A Southern Thai Dry Curry

A recipe for khua kling of mutton

Khua kling is an iconic dish of Southern Thailand. It's also one of those dishes that seems to be on the cusp of Western mainstream attention. With a keen enough eye, you'll see it on menus across London. It's sometimes called 'dry curry' or simply identified by its cooking technique, e.g., 'chicken stir-fried with turmeric curry paste'. I have had very good versions at Kolae, Kiln, Plaza Khao Gaeng, and Singburi—all of which rival the ones I have had across Southern Thailand.

Khua kling is a dry-curry featuring meat or fish (often minced) stir-fried with fiery Southern Thai curry paste. It is often garnished with thinly sliced kaffir lime leaves and served alongside cooling vegetables and herbs, which temper the heat of the dish.

Left: Pork mince khua kling in Lanta | Right: Pork khua kling in Phuket

Southern Thai curry paste

Khua kling employs a curry paste common to a host of Southern Thai dishes, such as gaeng som, gaeng kua sikrong muu, and gaeng gati.

This curry paste is characterised by spicy dried chillies (birdseye and/or jinda), black peppercorns, and fresh turmeric. These distinct additions to the usual curry paste constituents (like lemongrass, galangal, garlic, shrimp paste, etc.) give the paste and the dishes that are born from it classic Southern Thai attributes like fiery heat, pepperiness, and the beautiful orange hue that has become a quintessential feature of the cuisine.

Homemade Southern style curry paste

Khua kling is an incredibly spicy dish. There are few Thai dishes that I have tried that are hotter (the version pictured above almost killed me). The heat comes primarily from the type and quantities of chillies used. Whereas a lot of more commonly known Thai curries (e.g. gaeng ped/red curry, panang, mussaman) use non-spicy large dried red chillies as the base, khua kling is made with Southern Thai paste which typically features a substantial quantity of incendiary little Thai chillies sometimes called prik kee nuu or birdseye chillies. To add to that, because the dish contains no coconut cream or milk, and very little sweetness, there is nothing to temper the heat of the chillies.

When I make khua kling, I reduce the heat of the curry paste by mixing dried Mexican arbol chillies (which have a medium spice level) with hot Thai birdseye chilllies because making it the Southern Thai way produces a dish that is unpalatably hot for virtually anyone I am cooking for. I’ve found that a 50/50 mix is near the limit of what I find enjoyable, and a 75% arbol to 25% birdseye is a safer option when cooking for other people.

Mexican arbol chillies mixed with smaller birdseye chillies

Protein

Khua kling is so versatile because many different proteins can be used to good effect. In my travels across Thailand, I have found minced pork and minced chicken to be the most common meats used in the dish and certainly this matches with most of the recipes you see online. However, fish is a viable and tasty option and I have had a particularly good version made from swordfish.

My favourite rendition of this dish though is a version I once had that was made with mutton. Since having it I have recreated it many times with good results. If you get a cut that has a little bit of fat on it and cook the meat so that it caramelises slightly, good things happen. The subtle gameness of the mutton, combined with the roasted undertones of browned meat, merges with punchiness of the herbacous, spicy paste. It is a pleasure to eat.

Cooling vegetables

In the same way that some European restaurants provide bread and butter as a starting point for a meal, many restaurants across Thailand provide a platter of fresh herbs and vegetables to accompany the main parts of a meal. As a Westerner, I am only partially used to this way of eating. I always eat the vegetables diligently, trying to get a feel for the custom, but it seems a bit odd with some dishes. Khua kling is not one of those dishes. If there's a plate of food which benefits from completely unseasoned, raw, naked vegetables, it's khua kling.

When you're three-quarters of the way through this dish, your mouth is on fire and beads of sweat are popping on your forehead; a cooling piece of cucumber or a crispy shard of cabbage is a welcoming accompaniment. Because we are limited with the variety of herbs and vegetables available in the UK (and even Europe) compared to South East Asia, I have found that cucumber, cabbage, and durable lettuce varieties are great veggies to serve alongside this dish.

A recipe

The below recipe is one that I have come up with, which I think results in a dish which is true to the source in that it's hot hot and peppery but also suitable for Western palates. I have used finely chopped mutton but lamb or beef mince works just as well. And to reiterate, the protein in this dish is perhaps the most interchangeable item, so if you've only got pork mince, use that; if you have some fish in the fridge that needs to be used, try hand mincing it and throwing it in this dish; the world is our collective oyster.

Serves 2

Paste

• 7 grams dried arbol chillies

• 3 grams dried birdseye chillies

• 10 grams (about 2.5 stalks) of lemongrass (white parts only)

• 5 grams (about a 1-inch piece) galangal

• 1/4 tsp lime peel

• 7g (about a 1 inch piece) fresh turmeric

• 10g (about 3 cloves) garlic

• 5g shallot (French or Thai is fine)

• 1/2 tbs shrimp paste

• 1.2 tsp black peppercorn

Other Ingredients

• 250g mutton or lamb mince

• 2-3 kaffir lime leaves

• a tablespoon or so of oil or lard

• 2 tbs fish sauce

• 1/2 teaspoon sugar

Arbol and birdseye chillies, lemongrass, galangal, lime peel, turmeric, garlic, shallot, peppercorns, shrimp paste

I make this paste by pulverising the dried ingredients (chillies and peppercorns) in a spice grinder first. I then pound the other ingredients in a mortar and pestle, adding the chilli/pepper powder mix about halfway through when there is enough moisture in the mortar. If you don’t have a spice grinder you can just grind them to a fine powder in a mortar and pestle.

Once the paste is done, I julienne lime leaves by folding them and then using a very sharp knife to slice them into hair-like slivers. If I am not cooking the dish straight away, I put a piece of kitchen roll on top of the lime leaf hairs with a few drops of moisture to prevent them from drying out.

Left: Lengthways half of a lime leaf folded | Middle: Stem Removed | Right: thinly cut strands of lime leaf

To make the dish, I add about a tablespoon or two of lard or oil to a wok on medium heat followed by 2 tablespoons of curry paste. I fry the paste for a few minutes before seasoning it with fish sauce and sugar. I then add the meat, turn the heat to high and stir fry until the meat is slightly caramelized and cooked through.

Serve with cooling veggies and rice. A cold beer is a nice idea also.