Stir-Fry

Pad Ga-Prao Gai

7:31 AM MC 0 Comments

You can also see the instruction from video below!

 Pad Ga-Prao Gai (literally, stir-fry chicken with Holly basil)

This dish is very common, well-known and popular one dish meal food, and also known as street vendor food. People in Thailand eat this dish as a breakfast, lunch and supper, especially in Bangkok. Bangkok is the center of almost everything – economics and education. Many people, who are, from upcountry, staying away from family and living alone in Bangkok for universities or work, rely on one dish meal food as it is cheaper and easier than cooking at home.

The popular Pad Ga-Prao is with chicken or pork. It is served with steamed rice and commonly comes with a fried egg cooked over-easy and few slices of cucumber to complete a one dish meal.

* If Holly basil is not available, sweet basil or Thai basil can be replaced. 

Preparing and cooking time 30 minutes
Serve 3 – 4     
**** Very hot




Ingredients

2                          Boneless and skinless chicken breast (medium size) about 320 – 350g., chopped into small piece but not ground.
2   cloves             Garlic, crushed
1   tsp                   Soy Sauce
 1⁄6 tsp                   Salt
(Marinate chicken with all ingredients above)
1   cup                  Snake beans or green beans, cut into ¾ inch long.
½                          Onion, cut into ½ inch thick, lengthwish.
50 – 60g               Holy basil (this weight including stems, it's about 1 ½ cup packed leaves)
5                           Fresh Thai chillies (Prik Kee Noo), finely chopped.
2    tbsp                Chilli paste with soya bean oil or Nam Phrik Phao (contain shrimp)
1    tbsp                Soy sauce
4 - 5 tbsp              Vegetable oil
4 – 5 tbsp             water




Instruction

  1. Marinate chicken with garlic, soy sauce and salt.
  2. Set the heat at medium high with a steel wok and add 3 tbsp oil, until the wok is hot.
  3. Add marinated chicken. Break the chicken with the spade of frying pan and stir-fry until chicken is cooked and separated to be pieces, add the rest of oil if the chicken is too dry.
  4. Add chilli paste, and mix well. Add Snake beans or green beans and onion, stir-fry for 1- 2 minutes. Add soy sauce, chilli, and mix well until vegetables are cooked but firm. During this process add water 1 -2 tbsp at a time.
  5. Add Holly basil and mix well. Stir-fry until basil is wilted.
  6. Remove from heat and serve with steamed rice. 

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Stir-Fry

Moo Kra-Tiam Prik-Thai

7:13 AM MC 0 Comments

Moo Kra-Tiam Prik-Thai (literally, pork pan-fried with garlic and peppercorn)

This dish is another popular one dish meal and it is also known as a street vendor food in Thailand. Pork is the only kind of meat for this dish. Actually this dish is used a pan-frying or shear style for cooking as the meat touches the heat individually until parts of the meat are brown.

 Moo Kra-Tiam Prik-Thai is served with steamed rice, few slices of cucumber (and chopped fresh Thai chilli in fish sauce as a condiment) to complete a one dish meal.




Ingredients

300  g                    Pork loin, slice thin into 1 x 2 inches
2  cloves               Garlic, crushed
2  tsp                     Soy Sauce
1  tsp                     Potato Starch
1  tsp                     Sugar
¼ tsp                     Salt
¼ tsp                     Fresh Ground Pepper
3-4 tbsp                Vegetable Oil
1 plant                  Coriander or Green Onion, chopped.

Instruction

  1. Marinate pork with soy sauce, potato starch, sugar and salt.
  2. Heat a steel wok at medium high, add 3 tbsp oil.
  3. When the wok is hot, add marinated pork and separate pork to touch the wok.
  4. Reduce the heat to be medium and pan-fry the pork until each piece and side of the pork cooked and some parts of pork brown.
  5. Add garlic. Stir-fry until garlic is cooked and add fresh ground peppercorn and mix well.
  6. Remove from heat. Garnish with chopped coriander and serve with steamed Jasmine rice and chopped fresh Thai chilli in fish sauce as a comdiment.

