When I was working on the Eurasian Red Spice Base that makes some classic Eurasian and SE Asian dishes I asked the cook that I was working with if she could make the identical Spice Base except using green chillies instead of red. I had a few things in mind knowing that green coloured dishes appear in a variety of cuisines.
In Europe - The Dutch have a comfort food called Boerenkool, which is a simple mash of potatoes and greens served as a side with sausages and the Portuguese have a soup called Caldo Verde. Argentina’s Chimichurri, created by gauchos in the 19th century to season grilled meats has become internationally popular. Its name possibly derived from the Basque word “tximitxurri“ which means “hodgepodge,” or the Spanish word “chirriburri,” which means “noise”.
Boerenkool | Caldo Verde | Chimichurri
Here in Asia there is Thai Green Curry, Indonesian Sambal Hijau and Malaysia has Lemak Sayur Manis with pumpkin or sweet potato.
Thai Green Curry | Sambal Hijau | Lemak Sayur Manis
Green Spice Base
The adapted Green Spice Base arrived and I’ve been experimenting with a variety of ideas - below is a summary of these dishes with a description of the logic behind them .
Fish Moolie | Prawn Moolie | Chicken Queddah
Fish Moolie
The dish I had at top of mind was Fish Moolie that was regularly featured on our home Eurasian table. Perhaps it is a little more yellow than green in its original form, but Fish Moolie was the first thing I wanted to try when I first got the Green Spice Base mainly because I knew it would have that mild coconut rich flavour that I remembered.
It turned out really nicely - a mild, lightly spiced, creamy curry said to have originated in India under the influence of the Portuguese who asked for more coconut milk to be added to the dish to make it milder and more palatable to their European tastes. Recipes that I found for this - mainly in Anglo Indian sources, included curry leaves and tomatoes which I I have also tried choosing greener tomatoes to keep the green colour.
Prawn Bostador
Prawn Bostador is a dish quite often included in Eurasian cookbooks. Bostador means slap in Kristang, asking for perhaps the opposite effect of mild - instead, a very spicy dish. I used the spice base with a generous addition of sliced green chillies, which not only added heat it also imparted a ‘greener’ pepper flavour from the green chillies chillies
Queddah Green Curry
One of the earliest curries I learnt to make from scratch is Thai Green Curry. In researching my family history and geneaolgy, I’ve discovered there are a few branches that extend into Thailand primarily when Thai and Eurasian catholics, came from Phuket to settle in Penang. Many of these migrants from Thailand also stayed in Queddah or Kedah in North Malaysia. I’ve often wondered how much this influenced their versions of Eurasian food - the closest similarity is the use of Kaffir Lime leaves
I made the curry with the addition of a souring agent- lime juice (although Tamarind would also have been an option), Coconut milk and Kaffir lime leaves. I also added peas and green beans. The end result resembled and tasted fairly similar to Thai Green Curry but without the addition of fish sauce, had more of a stew quality. Some typical ingredients in Thai Green Curry like coriander root and Krachai, a kind of finger ginger were clearly not in the mix, but the south east Asian fragrant herbs like lemon grass and kaffir lime leaves definitely carried its similarity to its inspiration.
Green Yoghurt Curry | Rico Verde | Green Junge Curry
Indian Green Yoghurt Curry
Next I wanted to do an Indian style curry with yoghurt. Known as Dahi in the North and Moru in the south, and usually made with buttermilk but yoghurt can be substituted, this is a rich, usually vegetable based curry. In my version, I made it with chicken.
The curry was mild, and I’ve since tried it adding more green chillies for heat. Fragrance and flavouring can also be tweaked with the addition of chopped spearmint or culantro (sawtooth coriander). Overall it was really delicious, and very different with the yoghurt contributing to a rich creamy sauce and the choice of herb used giving it a distinct personality. Adding a chopped green vegetable like Moringa leaves gives it another spin.
Rico Verde - Spiced Green Vegetable Stew
The Portuguese Green Soup Caldo Verde seems visually similar to the Malay Sayur Lemak especially if you add a contrasting colour ingredient like sweet potato or pumpkin, much like how potatoes and linguica add a visual contrast to the green kale of Caldo Verde. I’ve named this dish Rico Verde which translate to rich green - similar to Sayur lemak which means rich vegetables.
Sayur Lemak usually has Belacan as an ingredient, which is not included in the Green Spice Base - so this dish is ideal for vegans and those that don’t like the funkiness of belacan. Just like Sayur lemak the addition of tofu and tempeh add additional protein to the dish.
Green Jungle Curry
This is a green riff on Jungle Curry - adding green peppercorns (typical of Thai Jungle Curries) and Thai Basil leaves. Serving this curry with Vermicelli, it turns into an interesting variation on our local Laksa. In this version I added fishballs. tofu, peas, green Brahmi sprouts and green chillies for heat.
Spiced Green Cutlets | Spiced Green Bean Tempura | Spiced Green Fries
Spiced Green Cutlets
Fish cutlets were a regular occurrence on our table with a lot of chopped green herbs like curry leaves mixed in. Instead of fish I just made it with potatoes, lentils, chopped Brazilian Spinach and herbs flavoured with the green spice base. Eurasian ‘Cutlets’ are derivatives of Dutch Rissoles made with a meat or fish mixed with mashed potato and egg to bind it together then coated with breadcrumbs and fried.
Spiced Green Bean Tempura
The Japanese Tempura is thought to have derived from the Portuguese Peixinhos da horta. Adding the green Spice Base to a rice flour tempura mix turns this into a spicy variation.
Spiced Green Potaotes
This has become a favourite that is quick to prepare and pairs easily with something grilled. It’s potatoes cut into fries or wedges then coated in a tablespoon of Green Spice Base, some sea salt and spritzed with vegetable oil and grilled in the Air Fryer for 20 minutes. There’s a spiced potato in Indian cuisine and spice rubbed fries in modern international cuisine- this dish lands somewhere in the middle with south east asian flavour notes.
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