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Evil Jungle Prince, Egg Fried Rice, and Tea Eggs



We love our Thai cookbook. Flipping through it, Mary came across a recipe called "Evil Jungle Prince." It was apparently a famous dish at Keo's restaurant in Hawaii not too long ago, so we decided to give it a go. We had fresh thai peppers from the asian market, and some preserved lemongrass and keffir lime. This should have been ground up into a paste, but we ended up just finely chopping it in an underpowered food processor. This worked fairly well, but I can't help but think it would have been better if it had been fulled pureed or mashed in our mortar.

Sufficed to say, the dish was pleasantly spicy. We added some zucchini, which also proved to be a bit of a mistake. Not for the zucchini itself, but for the cooking time. The chicken was only supposed to cook for five minutes, but it ended up in there longer. Once the chicken was done, I added the zuch slices and left 'em there for a few more minutes. As a result, the chicken wasn't as tender as it could have been. It was still pretty darned good, but I know it could have been better.

Instead of putting the EJP over cabbage or even thai rice noodles, we opted for a heavier rice dish. I stumbled across a fried rice recipe at some point, I can't even remember where, and it's been a standby dish ever since. Ginger and garlic powder, oil, onions, eggs, and slightly dry, old rice. It's easy to make, and super-tasty. We even had fresh ginger root left over from last week, which enhanced the flavor quite a bit.

Putting the Thai food over the fried rice was a bit rich, but it was still tasty. I separated them for seconds, and put sweet (and thick!) soy sauce over the fried rice that time around. Good stuff.



The tea eggs came from some old 70's cookbooks, I believe. Hard-boiled eggs, shells intentionally cracked, simmered for two hours in an infusion of cinnamon, orange peel, and black tea. It made the house smell wonderful, and the flavor was subtle and pleasant. But in the end, they were still hard boiled eggs. Fancy, yes. But it's questionable whether it was worth all of the effort. I'd probably rather put sweet soy sauce over a regular hard-boiled egg, and it'd be a lot easier to make.

I ate leftovers of the Evil Jungle Prince, and the chicken had become nice and tender again after marinating in the spicy sauce for a couple of days. Good stuff!

Evil Jungle Prince with Chicken and Vegetables

adapted from Keo's Thai Cuisine Revised by Keo Sananikone (1999)

1/2 pound of boneless chicken cut into small pieces
1/4 pound of zucchini, sliced thin
1 can sliced water chestnuts
6 small red chile peppers
2 kaffir lime leaves
1/2 stalk fresh lemongrass
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 can coconut milk
1 tablespoon fish sauce
15 sweet basil leaves

Grind together chile peppers, lemongrass and kaffir lime leaves in a food processor. Heat oil to medium-high and saute peppers mixture for 3 minutes. Stir in coconut milk and cook for 2 minuntes. Add chicken and vegetables and cook for 5 minutes, or until cooked. Reduce heat to medium-low. Stir in fish sauce and basil.
Tea Eggs

adapted from The Everything Chinese Book by Rhonda Lauret Parkinson (2003)

2 hard-boiled eggs
1/2 cup brewed black tea
peel of two blood oranges (1-2 days old)
2 cinnamon sticks
3 1/2 cups water

Tap each egg very gently with the back of a spoon, until tiny lines form. Try not to actually crack the eggs.

Add eggs, black tea, orange peel, and cinnamon sticks to 3 1/2 cups water to bring to a boil. Simmer, covered, for 2 hours. Turn off the heat, and let the eggs sit in the liquid for a few more hours before serving.