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Stir-Fry

Moo Pad Ma Khua Yoaw

9:34 AM MC 0 Comments

Moo Pad Ma Khua Yoaw (literally, Eggplants stir-fry with pork)

This recipe is really homemade style, you can not find from any Thai restaurants as it’s more delicate and carful on the process, and of course its better flavour, you get better result from your effort. Pad Ma Khun Yoaw is one of my family’s favourite dishes. I remember my childhood, my parents liked to use oil from fat Pork for cooking. This dish, the eggplants and pork would be sitting in the oil but the flavour was so good. For this recipe I reduce some amount of oil, you can not see the oil sitting at the bottom of the plate but the flavour is still good. For people who are concerned or have a health issue, can use olive or other vegetable oil instead of oil from pork.



Ingredients

250  g         Pork loin, slice ½ cm x 4 cm. thick.
2  cloves     Garlic, chopped.
1 tsp           Potato Starch
1 tsp           Soy Sauce
A pinch of salt
(Marinate pork and ingredients above)
3                Medium size of Chinese Eggplants, slice into 1 cm. thick.
1                Medium size of Onion, roughly cut (jardinière)
100  g        Thai Basil, leaves.
4                Fresh Thai Chilli (Prik Kee Noo), chopped fine.(medium hot) 
1 ½ tbsp        Soy Sauce
Ground Peppercorn (4-5 turns of a peppercorn mill)
7 - 8 tbsp    Oil

Instruction

  1. Marinate pork with soy sauce, garlic, potato starch and salt. Put aside.
  2. Heat the wok or frying pan on medium high heat with 4 -5 tbsp oil, until the wok or frying pan hot.
  3.  Spread the eggplants all over so that every piece of eggplant can touch the heat,   and reduce heat to medium. Continuing cooking, turn over or toss occasionally, add more oil if the eggplants are too dry, until every piece of eggplants soft (and brown if possible). Remove the eggplants from the wok.
  4. Put 2 tbsp oil in the wok and set the heat back at medium high.
  5. Sear or pan-fry the marinated pork on the hot wok until cooked and some part turn brown (if the pork is too dry you can add more oil).
  6. Add onion into the pork and stir frying until onion is soft.
  7. Add the eggplants and chilli to the pork and onion, stir- fry and mix well. Add the rest of soy sauce and ground peppercorn over the mixture until mix well.
  8. Have a taste (you can add some more soy sauce if you’d like) and add Thai basil leaves before remove from the heat. Serve with steamed rice. 


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Noodles Rice

Pad Kee Mao Noodles with Shrimp

9:08 AM MC 0 Comments

Pad Kee Mao (literally, Drunkard's stir-fried noodles)
Pad Kee Mao Noodles supposed to be very spicy dish as its meaning of the name. “Kee Mao” means a drunkard in Thai, I wonder if Thai people are heavy drinkers or we are like many Asian people who have a low tolerance with alcohol, many people can not control doing things themselves after drinking, this dish is so hot so spicy because from a cook who is very drunk and uncontrollable.

We don’t know who created this dish but I think that person must be very creative and well-imagined.

The process of this dish is pretty much like Pad Si-Yiew which is another stir-fried noodle dish that needs high heat for cooking.

* Fresh flat rice noodles are pretty much available at the Asian grocery stores (and also dry flat rice noodles available at most major supermarkets).  



For 3 servings    ** Medium hot.

Ingredients

550 g                 Fresh Flat Rice Noodles
300 - 350 g.       Shrimp
1                        Medium size of Sweet Red or Green Pepper, cut into 2x5 cm.
1                        Small Carrot, cut lengthwise in half and slice into  1/2cm. thick and 5cm long. Cooked.
                          (or 6-7 Baby corn, cut lengthwise into half)     
1                        Onion (medium), cut lengthwise into 2cm thick.
4 -5                    Fingerroots or Chinese ginger, finely sliced (optional ,depending on availability)
50-60 g              Thai Sweet Basil, leaves. (this weight is including stems, use only leaves)
5                        Fresh Thai Chillis (Prik Kee Noo)
3 cloves             Garlic, roughly cut
1 – 2                  Shallot roughly cut
½ cup                 water (the amount of water depending on the noodles soft or dry)
2  tsp                  Chilli sauce in oil
2  tsp                  Sweet Dark Soy Sauce
2  tbsp                Soy Sauce
½  tbsp               Oyster Sauce
4 – 5                  turns of Fresh Ground peppercorn from pepper mill.
5 – 6 tbsp           Vegetable oil (Need more oil for dry noodles)

