This spring, Kittigron Lertpanaruk of local chain Spice and SEA restaurant in New York City added another restaurant to his portfolio with the opening of Nora Thai in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.
Located in the former Qi and Sripaphai space on North 9th Street, Lertpanaruk (more familiarly known as “Kuhn Oh”) brings forth cuisine of his native Nakhon Si Thammarat province, located on the Gulf of Thailand and on the east side of the Malay Peninsula in southern Thailand. In this region, heat is the name of the game. Some of the common dishes found in the area, like gaeng cua (black pepper curry), cua kreang (dried curry) and gaeng tai plah (salted fish paste curry), can all be found on the menu at Nora Thai.
Pad sator goong, aka, salted sator bean dish, also graces the Nora Thai menu. Here, sator beans—also called stink beans or parkia speciosa, as they’re referred to in Thailand—are sautéed with Thai chiles, garlic, bell peppers, oyster sauce and ground pork. Though the Nora Thai team sources the beans from local specialty Asian markets in Chinatown, lima beans make a fine substitute.
Bring the cuisine of southern Thailand to your home via Nora Thai’s recipe.
Pad Sator Goong
(Salted Sator Bean Dish)Recipe courtesy of Nora Thai, Brooklyn, New York
Serves 2
Ingredients
4 ounces fresh sator beans, husked
kosher salt
2 ounces cooking oil
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 teaspoon minced fresh Thai chile
8 large tail-on shrimp
4 ounces chicken stock
3/4 cup chopped white onion
1/2 cup sliced red bell pepper
1 tablespoon oyster sauce
1 teaspoon fish sauce
1/2 tablespoon granulated sugar
Method
1. Clean the beans lightly in a bath of ice cold salt water; rinse, drain and set aside.
2. Heat the oil in a wok or large saucepan over medium heat; add the garlic and Thai chile and stir for 5 seconds. Add the shrimp and cook until they are just starting to turn red, 5 to 10 seconds. Add the chicken stock, onion, bell pepper, oyster sauce, fish sauce, sugar, and reserved beans; season with salt, increase heat to high and cook for 10 seconds.
3. Turn off heat and serve immediately.
Photos by Pratya Jangkong.
