Bye Bye Thai - you are what you eat

If I start this post with a simple fact that it was four months being in this rented apartment before I discovered there was no can opener it might give some indicator that I normally cook from fresh produce. Looking in my cupboards I currently have 5 cans there. Only one is an 'easy open' ring pull can. In addition, I have a couple of jarred items as well. And what do they contain? Red kidney beans, tinned tomatoes (2 of), artichoke hearts, sweetcorn, and some potted meats. That is it.

For those emergency moments when I need to either feed myself or the occasional visit from the 5,000 at short notice I am quite adept at putting something tasty and nutritious together at short notice. What I call 'ding' meals. You know what I mean. There is a special cooking device where you put the food in, press a button or turn a dial, and a short while later it goes "DING!".

Two nights a week I have Dutch language courses and do not get back until late. While shopping the other week I noticed what looked like an ideal meal. A foil pouch of Thai Green Curry. Breaking my normal rule of ' hey, you can make that better yourself', I purchased it. Long shelf life and something that I would normally eat just before it reaches its 'smell by date'.

I now know why I do not normally buy this sort of thing.

A) It smelled sort of 'funky'. Almost Thai like but lacking a certain something and with a certain 'something else' added. I was trying to place it but could not quite do it for a while until I realised what it was. If you eat fresh produce you get used to a certain 'vitality' (not quite sure how to describe it) in food cooked from fresh ingredients. This stuff had mass produced in a factory smell oozing out of it. The ingredient list was no real give-away to its 'funkiness' either as I had scanned over it before buying it. The list is here:

Chicken pieces (35%), Onion (5%), Coconut (3%), Vegetable oil, Paprika, Modified Maize Starch, Herbs and Spices (whatever THAT means), Whipping Cream, Skimmed Milk (contains Milk, Lactose), Salt, Wheat Flour (surprisingly contains Wheat and Gluten), Flavouring (contains Soya, Celery, Egg), Sugar, Vinegar, Maltodextrin, Yeast Extract, Stabilisers (E451, E452 - 'stabilisers' which are in reality forms of phosphates no wonder I am thirsty!), Lemon Juice, Antioxidant (E330 - citric acid to you and me), Fish Powder.

So now compare this to the first result returned when I Google 'Thai Green Curry'...

• 3 Tbsp. oil for frying
• 1 stalk lemongrass
• 2 Tbsp. coriander seeds
• 2 Tbsp. fish sauce
• 1 tsp. shrimp paste
• 1 tsp. sugar
• 1-3 green chillies (depending on desired spiciness)
• 1 onion
• 2 cloves garlic
• 1 thumb-size piece galangal (or ginger)
• 3-4 lime leaves (fresh, frozen, or dried - available at Asian stores)
• ½ cup fresh coriander including stems
• 1 tsp. dark soy sauce
• 1 can coconut milk
• ½ chicken chopped into pieces
• 2 bell peppers, red and green (or whatever vegetables happen to be in season, such as tomatoes, eggplant, yellow and orange peppers, okra, etc...)
• 1 cup fresh holy (or sweet) basil, chopped roughly

Hmmm. Compared with the first recipe I seems to be missing a few key ingredients. I am fairly certain the latter will taste nicer. Note that there is no salt in the second recipe (apart from in the fish and soy sauce (relatively high levels when you check)). Currently I am knocking back water due to the thirst incurred from the amount of salt in the processed and preserved shop bought one. I of course realised that the recipe for the first was prepared by a 'food scientist' who is aiming to mimic the flavour (failed), texture (failed), and aroma of a Thai Green Curry. I have no control over the salt, fat, or 'herbs and spices', nor do I have any control over the other ingredients. In fact, when I take a longer look, I have no real idea at all what some of the major ingredients are and no real indicator relating to the true quantities.

For the latter recipe I can control it and would most likely have skipped the sugar and reduced the fish and soy sauce to my taste (not some scientist). And this is one of the things wrong with buying processed food. The loss of control. No wonder there are so many lard-bellies around.

Note to self. Don't do it again. You know it makes sense. Back to the water...