Instruction

1.      Soften noodles in microwave for 3 -4 minutes and loosen them to be individual.
2.      Pound fresh chilli, garlic and shallot with a mortar and pestle, until broke and pressed in pieces.
3.      Heat the wok at high and coat the steel wok with 1 - 2 tbsp oil. (if you use a non-stick wok then you don’t have to set the heat at high). Place the noodles in the wok and lower the heat down to medium high. Tossing and turning the noodles over persistently so the noodles will be charcoal and brown totally. Add sweet dark soy sauce and mix well. Keep mixing and tossing a few minutes. Remove noodles from the wok.
4.      Put another 2 tbsp oil into the wok on the medium high heat until the wok is hot, add shrimp, add chilli, garlic and shallot mixture and mix well. Add sweet pepper, onion, carrot (or baby corn), chilli sauce in oil and ground peppercorn, add 1 tbsp soy sauce and stir-fry for 2 - 3 minutes until all mix well.
5.      Add noodles, add the rest of soy sauce and stir-frying on the heat for a few minutes,add some water if noodles are dry(see Pad Si-Yiew instruction), add and fold basil into the mixture. Remove from heat and serve. (You can add some sourness by squeezing a wedge of lime on the noodles on your plate

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Noodles Rice

Pad Si-Yiew Noodles with Chicken

8:58 AM MC 0 Comments

The full  name of this dish is Kway Teow Pad Si-Yiew ( literally, Noodles stir-fry with Soy Sauce)

This Thai-Chinese dish is common, well-known and popular noodle dish, and is one of the most popular street foods in Thailand. This dish is commonly with Pork as Pork is one of Chinese important staple foods so many basic dishes will have pork as an ingredient in Chinese cuisine. You can find this dish at a luxurious restaurant with more expensive ingredients, like shrimp or fancy fish for example.

Really the temperature of the wok is very important for stir-frying cooking, especially this Pad Si-ew noodles, the good favour of the noodles is from a hot steel wok. Actually we don’t use high heat for a whole process; we start with high heat to burn the steel wok, so that the food will not stick on the bottom of the wok, like a non-stick wok. Some people may be afraid to see the wok with smoke, I have a tip here – NEVER put oil in the very hot wok, it may cause a fire. The correct way is put oil when the wok is not really hot yet and after you put oil in the wok the smoke from the oil will tell you that the wok is hot and ready (for cooking).

* Fresh flat rice noodles are pretty much available at the Asian grocery stores and also dry flat rice noodles available at most major supermarkets.




For 4 servings

Ingredients

1                   Skinless Chicken Breast (medium to large size), cut into ¼ - ½ thick x 2 inches long
3  cloves       Garlic, chopped
1  tsp             Soy Sauce
½ - 1 tsp       Sugar
Pinch of Salt
(Chicken marinate with all the ingredients above)
 850 g            Fresh Flat Rice Noodles (with ½ inch wide)
1 lb.               Gai Lan or Chinese Broccoli, cut into 2 inches long and for the stems cut in half lengthwise first. (ordinary broccoli can be replaced if Gai Lan is not available)
3                     Eggs
½ - ¾ cup       Water (can be less or more, depending on the noodles, dry noodles need more water)
3 - 3 ½  tbsp   Soy Sauce
3  tsp               Sweet Dark Soy Sauce
1  tbsp            Sugar
Fresh Ground pepper, 7 – 8 turns from a pepper mill
6 - 7 tbsp         Vegetable oil (for fresh noodles)

You can also follow the instructions from this video.


