The Wining of Thai Food

Long before most Californians heard of pad Thai, Timothy M. Evans was passionate about Thai food. He hung out in Thai restaurants, worked his way into their kitchens and learned to cook from the experts. He even speaks some Thai.

Evans’ other great love is wine. But fine wine and Thai food do not mix--or at least that’s the prevailing thought. Beer, Thai iced tea, soda pop and water are the usual drinks with Thai meals.

And when wine is served with Thai food, it’s often without much thought. Well-heeled Thais often order expensive powerhouse reds for their impressive names, but these do not marry well with Thai cuisine.

To be fair, many Americans treat wine in the same manner. Of course, wine is not part of Thai culture, and the wine industry itself hasn’t offered much guidance. With rare exceptions, a dull list of inexpensive, mildly sweet whites typically are offered to go with spicy Thai food.

Evans, however, is determined to prove to wine lovers and the Thai community that there are more options.

Two years ago, Evans’ Republic Wine Company, a wholly owned subsidiary of Republic Geothermal, Inc., where Evans is CEO, bought the Amador County winery Greenstone, renaming it Clos du Lac Cellars. Despite the winery’s French country cha^teau look--and even though Evans’ winemaker, Francois Cordesse, is a Frenchman who makes French-style wines--a major target audience for Clos du Lac Cellars is the Thai community.

Indeed, in Southern California, Clos du Lac wines, can be tasted only at two dozen Thai restaurants scattered from San Diego to Santa Barbara. Distribution to wine shops is anticipated within a year. The wines are, however, on sale at the winery, which currently produces about 10,000 cases a year and is located about an hour’s drive southeast of Sacramento. The wines may also be purchased via mail order.

Evans, who makes his home in Brea and commutes to the winery about 10 times year, recently invited 20 friends to Clos du Lac for a dinner of Thai food and wine that showed how well the two can get along. For Evans, matching wines with food that can be simultaneously sweet, creamy, salty, tangy, fruity and spicy is easy. The hard part is getting other people to try out food-wine matches that go far beyond the usual white-wine-with fish rules. His dinner was designed to introduce people to a few of his best.

Except for the view of vineyards outside, the tasting room could have been in Bangkok. Orchids (not real, but the closest approximation handy) garlanded a wine display, because orchids are typically Thai. The tables were set with pale orchid cloths, orchid napkins and Thai bronze cutlery.

The printed menus were crammed with an ambitious list of courses, accompaniments and matching wines. But in the winery kitchen, Evans and his Thai cooking chum, Stapron Nilluang, had only a small stove and hot plate for cooking all this food. Nilluang, who once had his own restaurant in Pico Rivera and lives in Culver City, is also the winery’s liaison with Thai customers.

The kitchen was off-limits to guests except for relatives assigned to key jobs. Evans’ 7-year-old nephew, Kelly, sat on the floor pounding smoked fish to a powder in a Thai mortar. The fish was destined for a mango salad. Just outside, Evans’ son, Peter, who is the vineyard manager, stood ready to grill salmon, portabello mushrooms and marinated trout wrapped in banana leaves.

After grilling, the mushrooms were sliced for a salad, and Evans presented the salmon on a creamy panang curry sauce finished as a French chef might with Cognac. The idea for the salmon came from Suchay Chutima, owner of Renu Nakorn, a well-known Thai restaurant in Norwalk where Evans lunches regularly.

“It’s just like making risotto,” Evans said, stirring coconut milk, a spoon at a time, into red curry paste that he had sauteed in coconut cream. Evans strained the sauce to make it smooth. Thais would not do this.

The wine that accompanied the salmon was a 1996 Cabernet Franc chilled to cellar temperature. “Not all Cabernet Francs would work,” Evans pointed out. “Ours has a lighter body, with a lot of aroma characteristics and soft tannins. It doesn’t remove the flavor of the salmon in your mouth. It enhances it.”

