to buy Hiyao Miyazaki DVDs are super concentrated in this Asian cornucopia.
Love exotic produce? Countless veggies and fruits like Chinese long beans and curry leaf or dragon fruit and lychee fruit await the adventurous shopper. In my experience, the anchors of a good Thai curry are galangal, kaffir lime leaves, shallots, lemongrass, and chilies, which Uwajimaya has in abundance. To save time, I opted to buy a can of yellow curry.
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| Roasted butternut squash and sweet potatoes. |
The basic process was simple, lots of hashing of ingredients and roasting of the squash and sweet potato. I had some extra jalapeño and red pepper which I threw in to add a nice bit of color. Once all the ingredients were mixed together, I simply scooped out the curry with a slotted spoon so it wouldn’t be to soupy in the food ring. Add a little bit of cilantro for garnish and voila!
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| Another perspective of my Thai Butternut Squash Sweet Potato Hash |
The moment I tasted my latest creation, I was giddy with excitement! This was a super flavorful veggie hashcapade that anyone could easily make. As an added bonus, I could tell this would make an awesome soup, which I actually did a few days later – yum! There’s something about an exotic dish that translates perfectly into a hashcapade at Chez Clark.
Send me your ideas for my next adventure like Jeff did!
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Happy hashcapades,
Clark
I am drooling.
Thanks, Mary! I highly recommend it 🙂