Instructions
1.      Marinate chicken with garlic, soy sauce, sugar and salt.
2.      Soften noodles in microwave for 3 – 4 minutes and loosen them.
3.      Set the heat on high with a steel wok. Coat the wok with 1 tbsp oil (the fresh noodles have some oil from the manufacturer, if you use dry noodles for this dish, you need more oil), until the wok is hot (smoke coming up from the wok). Place noodles in the wok, turning, tossing and mixing persistently.
4.      Reduce heat to medium high or at no.7, pour dark soy sauce over the noodles and mix well.  Keep stir-frying and turning the noodles to get charcoal or light brown. Remove from heat.
5.      The heat is still at medium or no. 7, put 2 tbsp oil in the wok until oil is hot, add the eggs, use the spade of frying pan cut the eggs into chunks. Remove from wok when eggs totally cooked.
6.      Put 2 tbsp oil in the same wok at no.7 or medium heat until wok is hot, add chicken and pan frying until chicken is cooked, (if the chicken stick to the wok  you can add another 1 tbsp oil). Remove from wok when chicken is cooked.
7.      Put 1 tbsp oil in the same wok, until wok is really hot (for stir-frying vegetable the heat maintain at high all time), add Gai Lan , add 1 tbsp soy sauce and mix well until some parts of Gai Lan are wilted but not really cooked yet. Add noodles, chicken, eggs, sugar, the rest of soy sauce and ground pepper, and mix well. Add water gradually on the wok beside noodles so that water will steam the noodles and noodles will be soft totally, cook until all mix well and have a nice texture (not too dry or too wet).
8.      Remove from heat. Serve with chilli pepper pickle and ground chilli pepper.



Jalapeno Chilli Pickle

Jalapeno Chilli, cut in 1/6 - ¼ inch thick rings
White Vinegar

Instruction
Cover Jalapeno chilli with white vinegar for ½ - 1 hour. And serve as a noodle dish condiment.

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Curries

Panang Gai or Panang Curry with Chicken

11:13 AM MC 0 Comments

Sometimes we don’t want to spend a lot of time on cooking. This recipe is perfect for Thai food lovers, who are busy with work all day long and family after work, to have a nice dish, real Thai food dish with simply cooking.

Panang curry is another common, well-known and popular dish among Thai food. The texture of this dish is pretty much like the butter chicken in Indian food - chicken in creamy thick sauce but Panang is less rich. Panang curry has a very nice scent of the chopped kaffir leaves. The scent of kaffir leaves is really pronouncing a real Thai food.

I have attached a simple salad recipe below which has an oriental flavour and good with this curry.



Preparing and Cooking time 30 minutes
4 -6 servings

Ingredients

4              Skinless Chicken Breasts, cut in chunks
1 can        Panang Curry Paste (114 g.)
1 can        Coconut Milk (560ml.)
2 cloves    Garlic, chopped
1 tsp         Soy Sauce or Fish Sauce
1 tsp         Sugar
1 tbsp       Vegetable Oil
4               Kaffir Leaves, chopped very fine

Instruction

  1. Marinate chicken with garlic and soy sauce.
  2. Heat a pot with oil at medium high. Stir-fry curry paste with oil until you can smell the scent from the air.
  3. Add chicken, stir-frying and mix well. Add coconut milk and sugar.
  4. Reduce heat to medium. Simmer for 20 minutes or until chicken is tender.
  5. Remove from heat. Add chopped kaffir lime leaves and serve with steam Jasmine rice or sticky rice.

Salad

Ingredients

Napa or Chinese Cabbage
Sweet Red Pepper

Salad dressing
Olive Oil
Soy Sauce
Lime Juice
Honey
Ground Pepper
Garlic (optional)

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Noodles Rice

Khao Ob Subparod

6:38 AM MC 0 Comments

Khao Ob Subparod (literally, Pineapple perfumed rice)

Khao Ob Subparod dish has a tropical appearance and sense as it is served in a pineapple shell and also the pineapple is a part of ingredients.
“Ob” in Thai means “Bake and Perfume” in the sense of cooking, and for this dish it means “Perfume”. The process of this dish is like a stir-fried rice dish, and serve in a pineapple shell, (in the same time the hot rice gets the pineapple scent from the pineapple skin that process we call “Ob”. You can warm it in microwave 1 minute before serve to get more pineapple scent). Many Thai dishes, especially sweet things “ob” in a jar with jasmine flowers to get the jasmine flower scent. It is the same idea as “smoke” in the western cooking.

There are two instructions here, one with a clay pot baking and the other one is a stir- fry style. In Thailand we have some dishes bake in a pot (we don’t use an oven for cooking) for example: Goong Ob Wun Sen, Khao Mook Kai and also when I was young my family had a chicken rice with coconut milk dish cooked on the charcoal with a metal pot. It was so good, as it got some charcoal smoke flavour.

Here I have two kinds of instructions; the first one is baking(cook)  in a clay pot and second one is using a stir-fried rice process.