Meanwhile, Nilluang was fixing a northeastern Thai beef salad called koi soi. The beef soaks in lime juice and fish sauce, winding up as cooked as ceviche. “Top sirloin tartar,” Evans joked.

A big bowl of chopped and sliced aromatics sat on the kitchen table for use as needed. The fragrant collection included green onions, Thai chiles, cilantro, Thai basil, bai paow (the Thai name for an herb also known by its Vietnamese name, rau ram), mint, pak chee farang (also known as culantro and sawtooth herb), lemon grass, shallots, galangal and Mexican mint marigold, which tastes like tarragon.

“Tarragon is not Thai, but it is just the sort of flavor Thais would like in [koi soi],” Evans said. Because Thai markets aren’t common in the Sierra foothills, the two chefs had to bring everything from markets around their homes in Southern California.

Although he was born in Bangkok, Nilluang is adept at northeastern Thai cooking. His version of koi soi is strongly perfumed with herbs and khao kua, which is ground roasted rice seasoned with still more aromatics.

The mushroom salad is also a powerhouse dish. Its dressing includes fish sauce, lime juice and the Thai chile paste nam prik pao, which Evans says he adds mainly for the aroma: “Thai food’s all about aroma.” He arranged the mushrooms on a bed of salad greens. A scooped-out red bell pepper held the dressing.

Clos du Lac’s 1996 Twin Rivers Zinfandel accompanied both salads. “[This wine] is very Pinot Noir-like in structure and mouth feel,” Evans said. “Most things that Pinot Noir goes with, this Zinfandel goes with. I love Pinot Noir with mushrooms, and I knew I wanted to match a red wine with the beef, but it had to be a lighter wine. This is not a heavy, extracted Zinfandel. It’s so versatile it goes with lots of things.”

Before dinner began, guests sipped a 1996 Vin Doux Naturel, made from estate-grown Muscat Canelli grapes. The wine is sweet, but Evans commented, “It’s balanced with alcohol and acid so it’s not cloying in the mouth. It finishes without any sweetness at all, and in a moment your mouth starts to water. This is exactly what you want to do [before a meal], get people’s mouths watering. You could serve them dog biscuits, and they would think you are some kind of a chef.”

Instead of doggy treats, Evans started dinner with nam tom gratiem sai keo pla. This is a garlic soup to which he added special won tons sent along from Renu Nakorn. Instead of dough, the won ton wrappers were made of three kinds of fish pounded to a paste. Sliced deep-fried fish cake and fish balls from Renu Nakorn also went into the soup.

Evans’ wife, Clarisse, helped by making the broth, to which she added sage and thyme from their garden. Evans finished the soup with Thai seasonings that include cilantro stems pounded with white peppercorns. “Mediterranean meets Thai,” Evans christened this fusion dish.

He served a 1996 Viognier with the soup. “I chose the Viognier because there is so much herbaceousness to it,” Evans said. On the other hand, he said, a Sauvignon Blanc would not go well with this particular broth. “I find that Sauvignon Blanc is not very friendly with garlic,” he explained.

The soup and salads were followed by grilled marinated trout (pla pao) with a side dish of very hot chile sauce. In selecting a wine, Evans had to consider the oil in the trout skin, the sweetness of the flesh and the herbaceousness of the cilantro and garlic marinade, not to mention the intense chile spiciness in the accompanying sauce. His choice was Clos du Lac’s 1997 Sauvignon Blanc, which was served very cold. “I figured Sauvignon Blanc would work as a palate cleanser and play off the sweetness of the fish,” Evans said. “The high acidity of the wine tends to soften the effects of capsaicin in the chiles.”

Side dishes included pak boong (a spinach-like vegetable also known as ong choi, or water convolvulus) and snow pea leaves stir-fried with oyster sauce, fish sauce, pepper and sugar. The old winery stove was too weak to impart the charred taste that a super-hot wok adds to vegetables, so Evans’ clever solution was to douse the pea leaves with Armagnac and tip the pan until the alcohol contacted the burner flame and ignited, raising the heat level.

