Thai Green Curry with Rice and Sweet Potato in the Golden Trout Wilderness

"What am I looking at?" you might ask. You are looking at basmati rice, coconut cream, spinach, sweet potato, carrot, mushrooms, zucchini, and curry.

Flavor: 9/10

Ease at home: 5/10

Ease at camp: 10/10
Heat level: 9/10

Times made: 1

I debated writing a separate post for this dish since my Thai noodle soup is so similar- but I really feel like this is a different dish despite being only slightly different in concept. This is also a dish I really want to build on and improve because it has so much potential. I apologize now for the poor image quality- sun had set by the time we made dinner, and I was a few margaritas deep, with little patience for camera focus.


The motivation behind this dish is...
> Rice noodles are inconvenient, sharp (pierce bags), and take up a lot of space.
> Noodle soup requires a LOT of bites to sate hunger. It takes a while to eat.
> I really like spinach and sweet potatoes and want to eat more of them.
> How well do sweet potatoes dehydrate/rehydrate? Because they are pretty delicious and a great source of complex carbohydrates. I set out to answer this question, hoping it would open future doors to innovation.

What I found out:
> Rice is texturally almost as exciting as rice noodles, and more compact
> Rice is easy to shovel in and satisfies you VERY fast
> Sweet potatoes dehydrate and rehydrate superbly. Their texture is lush, velvety, dense, and different enough from rice to provide contrast in each bite.

Future improvements to this dish will include:
> Higher proportion of low-heat green chilis to high-heat green chilis. Spicy chilis are great going in, not so great coming out.
> Way more sweet potatoes, less rice, I'm thinking 33% potato/67% rice
> Spinach needs to be finely chopped or ground
> Curry paste needs more lemongrass, more cilantro for brightness
> Mushrooms and zucchini are fine, don't contribute much, but it's nice to have a little bit of extra veggie. I would consider these optional.
> Serving with freshly caught, campfire-grilled trout!

Kern River, Golden Trout Wilderness

Recipe (serves 2):

1. Dehydrate and combine the following in a bag:

• 1/4 c homemade or store bought green Curry paste (for less heat, substitute some of the thai chilis with anaheims). Before dehydrating, sprinkle 1.5 T high quality fish sauce (Red Boat or Squid brand) on the paste, OR bring 2 t Red Boat fish salt.  
• 1 packet of coconut cream powder
• 1/2 c frozen spinach, water squeezed out, dehydrated and then pulsed in a food processor until finely chopped
• 1/2 c small diced mixed vegetables (mushroom, zucchini, carrot, etc)- optional
• 1 c small dice sweet potato, blanched until just tender
• 2 c cooked basmati rice
• 2 kaffir lime leaves
• 1/2 t palm sugar
• 1 shallot, chopped
• (I didn't include any proteins, but you could certainly add some dehydrated/freeze dried chicken if you wanted to)

2. In a separate bag, bring the following to season to taste:

• True Lime, or 1 lime. 
• Salt to taste

3. At camp:

• Boil 3 cups water. 
• Once boiling, pour 1 cup off into a cup and reserve in case you need it.
• Add contents of main bag and stir. Add water as needed. Water should cover the contents + 1/2 inch. 
• Return to a boil, then remove from heat, and let sit in a cozy for 15-20 minutes.
• Season with salt and lime. Serve!

Taken during the descent from Flatiron to Kern Flat, Golden Trout Wilderness, October 2015