Clay pot baking process

Ingredients

2  cups               Uncooked Jasmine Rice
1  cup                 Pineapple cut in ½ x ½ x ½ inch
1  cup                Carrot cut in ½ x ½ x ½ inch
1                         Medium Onion, chopped
½  cup                Red sweet pepper cut in ½ x ½ inch
200 g                  Ham cut in ½ x ½ x ½ inch
2 1/2 cups          Chicken broth (medium sodium)
1 cup                  Cashew nuts (optional)
2                        Green Onion, cut in a quarter inch
4  cloves            Garlic, chopped
4  tbsp                Oil (I used the fat from ham I got from a local ham and suacesage shop, I had not really ½   cup of fat from ham).
¼  tsp                  Salt (the amount of salt is really depending on how salty the chicken broth is)
¼  tsp                 Fresh Ground Peppercorn

Instruction (clay pot baking process)

     1. Rise the rice one time with water and drain all the water, put aside.

  1. Put 2 tbsp oil into the hot wok at medium high heat, add ½ of chopped garlic, ham and sweet pepper. Stir fry and mix well in 1 – 2 minutes and remove from the wok.
  2. Put another 2 tbsp oil into the wok medium high heat, add garlic, onion and carrot. Stir fry and mix well until onion soft. Add rice and salt, stir fry 1 – 2 minute. Remove from the wok.
  3. Transfer the rice to a clay pot and add chicken broth. Level the rice.
  4. Cook the rice at medium heat on the stove until water dry out, about 13 – 15 minutes.
  5. Reduce heat to medium low (NO. 3). Cook until on the surface of the rice cooked but it is still a little bit white at the middle. Add stir fried ham and sweet pepper and ground peppercorn, and mix well. Stay on heat until the rice totally cooked.
  6. Add pineapple and cashew nuts, mix well.
  7. Remove from heat. Serve on a pineapple shell, garnish with green onion.


Ingredients (stir frying process)

3  cup               Cooked Jasmine Rice
1  cup               Pineapple cut in ½ x ½ x ½ inch
½ cup               Carrot cut in ½ x ½ x ½ inch, cooked
1                      Medium Onion, chopped
½ cup               Red sweet pepper cut in ½ x ½ inch
140 g or 1 cup  Ham cut in ½ x ½ x ½ inch
½ cup               Cashew nuts (optional)
2                      Green Onion, cut in a quarter inch
3 cloves           Garlic, chopped
3-4 tbsp           Oil
1-2 tbsp           Soy Sauce
¼ tsp               Fresh Ground Peppercorn

Instruction

  1. A wok on medium high heat with 2 tbsp oil. Add garlic and onion, stir fry until soft. Add carrot, ham, sweet pepper; stir fry for a few minutes.
  2. Add Rice into the mixture, stir fry and mix well.  Add ground pepper and soy sauce stir fry for another 1-2 minutes. Add pineapple and cashew nuts, mix well.
  3. Remove from heat. Serve with a pineapple shell (warm in a microwave for 1 minute before serve to get more pineapple scent, if desire)and garnish with green onion.

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Grill Roast

Nam Prik Jaew

6:12 AM MC 0 Comments

Nam Prik Jaew (literally, Chili sauce) is a Dip, "Nam Prik" means a Dip dish in Central Thai and "Jaew" also means a Dip dish in Isan or Northeastern Thai.

This spicy, sweet and sour tamarind sauce is original from North-Eastern Thai cuisine or Isan (in Thai). North Eastern of Thailand is the biggest part of the country and also is the driest place in the country too. Most people do farming and their lives rely on water from the rain (some problems have been solved after we had had the dams). Their lives haven’t been easy so lots of people from Isan migrate to other parts of the country (to be a cheap labour, especially in Bangkok) and also after harvesting the crops, they will go to Bangkok to work as the taxi drivers, in the same time they bring their food with them. There are many Isan dishes become popular and well known for example Papaya Salad, Lab, Sticky Rice, Grilled Chicken and etc.

Why is Isan cuisine so popular? If you ask Isan people or North Eastern Thais they will answer “because it’s “Sab or Sab - E – Lee”, meaning is “yummy”.