Jasmine rice went with most of the dishes, but the northeastern beef salad required sticky rice, which was served in genuine northeastern Thai rice baskets that Evans had brought from home.

Evans and Nilluang worked together on the last course, fried tofu and grilled eggplant in a yellow curry sauce almost sweet enough to serve as dessert. “Sai namtan nitnoy [put in a little sugar],” Evans said to Nilluang as he worked on the mixture of yellow curry paste, coconut milk, turmeric and curry powder. Evans had copied the dish from a Thai restaurant in Monterey.

“I’m the sort of guy, I can taste something and then say, ‘I can do it myself,’ ” he said.

The yellow curry platter also held mango salad in a red cabbage cup carefully fashioned by Nilluang. “The Thai meet the French in California,” Evans said of this course. “It makes a very impressive plate.”

The wine assigned to match bland tofu and eggplant, sweet and spicy yellow curry and the fruity salad was Clos du Lac’s 1997 Zinfandel Blanc, which is not a pink blush wine but an off-dry white wine. “It’s made utilizing the same methods for producing the Pinot Noir still wine that is converted into Champagne,” Evans said. This Zinfandel Blanc is low in alcohol and very dry, but it gives a sense of sweetness and fruitiness.”

Although the dinner was no simple supper--intricate garnishes adorned every plate--Evans never seemed tense or pressured. Perhaps that’s because he has been cooking since the age of 5. “It’s kind of a hobby,” he says.

Evans and Nilluang remained at work in the kitchen as the dinner progressed, though Evans emerged briefly to comment on each course. They worked calmly and neatly, and when both came out to greet their guests, wearing spotless aprons, a surprised heckler called out, “Why are they so clean?”

Southern California distribution is planned for the future, but at present Clos du Lac wines can be purchased only at the winery or by mail order. To place a phone order, call Clos du Lac Cellars at (209) 274-2238. If you order two cases, there’s no shipping charge.

Menu

Aperitif

1996 Vin Doux Naturel

*Garlic Soup

served with

1996 Clos du Lac Viognier

*Portabello Mushroom Salad

*Northeastern Thai Beef Salad With Sticky Rice

served with

1996 Twin Rivers Zinfandel

Grilled Marinated Trout With Hot Chile Sauce

served with

1997 Clos du Lac Sauvignon Blanc

*Salmon in Sweet Red Curry

served with

1996 Clos du Lac Cabernet Franc

Snow Pea Leaves

Pak Boong

Jasmine Rice

*Yellow Curry With Grilled Eggplant and Fried Tofu

*Mango Salad

served with

1997 Clos du Lac Zinfandel Blanc

(*Recipes given)

GARLIC SOUP (Nam Tom Gratiem) (LOW-FAT COOKING)

Timothy Evans makes the soup Thai by adding fish wontons, sliced fried fish cake and fishballs that he orders from a Thai restaurant. In The Times Test Kitchen, we substituted frozen dumplings from a Chinese market. For a Mediterranean flavor, Evans suggests omitting the cilantro, white pepper and fish sauce. Season the soup with sea salt, add seafood ravioli and finish with sauteed mushrooms and a sprinkling of flat-leaf parsley.

Notice that cilantro stems are used to make an herb paste; in Thailand cilantro roots would be used, but Thais in this country have adapted the technique to what’s available in supermarkets.

2 heads garlic

10 cups water

11 large fresh sage leaves

9 sprigs flat-leaf parsley

7 sprigs thyme

1 1/2 bay leaves

2 whole cloves

1/4 cup cilantro stems

1 1/2 teaspoons white peppercorns

1/4 cup fish sauce plus more if needed

1/4 cup cilantro leaves

Sliced deep-fried Thai fish cake, fish balls, frozen won tons dumplings or seafood ravioli

Break apart garlic heads. Lightly smash cloves with knife blade and peel.

Bring water, garlic, sage, parsley, thyme, bay leaves and cloves to rapid boil in large pot. Reduce heat and simmer slowly 45 minutes.

