แกงกะหรี่หมูใส่ฟักทอง (Kaeng Kari Fak Tong)
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Rated 4.5 Stars from 3434 reader reviews
First published on April 9, 2014
Recipe by W. Tipsuwan
This delicious curry makes an excellent side dish or a nice meal for lunch. Worawut makes it with his homemade kaeng kari paste, so it has a lot of great texture from the lemongrass and other fresh ingredients, but you can easily whip this up in about 20 minutes using a packaged Thai yellow curry paste. The recipe calls for Thai golden pumpkin (ฟักทอง; Fak Tong), but you can use any pumpkin or hard squash that you have locally available. The pork meatballs are seasoned with lemongrass, kafir lime leaves, and garlic, but if you just use garlic and a little white pepper it will still taste great.
Cut the bottom off a stalk of lemongrass, chop very fine. Strip the stems off 2 kafir lime leaves, chop the leaves finely. Chop 1 large clove of garlic.
Using a food processor, or by hand, chop the lemongrass, kafir lime leaves, and garlic until very fine. Mix with 1/2 teaspoon finely ground white pepper.
Season the ground pork with the chopped ingredients. Mix in very well.
Peel the rind off the pumpkin, and cut into bite-sized pieces.
Form the seasoned ground pork into little pieces, about 1 teaspoon in size.
Break or chop 3 cloves of garlic.
Heat a wok or frying pan over medium heat. Add the vegetable oil. When it gets hot, add the garlic and cook for just a few seconds.
Stir in the curry paste, mixing it with the garlic. Let it fry for about a minute.
Add the coconut milk and stir in well. Add the sugar and soy sauce, and let it cook until creamy and golden yellow in color.
Carefully add the meatballs to the curry mixture, keeping them separate as you lay them in the pan. Don't stir, just let them cook like that for about 3 - 4 minutes until they start to get firm. Then carefully turn them so they don't get broken up.
Add in the pumpkin pieces and let it cook for about 5 minutes. Stir carefully and turn it as needed. You can add some water if it looks dry. Taste it to see if there is enough salt. Add more fish sauce if needed. Turn off the flame as soon as the pumpkin start to get a little soft. Be careful not to overcook the pumpkin, as it should be firm when served.
Serve in a large plate or bowl, along side a small plate of steamed rice and some cucumber relish.
Garnish with cilantro (coriander) leaves.