Ingredients

½  cup       of thick liquid from (100 g of Tamarind (1/2 cake of tamarind from 200g package) and 1 cup of Water)
½  cake      Palm Sugar (see the image on Herbs page)
6  tbsp       Water or chicken broth
5-6 tbsp     Pan Dripping
2  tbsp        Fish Sauce
2 tbsp         Lime juice
3 tbsp        Ground Roasted Sticky Rice
1 tsp          Thai Roasted Ground Chilli pepper (you can adjust the amount of chilli, some chillies are very hot and some not if you use different kind of chilli).
2                Shallots, chopped (optional)
2                Green Onion, cut a quarter inch long.

Instruction

1  Soak tamarind in water (1cup), (see the image) until tamarind is soft and becomes thick liquid. Discard seeds and pods, we need only ½ cup of the liquid.



2. Put ½ tamarind liquid in a pot on medium high heat, add water or chicken broth, pan dripping and fish sauce bring to boil until palm sugar milted.
3.  Remove from heat, add lime juice, ground chilli pepper and ground roasted sticky rice.
4.  Have a taste if needs to be added some more fish sauce, lime juice or sugar to suit you favour.
5.  Add green onion and serve with grilled chicken or turkey.

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Curries

Thai Green Curry with Chicken

10:37 AM MC 0 Comments

In Thailand we can find the green curry dish almost everywhere from street food vendors to high restaurants, and all kind of celebration parties and this dish also available at every Thai restaurants out side Thailand too.

If you’d like to serve the green curry with Roti or Paratha then the curry should be thick - you can skip the water. For more aroma of Thai taste, add the Kaffir Lime leave just before serving.  The best way to cut or chop Kaffir Lime leave finely is that – stack and fold the leave tightly and then cut.

* Freozen plain flat Roti or Paratha dough is available at Asian grocery stores.



for 3 – 4 serving

Ingredients

200 g.          Skinless Chicken breast cut in ½” thick 2” long or slice ¼” thick 2” long Pork loin
1                  clove Garlic, chopped
1  tsp            Soy sauce
¼  tsp            Salt
1                   Zucchini cut in chunks
1                   Medium size of red or green pepper cut in chunks
1  can            400ml. of Coconut Milk
5  tbsp           Curry Paste (see recipe)
1  tbsp           Vegetable oil
½  Cup          Water (optional)
2   tsp              Fish sauce
½  tsp             Sugar
3  stems          of Sweet Thai Basil leaves
3-4                  Kaffir Lime Leaves, chopped very fine.

Instruction

1.   Marinate Chicken at least half an hour with garlic, soy sauce and salt.
2.   Put vegetable oil in a frying pan or a pot until hot in medium high heat.
3.   Stir-fry curry paste in oil and then add chicken into curry paste mix well.
4.   Add half of coconut milk, simmer the pork or chicken in medium heat until tender.
5.   Add zucchini and red or green pepper and add the other half of coconut milk and water.
6 .  Add fish sauce and sugar for taste. Simmer until vegetables cooked but are still firm.
7.   Have a taste, you can adjust the saltiness, sweetness suit your favor.
8.   Add sweet basil and mix well.
9.   Remove from heat and add Kaffir Lime leaves.  Serve with Roti, steam rice or sticky rice, and or vermicelli rice noodles.

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Curries

Thai Green Curry Paste

10:19 AM MC 0 Comments

Green Curry is the most well known and popular curry in and out of Thailand. The method of making Green Curry Paste is the same as Red Curry Paste, except a few ingredients are different.

As for Thai cuisine using fresh ingredients, is the key of Thai food, produce the real aroma. Original the greenish colour in green curry is from Prik Kee Noo leaves (Thai chilli)(see herbs), they have a mild favour. People grow herbs, chilli and other vegetables in front or back yard of a house, it is called “Pak Suen Krua or Home Vegetable Garden” so the chilli leaves are always available. In this recipe we use coriander leaves instead. They will not change the favour of the curry as the Coriander roots are part of the ingredients of Green Curry Paste.