While broth boils, smash cilantro stems and peppercorns to paste in mortar with pestle.

Strain broth after 45 minutes and return to pot. Add cilantro paste and fish sauce and bring to boil. Taste and add more fish sauce if needed.

Add sliced deep-fried Thai fish cake, fish balls, frozen won ton, dumplings or seafood ravioli to taste. Boil 1 to 3 minutes until heated through. Garnish with cilantro leaves.

4 servings. Each serving without fish cake, fish balls won tons or ravioli:

44 calories; 695 mg sodium; 0 cholesterol; 0 fat; 9 grams carbohydrates; 3 grams protein; 0.61 gram fiber.

NORTHEASTERN THAI BEEF SALAD (Koi Soi)

Ground roasted rice, one of the components of this salad, is seasoned with fresh aromatics in the north and northeast but usually not in central Thailand. You can toast the rice yourself or buy it from an Asian market, but note that the roasted rice sold in stores is not seasoned and doesn’t have as much aromatic flavor as rice toasted at home with lemon grass, lime leaves and galangal.

1 pound top sirloin steak

1/3 cup lime juice plus more if needed

1/3 cup fish sauce plus more if needed

1/2 teaspoon Ground Roasted Chiles (see separate recipe this page)

2 teaspoons Roasted Roasted Rice (khao kua) (see separate recipe this page)

4 to 6 fresh Thai chiles, thinly sliced

1/2 stalk lemon grass, thinly sliced diagonally

1/4 cup chopped cilantro leaves plus 10 leaves for garnish

1/2 cup chopped pak chee farang (saw-tooth herb) or 1/4 cup cilantro plus extra leaves for garnish

1/4 cup chopped pak paow (also called rau ram) plus extra leaves for garnish

1/4 cup sliced green onions

1/4 cup minced fresh or frozen galangal

1/4 cup chopped Thai basil plus extra leaves for garnish

1/4 cup chopped mint plus 10 leaves for garnish

5 Thai (kaffir) lime leaves, very finely sliced

1/2 cup bean sprouts

2 (1-inch) wedges cabbage

Trim fat and tough connective tissue from sirloin. Slice into 1/4-inch strips, then into 1/4-inch cubes. Continue to cut meat into smaller cubes until it begins to stick together. Place in nonreactive bowl.

Combine lime juice and fish sauce and add to beef. Liquid should just barely cover meat. If more liquid is needed, add equal parts fish sauce and lime juice. Cover and refrigerate 30 minutes to 2 hours. Do not drain meat.

When ready to serve, mix in Ground Roasted Chiles, Ground Roasted Rice, Thai chiles, lemon grass, chopped cilantro, pak chee farang, pak paow, green onions, galangal, basil, mint, lime leaves and bean sprouts. Place on platter and garnish with cabbage, mint, cilantro, pak chee farang, pak paow and basil.

4 servings. Each serving:

442 calories; 1,039 mg sodium; 114 mg cholesterol; 27 grams fat; 14 grams carbohydrates; 37 grams protein; 2.67 grams fiber.

GROUND ROASTED CHILES

12 dried Thai chiles

Cover bottom of ungreased skillet with dried small hot chiles. Roast over medium heat until some of chiles appear slightly burned, 2 to 3 minutes. Place in blender and process into powder. Store and use as needed.

5 teaspoons. Each 1/4 teaspoon:

9 calories; 11 mg sodium; 0 cholesterol; 0 fat; 2 grams carbohydrates; 0 protein; 0.74 gram fiber.

GROUND ROASTED RICE (Khao Kua)

1 cup jasmine rice

1 stalk lemon grass, thinly sliced

1 (2-inch) piece galangal, cut into matchsticks

2 Thai (kaffir) lime leaves, thinly sliced

Place rice, lemon grass, galangal and lime leaves in large ungreased skillet and roast, stirring, over medium heat until rice starts to turn golden brown and other ingredients are completely dry. Place mixture in blender and blend until consistency of fine salt. Store in covered jar.

