Thai Pra Ram Long Song

Now that the “Chu Chee Talee” has finally worked out, I wanted to try another Thai dish in which a curry sauce is poured over the remaining ingredients. We are talking about “Pra Ram Long Song”, in which meat and vegetables are doused with a thick sauce made from coconut milk, curry paste and peanuts .

The elongated name พระรามลงสรง of the dish in Thai can be translated as “Bathing Rama” (พระราม = Rama, ลงสรง = to bathe) . The name Pra Ram refers to the protagonist of the Ramakian epic, who is usually depicted with green skin in illustrations. In English-speaking countries, this dish is often translated as “Swimming Rama”.

Pra Ram or Rama in this dish refers to the green vegetables on whose bed the remaining ingredients are placed and then swim together in the sauce . It is therefore a very vivid description of a dish that looks like it has been painted with its contrasting colors.

The thick, delicious sauce is also perfect as a sauce for sate skewers or “Gai Sate” (ไก่สะเต๊ะ).

Preparation

The meat should be marinated first, as it should also rest for about half an hour. To do this, cut the pork into thin slices and place them in a bowl. Add a little fish sauce, plenty of water and a dash of vegetable oil to the meat. Add the glutinous rice flour and mix well .

While the meat is marinating in the fridge, we can get to work on the sauce. First, toast two tablespoons of sesame seeds in a small pan without oil until they start to crack. Then grind the roasted sesame seeds in a large stone mortar and then add the peanuts in portions and process both together into a paste.

Now heat the thick or even solid part of the coconut milk in a heavy pan. This part of the coconut milk usually collects in the top half of the tin. If you have some, you can also use coconut cream for this.

As soon as the coconut milk has thickened properly, stir in the red curry paste and fry together with the coconut milk until some oil separates from the paste . Now add the remaining thin coconut milk, the tamarind paste and the fish sauce. Finally, stir in the palm sugar until it has dissolved and simmer for five minutes.

Now stir in the peanut and sesame paste and leave the sauce to simmer over a low heat for around a quarter of an hour. In the meantime, put a large pan of water on and slowly bring to the boil. Also wash the spinach and then cut the stalks and leaves separately into four to five centimeter long pieces .

As soon as the water in the large pan is boiling, blanch the spinach stalks for fifteen seconds and then the leaves for ten seconds. You can do this very easily by placing the spinach in a sieve and holding it briefly in the boiling water. Then mix the spinach with sesame oil to make it shiny.

Now cook the meat in batches in the large pan of water for two to three minutes at a time until it has completely changed color. This also works very well with a sieve or a slotted spoon. The marinade will give the meat a light pink sheen.

Finally, spread out a bed of spinach on several plates, place the meat on top and pour the thickened coconut and peanut sauce over both. Sprinkle the finished “Pra Ram Long Song” with a few sesame seeds and serve immediately steaming hot with jasmine rice.

The Ramakian

The Ramakian is the Thai version of the Indian Ramayana epic. This story of Ramas was since his origin in the 3rd century to a permanent part of the Thai culture and is part of the cultural identity of the country. The epic is as a huge Wandmalerei im Wat Phra Kaeo im Grand Palace in Bangkok zu bewundern. Hier einige Impressionen von unserem Besuch dort im Jahr 2011. Leider ist keine Abbildung von Rama selbst dabei.