Ingredients

3 tsp         roasted Coriander seeds
3 tsp         roasted white peppercorn
3 tsp         roasted cumin
100 g        whole Coriander plants(including roots), chopped
150 g        Galangal, slice very thin
9              Lemongrass (cut off the top part and the bottom hard part remain 6” long and strip 2-3 the outer leaves), slice very thin
80 g          Fresh Thai green chillies, chopped
6              Kaffir limes, peel only green part of skin
10 cloves  Garlic, chopped
6               Shallots, chopped
3 tbsp       Shrimp paste, roasted
2 tsp         Salt
½ cups      Vegetable Oil

Instruction

1.  ground roasted coriander seeds, roasted white peppercorn and roasted cumin with mortar and pestle. Put aside.
2.  Mix all ingredients in a bowl.
3.  Pound the mixer small amount each time in a mortar and pestle and add oil and the rest of ingredients until finish and the mixture becomes smooth paste. (This process can be done by a food processer)
4. Divide and contain in the ziplock bags and freeze or for cooking. (see some tips at Red Curry Paste page)

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Appetizers

Money Bags ( Tung Ngern and Tung Thong)

8:56 AM MC 0 Comments

This recipe is slightly adjusted from the original one – one of the ingredients from the original one is pork but I use cream cheese instead but if you’d like to try the original one then you can just use ground fat pork and add ½ tsp corn starch other than that everything is the same. And for the wrappers you can use dumpling wrappers or spring roll pastry which you can find them easily at the Asian grocery stores. 


Tung Ngern and Tung Thong, from spring roll wrappers


These Money Bags are from the Dumpling wrappers

For 35 – 40  pieces

Ingredients

35-40 pieces Dumpling wraps or Spring Roll pastry
Oil for deep frying

Filling
120 g.        Ground Chicken
50  g.         Cream Cheese (or ground fat pork, and ½ tsp corn starch for the original recipe)
¼ cup        Carrot diced cube in ¼”
5               Water Chestnuts,(cooked or from a can) diced cube in ¼”
2               Green Onion, only white part chopped
1 clove      Garlic, chopped fine
3               Coriander roots with the green stems, chopped fine.
¼ tsp         Ground white pepper
 ½ tsp        Soy sauce
½ tsp         salt

Instruction

1.Mix chicken with soy sauce and garlic well.
2.Add carrot diced, water chestnut diced, green onion, coriander root chopped, salt , ground pepper and cream cheese. Mix well.
3.Wet the edges of the wrappers and place a small portion(about one teaspoon) of the filling into the middle of  each wrapper. Fold and pinch the edges to seal. Continue with the remainder of the filling and wrappers.
4. Deep-fry the dumplings over medium heat for about 2 to 3 minutes or until they are light golden brown in color. Drain on a paper towel. Serve with Plum sauce.
  

Plum Sauce
You can get Plum sauce in a jar at an Asian grocery store. It is pretty thick and sweet. You can make it thinner with some water and vinegar.

¼ cup        Plum Sauce
2 tbsp        Water
1 tbsp        White Vinegar(optional if you like more sour sauce)
Pinch of Salt

Mix all well on the heat.







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Stir-Fry

Gai Pad Med Ma-Muang

10:52 AM MC 0 Comments

The full name of this dish is Gai Pad Med Ma-Muang Hima-Pan. Gai Pad Med Ma-Muang (literally, Chicken stir-frys with cashew nuts)

This dish is like many Thai dishes that we adopted from Chinese cuisine, it is original from high end Chinese restaurants, serve in a crispy deep fried bird nest. The bird nest is made from shredded Taro. This dish and North American Chinese sweet and sour pork were the same dish – one of Cantonese Chinese dishes.




Ingredients

200 g              Chicken breast, boneless and skinless, cut in ½ inch thick and 2inches long.
1 cup              Flour
½                   Onion, cut in 1 inch thick.
15                   Water Chestnuts (cooked or from a can)
1 cup              Roasted Cashew Nuts
1 cup              Pineapple cut in chunks.
7                     Thai Dry Chilli Peppers, deep fried
1 tbsp              Oyster sauce
1 tbsp              Tomato sauce
1 - 2 tbsp         Water
3 cloves           Garlic, chopped
1 tsp                Sugar
1 tbsp              Soya sauce
1 tbsp              Sesame Oil
2                     Green onion, cut in 1 ¼ inches long.
½                    Red sweet peppers, cut in ½ x 1 ½ inches long.
1½ cups and 2 tbsp Oil for frying and stir-frying