About 1 cup. Each teaspoon:

14 calories; 0 sodium; 0 cholesterol; 0 fat; 3 grams carbohydrates; 0 protein; 0 fiber.

PORTABELLO MUSHROOM SALAD (LOW-FAT COOKING)

Evans seasons the dressing with his own version of nam prik pao, a Thai chile paste, but commercial brands, available in Thai markets, work well too.

1/4 cup fish sauce

1/4 cup lime juice

1 tablespoon (nam prik pao) Thai chile paste

1 teaspoon sugar

1/2 stalk lemon grass, thinly sliced diagonally

1 tablespoon minced galangal

1 large shallot, thinly sliced

1 green onion, sliced

1 large clove garlic, minced

4 Thai chiles, thinly sliced

2 Thai (kaffir) lime leaves, cut in thin strands

1 tablespoon chopped mint

1 tablespoon chopped cilantro

4 cups mixed baby salad greens

2 large portabello mushrooms

2 to 3 tablespoons olive oil

Mix fish sauce and lime juice. Stir in chile paste and sugar until blended. Add lemon grass, galangal, shallot, green onion, garlic, chiles, lime leaves, mint and cilantro.

Wash baby greens and set aside on platter in refrigerator.

Brush mushrooms clean and cut stems level with caps. Brush both sides with olive oil. Grill over medium-high heat, preferably over smoking wood chips, 1 minute on cap side and 1 to 2 minutes on gill (under) side. When oil begins to ooze from gills, remove mushrooms from grill. Slice diagonally about 1/4 inch thick.

Arrange mushrooms on top of greens in fan design. Pour dressing over mushrooms.

4 servings. Each serving:

123 calories; 778 mg sodium; 0 cholesterol; 7 grams fat; 12 grams carbohydrates; 4 grams protein; 1.59 grams fiber.

SALMON IN SWEET RED CURRY (Panang Pla Salmon)

You would think that a curry as sumptuous as this would be difficult to prepare, but that isn’t so. Once you accumulate the ingredients, this recipe is easy, even if you have never tried Thai cooking before. Timothy Evans uses homemade red curry paste, but canned paste from a Thai market will do, and you can substitute regular basil for Thai basil.

1 (19-ounce) can coconut milk

4 to 5 tablespoons red curry paste

1 tablespoon fish sauce plus more if needed

1 tablespoon sugar plus more if needed

4 Thai (kaffir) lime leaves, torn into small pieces

2 (4- to 6-inch) center-cut salmon fillets, about 1 1/2 pounds

Olive oil

1 tablespoon Cognac

8 to 10 Thai basil leaves

Remove layer of thick cream from top of unshaken coconut milk can and set aside half. Heat remaining half of coconut cream in skillet and stir in curry paste. Saute until fragrant, 2 to 3 minutes. Add 1/4 of coconut milk to mixture, heat to boiling and stir until red oil appears at edges. Add another 1/4 of coconut milk and repeat boiling until oil appears. Repeat with another 1/4 of coconut milk. When red oil appears, add 2 tablespoons coconut milk, reserving rest to add later.

Add fish sauce, sugar and lime leaves. Taste and adjust fish sauce and sugar if needed. Boil until little red-colored oil appears. Remove from heat and strain through coarse sieve. Push as much of solids through as possible. Discard residue. Return strained mixture to skillet and set aside.

Remove any bones from salmon with pliers and coat fish with olive oil. If grilling outdoors, place in oiled fish basket. Grill, skin side up, over high heat, preferably over smoking alder wood chips, or on stove-top grill pan, 3 to 4 minutes on flesh side. Turn and grill 5 minutes more. Remove from fish basket if using and keep warm.

Add remaining coconut milk to sauce and heat, stirring, over medium to medium-high heat, until smooth sauce consistency, 1 to 3 minutes. Add Cognac and boil to evaporate alcohol, about 2 minutes.

