Baby food For Grown-ups – Thai Green Risotto

Cardamom pods and their dusky inhabitants.

Triple happiness: garlic, ginger and The Heat

Lemon grass: olfactory bliss.

Green onion, earth's own sparklers.

Soupy goodness.

Breakfast is served; baby food for grown-ups

8:20 a.m. I return from a dog walk hungry. 

You know a dish is comforting when you can lift the lid from the pan still sitting on the stove top from last night’s dinner, spoon it into your mouth, and sigh. 

This green curry began as a recipe from 101cookbooks.com where it was called a “porridge,” and rightly so, it has all the trappings of a fairy tail that ends with a nap. 

Nine days ago my 85 year-old mother moved in with us. I’m exhausted. Being her caregiver means assuming the physical body of another person: fetching, bending, lifting, wiping and the inevitable cheer leading, required to buoy the spirit. And my feet hurt. In a very unHawaii-like fashion, I’ve taken to wearing shoes indoors due to the dozen dead lifts performed each time I move her from point A to point B.

This green curry is pure comfort; as nurturing as a warm bowl of polenta fresh off the fire or a chocolate chip cookie still all melty and messy. It really was exactly what I needed Sunday night; and apparently this morning too.

Even my mom ate it. A person I consider the very opposite of a “foodie.” As long as I can remember, this little woman has been on diets. As long as I can remember, she’s lived on cottage cheese, butter Buds (a god-only-knows-what, butter substitute) and egg white biscuits. 

My husband and I love ethnic foods bursting with heat and flavor. Mom’s intolerance for big flavors naturally influences our usual daring menu. The coconut cream, cilantro and spinach base of the curry, combined with the sweet meat of a yam, worked to satisfy everyone. In fact, my mother has never liked rice. And yet, she wasn’t able to identify the brown rice so saturated with sauce it was reminiscent of a risotto, thus the new name.

Thai Green Risotto

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

1 tablespoons fresh lemongrass, minced

3 cloves garlic, minced

6 kefir lime leaves

1 teaspoon ground cardamom

1 ¾ cups uncooked brown rice

5 cups water

2 teaspoons kosher salt

1 14-ounce can full-fat coconut milk

1 tablespoon minced ginger, peeled

2 Hawaiian peppers, more for extra heat

1 cup cilantro

½ cup green onion tops

1 cup frozen spinach, thawed

2 yams, boiled whole and peeled
Cilantro for garnishing

Warm olive oil in a deep pan, add kefir lime leaves, coriander and rice. Stir constantly until rice is toasty and fragrant, 7 minutes. Add the water. Stir in a teaspoon of salt and allow to simmer gently, stirring occasionally, for 25 to 35 minutes or until many of the grains have burst.

Bring a pot of water to a boil. Simmer whole yams for 12 minutes until al dente, peel and cut into bite-size chunks.

While the rice simmers, combine coconut milk, lemongrass, ginger, chile, cilantro, garlic, green onion tops, spinach and a teaspoon of salt in a blender. Blend into a smooth sauce. I chose to reserve ¼ cup of this yummy sauce to have on hand for another dish later in the week. 

Add the green sauce and yam to the rice soup and simmer for 15 to 20 minutes. I add one cup of stock at this point because I like it soupy, but that is preferential. Up to you.

Serve in bowls garnished with cilantro and green onion or just stand by the stove and eat directly from the pan in the morning.