Instruction

1. Heat oil in a frying pan at medium high heat until hot.
2. Coat chicken in flour totally but not thick.
3. Fry chicken in oil until golden, remove chicken from oil and put them on paper towel.
4. Another pan. Heat the pan with 2 tbsp oil at medium high heat. Add garlic stir-fry until golden (low the heat down to medium high after put oil and added garlic if you use steel wok ,but if you use none-stick wok you can start with medium high heat), add chestnuts, onion stir-frying until mix well about 1 min., add tomato sauce, soya sauce, oyster sauce and sesame oil mix well and then add 1-2 tbsp water, stir-frying another 1-2 min. and add chicken, roasted cashew nuts, fried dry chilli peppers and red sweet peppers, stir-frying another 1-2 min or mix well, turn the heat off, add green onion. And serve.

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Curries

Thai Red Curry Paste

9:18 AM MC 0 Comments

In the past, you could hear the pestle and mortar pounding sound making curry paste everyday from your neighbours in Thailand but these days many people buy the curry paste from a market in stead which is convenient for contemporary lifestyles. Definitely the freshness and quality are not the same as you make your own.   This homemade fresh Red Curry Paste is from fresh ingredients. All ingredients you can find at Asian groceries, the fresh ingredients product the real aroma and good favour.

This recipe is for 4 – 5 batches. You can divide and contain in the small ziplock bags and freeze them for many months.



Ingredients

3  tsp            Roasted Coriander seeds
3  tsp            Roasted white peppercorn
3  tsp            Roasted Cumin
1                   Turmeric Root, about 2" long, chopped (or 2 tsp ground Turmeric)
30                 Coriander Roots including 2"green stems from the roots, chopped
150 g            Galangal, slice very thin
9                   Lemongrass(cut off the top part and the bottom hard part remain 6” long and strip 2-3 the outer leaves), slice very thin

18                 big dry red chillies, soak in warm water until soft  and chopped
80 g              Fresh Thai Red Chillies, chopped
6                   Kaffir limes, use only rind
10 cloves      Garlic, chopped
6                    Shallots, chopped
3  tbsp           Shrimp Paste, roasted (wrapp and roast in foil)
2  tsp             Salt
½ cups           Vegetable Oil

Instruction

1.  ground roasted coriander seeds, roasted white peppercorn and roasted cumin with mortar and pestle. Put aside.
2.  Mix all ingredients in a bowl.
3.  Pound the mixer small amount each time in a mortar and pestle and add oil and the rest until smooth and paste like. (This process can be done by food processer)

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Soups

Tom Yam Goong (Thai Spicy and Sour Soup with Shrimp)

11:05 AM MC 0 Comments

Tom Yam, Thai Spicy Sour Soup is the most well-known and popular Thai soup in Thailand and all over the world from street venders in Bangkok to high-end restaurants. The scent of Thai herbs and the favour of sweet, sour and spiciness are combined in this soup.


For 4 servings

Ingredients

5   cups       Chicken stock (one whole chicken bone, 6 cups of water and ½ tsp salt)
24               Shrimp (size 34-40/lb.)
10               White Mushrooms, slice
2                 Lemongrass slice in 11/2” long
1                 Galangal 4” long or 2 pieces 2” long, slice ¼” thick
12               Kaffir Lime Leaves
3                 Thai red chillies (you can adjust the amount of chilli)
3   tsp           (3 round teaspoon full) Nam Prik Poa (or in English Chilli Paste with Soya Bean Oil)
6-7 tsp        Lime juice
4   tsp         Fish Sauce (you can adjust the amount of fish sauce more or less depending on the saltiness of the chicken stock)

Garnish
1  Coriander (plant) chopped
4  Kaffir Lime Leaves stack and roll and then slice and chop very small pieces

Instruction
Usually I will keep the roasted chicken bones for chicken stock if I make a roasted chicken.

  1. Put chicken bones, water and salt to boil and simmer for 2 hours. Discard bones with a Sieve.
  2. Put chicken stock on the heat until boiling.
  3. Add lemongrass, galangal and kaffir leaves until boil.
  4. Add shrimp, mushroom, fresh chilli and chilli paste until boil.
  5. Add lime juice and fish sauce, have a taste – you can adjust the favour to your taste.
  6. Remove from the heat. Serve and garnish with chopped coriander and kaffir lime leaves.

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