Pour sauce onto heated platter. Place basil around edges, then place grilled salmon on top and sprinkle with lime leaves. Place reserved coconut cream in small plastic bag with tip of one corner cut off and pipe onto salmon and sauce in decorative manner, or spoon over fish.

4 servings. Each serving:

559 calories; 523 mg sodium; 53 mg cholesterol; 44 grams fat; 10 grams carbohydrates; 33 grams protein; 2.94 grams fiber.

YELLOW CURRY WITH GRILLED EGGPLANT AND FRIED TOFU

The curry is sweet and very hot. Some tasters thought the deep-fried tofu was chicken.

1 (19-ounce) can coconut milk

1 tablespoon yellow curry paste

2 tablespoons sugar

2 tablespoons fish sauce

1 tablespoon curry powder

1/2 teaspoon turmeric

1 (12.3-ounce) carton firm tofu, cut into cubes about 1 1/2 inches long and 1 inch thick

Vegetable oil

2 to 4 Chinese eggplants, halved lengthwise

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 tablespoon Cognac

Mango Salad, optional (See separate recipe this page)

Remove layer of coconut cream from top of unshaken can of coconut milk. Heat coconut cream in skillet over medium heat and stir in curry paste. Stir-fry until fragrant, 2 to 3 minutes. Add 3/4 cup coconut milk and boil until oil appears at edges, then add 1/4 cup coconut milk, sugar, fish sauce and curry powder. Heat until oil appears, then add turmeric and stir until mixture is bright yellow. Remove from heat and set aside.

Deep-fry tofu in vegetable oil over medium-high heat until golden brown on all sides, about 5 minutes. Drain on paper towels.

Brush eggplants with olive oil and grill skin side down over medium high heat, 1 minute. Turn and grill until soft, 3 to 4 minutes. Remove and keep warm.

Reheat curry sauce to boiling over medium to medium-high heat. Add remaining coconut milk and boil, stirring, until reduced to smooth sauce. Add Cognac and boil until alcohol evaporates, abouata 2 minutes. Pour sauce onto platter.

Place fried tofu in center and arrange eggplants, cut side up, on either side of tofu. Place Mango Salad at end of platter if platter is large or on separate dish.

4 servings. Each serving:

564 calories; 443 mg sodium; 0 cholesterol; 50 grams fat; 18 grams carbohydrates; 18 grams protein; 3.29 grams fiber.

MANGO SALAD (LOW-FAT COOKING)

Dried fish can be purchased at most Thai markets.

1 large or 2 small mangoes, halved, peeled and cut into small pieces

4 to 5 strawberries, cut into small pieces

1 kiwi, cut into small pieces

1/2 tomato, seeded and cut into small pieces

1 shallot, sliced

1 green onion, sliced

1 jalapeno, seeded and finely minced

2 Thai chiles, finely minced

1 (1-inch) piece lemon grass, thinly sliced diagonally

1 Thai (kaffir) lime leaf, cut in fine strips

1 tablespoon lime juice plus additional for topping

1 tablespoon fish sauce

1 1/2 teaspoons very finely pounded dried smoked Thai fish

3 large red cabbage leaves, optional

Combine mango, strawberries, kiwi, tomato, shallot, green onion, jalapeno, Thai chiles, lemon grass, lime leaf, lime juice and fish sauce in bowl. Mix well, cover and refrigerate 2 to 3 hours.

When ready to serve, mix in pounded fish. Nest cabbage leaves to make bowl. Place salad in bowl and sprinkle with additional lime juice.

4 servings. Each serving without cabbage leaves:

75 calories; 195 mg sodium; 0 cholesterol; 1 gram fat; 18 grams carbohydrates; 2 grams protein; 1.46 grams fiber.

* Thai Ingredient Glossary, H4

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Cook’s Tip

The ingredients in the recipes on Page H3 are readily available at Thai markets, including Bangkok Market, 4757 Melrose Ave., Los Angeles, and Bangluck Market, 5170 Hollywood Blvd., Los Angeles. Most Asian supermarkets have them too.