Painting on the Plate

There is a chicken in Vibul Wonprasat’s refrigerator and not much else. But there is plenty to eat.

Baskets, on the cover, are heaped with herbs and vegetables--slender purple Japanese eggplant, golf-ball-sized Thai eggplants and the tiniest green eggplants, just larger than the size of a pea. A container of water holds sprigs of purple-stemmed Thai basil. Stalks of lemon grass and thin red and green chile peppers are displayed on a tray.

“If you cook real Thai, you don’t need a refrigerator,” Wonprasat says. “Refrigerator is a different taste.”

The small kitchen of his downtown Los Angeles apartment is as close to a country Thai kitchen as he can make it.

Next to the stove is a drawing of his mother’s open-air kitchen in Chacheungsao, in central Thailand. It shows a charcoal-fueled clay cooker, clay pots for rice and curries, an earthen mortar like the one Wonprasat uses, a basket for straining fresh coconut milk similar to one that he has mounted on the wall--and no refrigerator.

Wonprasat, an artist known for his semi-abstract paintings, drew the sketch from memory. He says that making curry is, for him, much like painting a canvas. In the curry chicken he’s making today, the dominant color is green, so Wonprasat uses only green vegetables and herbs. He puts in kaffir (Thai) lime leaves, basil, serrano chiles and two varieties of green Thai eggplant.

Thai cooks traditionally grind fresh coconut meat and squeeze out the milk by hand. Although Wonprasat can do this, just as he can make curry paste from scratch, he’s bypassing both steps to make a quicker version of green curry chicken.

Lately he’s been busy preparing an exhibit of his work at Pasadena’s Pacific Asia Museum, and he is active in Thai community activities--he’s the artistic director of the Thai Community Arts and Cultural Center and was chair of the annual Thai Cultural Day at Barnsdall Park. He also writes a cultural column for a Thai-language newspaper. Quicker-cooking meals, then, are important to him, but he manages to keep the flavors authentic.

“So now I grind the meat,” he jokes as he applies the electric can opener to a can of coconut milk.

Although cookware authorities praise the merits of heavy pans, Wonprasat scorns them. For curries, he says, one must employ a thin pot, like the rounded, silvery Thai vessel he is using. It encourages the fast boiling and rapid changes of heat that are necessary to this dish.

First Wonprasat boils coconut milk to thicken it. Then he stirs in green curry paste and boils the mixture some more until it separates and becomes thick and oily. Only then does he start to add the chicken. And he adds it gradually, so that it doesn’t interfere with the boiling, which must continue until the mixture is even thicker and oilier. “It takes time,” he observes.

When he adds water to the curry, it is bottled spring water. “Never, ever use that water,” he says, gesturing toward the kitchen faucet. “It doesn’t taste good. In Thailand we use rain water.”

He keeps the stove and sink scrupulously clean and wipes down the inner surfaces of the pot as if to honor the curry by making it attractive, even on the stove. “When I cook, I am thinking about clean and healthy and quality,” he says.

Occasionally, he tastes a bit for flavor and saltiness, but Thai cooks judge the progress of a dish by its fragrance as much as its flavor. “When it has good smell,” he says, “they believe it has good taste.”

He adds the quartered golf-ball-sized eggplants, then tiny pea-shaped eggplants. And although Thai curry pastes can be quite spicy, Wonprasat adds several serrano chiles, slivering them lengthwise. He tastes; the curry is still not hot enough for him, so he adds more. “It looks good. It looks fantastic,” he says as the dish progresses.

Sliced lime leaves go in. Just before the dish is finished, Wonprasat adds whole basil leaves. The doneness test is one of color, not flavor. The skin of the larger eggplants should take on a yellow hue, he says.

When he spoons the curry into a serving dish, he places more basil leaves in the center and a basil flower on top. “Thai cooking is herbal, very good for your body,” he says.

With the curry, he serves steamed jasmine rice and glasses of ice water tinted pale pink with a medicinal-tasting liquid that Thais believe promotes well being.

The dish is spicy-hot, balanced by the rice and plain noodles prepared by Wonprasat’s wife, Patchara, who is also an artist. She has arranged the noodles in little swirls on a basket lined with a piece of banana leaf cut from a tree on their balcony.

Now that the curry is made and dinner is served, Wonprasat can relax. As an artist, he enjoys the appearance of the dish as much as its fragrance and flavor. And though his curry was a quicker version than the one his mother makes back home, he still turns the cooking process into a leisurely, pleasant time rather than a rushed chore. “If you want to cook authentic Thai cuisine,” he says, “you have to have time and enjoy.”

VIBUL’S GREEN CHICKEN CURRY

1 (13.5-ounce) can coconut milk

2 tablespoons green curry paste

1 1/4 pounds boneless skinless chicken breast, cut in 1- to 1 1/2-inch chunks

1 1/2 cups water

7 round Thai eggplant, quartered

1 tablespoon Thai fish sauce

1/2 cup pea-sized Thai eggplant

3 or 4 serrano chiles, quartered lengthwise, optional

7 kaffir lime leaves, sliced crosswise

1/2 cup Thai basil leaves, packed, plus additional for garnish

2 cups cooked jasmine rice

Boil 1 cup coconut milk in wok over medium-high heat until milk starts to thicken, about 3 minutes. Stir in curry paste and boil over medium heat, stirring often, until oil separates and mixture is reduced, about 5 minutes. Add remaining coconut milk and continue to boil 3 to 4 more minutes. Reduce heat if boiling becomes too vigorous.

When mixture appears separated and oily, add few pieces chicken, stir and cook, about 2 minutes. Continue adding chicken, few pieces at a time, until all has been cooked. Continue cooking until curry paste mixture appears very oily, 4 to 5 minutes.

Bring to strong boil over high heat. Add 3/4 cup water. Add quartered eggplant, then remaining 3/4 cup water. Add 1 tablespoon fish sauce or to taste. Add pea-sized eggplants. Place quartered chiles in center and add lime leaves. Reduce heat to medium and cook until skins of larger eggplants have yellowish tinge and eggplants are tender, about 15 minutes. Place basil in center, cover and cook 1 minute.

Spoon curry into serving dish. Place additional basil leaves in center. Serve with rice.

4 to 6 servings. Each of 4 servings with 1 cup rice:

600 calories; 68 mg sodium; 62 mg cholesterol; 22 grams fat; 68 grams carbohydrates; 33 grams protein; 2.71 grams fiber.