I had a small bit of ground pork from the test kitchen.
I had chickpeas I'd cooked a few days ago.
Thai basil in the garden.
Homemade habanero hot sauce..
Onions and garlic and Thai green curry paste are always on hand.
Can you see where I'm going?
I sautéed a chopped onion. Then added the pork and sautéed until no longer pink. Then in went the chickpeas. Then I added chopped garlic, 1/3 C homemade chicken stock, 2 T great Thai green curry paste, a few dashes each of fish sauce and soy sauce, a splash of my habanero hot sauce (http://www.thisoldchef.com/blog.html/habaeros/), a pinch of brown sugar... and let all of this simmer away. When it tasted "ready," I added another splash of fish sauce.
On hot plates, I arranged a ring of rice, filled the middle with the pork mixture, scattered julienned Thai basil on the rice, and topped the whole thing with crushed peanuts and lime zest.
Wow. Not remotely authentic, but wildly flavorful... using all sorts of Thai ingredients and tastes.
We were very, very happy.
PS. Proportions are not set in stone... that's why I hardly gave any!!! Play around. And even if something, like chickpeas, isn't really in the lexicon, and you want it... Try it!
I feel that way about lots of rules. If you want white wine with your steak... DO IT. If you want some cheese on your seafood pasta... DO IT. I wouldn't suggest fish sauce on ice cream, but... if you want it...
Get my drift?
PPS. We learned afterwards that there is no "ñ" in "habanero." Lo siento mucho.