Archive for the ‘: THAI’ Category
Chicken & Thai Basil
This is an easy Thai dish that goes together quickly and is delicious, spiciness comes from green Bird's Eye Chilies and Thai Basil, and is delicious!
Ingredients
- 2 chicken breasts, boneless, skinless
- 20 green Bird's Eye chilies
- 4-5 cloves garlic, peeled
- soy sauce, as desired
- 1 handful fresh Thai Basil leaves
- cooking oil, as needed
- cooked rice, for serving
Instructions
- Slice the chicken breasts into small pieces, set aside. Add the chilies and garlic to a mortar and mash with a pestle.
- In a large non stick pan (we use a marble wok pan) on medium to medium high heat, a tablespoon or so of cooking oil, when hot, add the chicken and chili garlic mixture. Saute until the chicken has mostly turned white, a little bit of pink here and there is no problem. Season with a splash of soy sauce as desired.
- Add the Thai basil and stir into the chicken.
- When the basil is wilted, cover the pan and turn off the heat. Now you can get the bowls and rice ready to serve.
- Remove the lid from the pan, give the chicken a stir and pour the chicken into a serving bowl. Serve family style in the center of the table and people can just take and enjoy what they want.
Notes
Low cost per serving. Depending on the sides, this is 2-3 servings.
Recipe provided and cooked by my wife, Rrayada Thayer.
Thailand.
Thailand.
Chicken Satay
This is an original satay mix for chicken provided by a good friend. Her and her husband follow no recipes when they cook, so they had to endure two days in a row of this tasty sounding satay in order to write the rough measurements down so I can share her 'recipe' here. From the author of this, "this is a guide, feel free to increase, decrease amounts of items, tailor it to make it your own." And as I like to say, a recipe is not set in stone.
Ingredients
- 1/3 cup coconut milk
- 5 tablespoons creamy peanut butter
- 2 teaspoons ground cumin
- 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper, or to taste
- 1/2 teaspoon lime juice
- 1/2 teaspoon lime zest
- 1 teaspoon sugar, or to taste
- 500 grams chicken breast, boneless, skinless, (1 lb)
- wood skewers, as needed
- vegetable oil, as needed
Instructions
- In a mixing bowl, add the coconut milk and peanut butter and mix together. If it is too stiff, add bit more coconut milk, and if too thin, you guessed it, add a bit more peanut butter.
- Now add the cumin, cayenne, lime juice, and zest and mix together. Taste and add mix in the sugar to counter the lime if the lime is too strong.
- Slice the chicken breasts lengthwise into 1/2 inch thick strips.
- Add the chicken strips to satay mix, and mix together until all the chicken is coated. Cover the bowl and place in the fridge to marinate for at least 1 hour, and over night is highly recommended.
- When you are ready to cook, light your grill (charcoal or gas), you will be direct cooking over medium heat, about 350-450 F. Soak the wood skewers in water for about 30 minutes.
- Remove the chicken from the satay mix and brush off excess satay mix. Thread the strips onto skewers. Brush the chicken with vegetable oil.
- Grill the skewers for about 8-10 minutes, turning once, with the lid closed.
- Serve with sides of your choice.
Notes
Chicken is low cost.
Variants: 1. Use half of the mix (marinade) mixed with the chicken, and the other half heated in a small saucepan for a dipping sauce, OR, what I will do, is make one batch for the marinade, and another batch for the dipping sauce, problem solved). 2. This marinade works well on pork, shrimp/prawn, and even rabbit. 3. This works well on very dense/firm fish, on salmon it is excellent. This does NOT work well with average white fish and is NOT recommended. 4. For shrimp/prawn, clean as you would, remove shell, tail, devein, marinate in the mix.
Pork Rib Curry II
This is another version of pork rib curry, this will use young kaffir lime leaves, they have to be the tender ones as they are eaten. Many ways to prepare this each time to make it different and by regional areas as well. This is a spicy version.
Ingredients
- 1 kilo pork ribs, (2 lbs)
- 2-3 handfuls young kaffir lime leaves
- 1-2 handfuls Thai basil leaves
- 1/4 cup red chili paste
- 2 tablespoons shrimp paste
- pork broth, as needed, you make this during the cooking
- salt, to taste, as desired
Instructions
- Rinse the strip of ribs and cut between each bone.
- Place ribs in a pot and cover with about 2 inches of water and bring to a boil then reduce heat to a low boil. Cook the ribs for about 30 to 40 minutes. Use a large spoon and skim off any foam. You are making a basic pork broth and the ribs will be nice and tender.
- While the ribs are cooking, prep the kaffir lime leaves, rinse them, makes sure all are tender, and just roughly tear them up.
- Pull the basil leaves from the stems, rinse, and squeeze out the excess water.
- When the ribs have cooked 30-40 minutes and are good and tender, you can turn them off. Place another pot on the stove, add the red chili paste and shrimp paste.
- Now ladle in some of the pork broth from the cooked ribs, about 1 1/2 to 2 cups.
- Stir and mash the pastes into the broth until you get a nice smooth curry. There, you just made a standard red Thai curry.
- Use a slotted spoon and scoop out the ribs from the first pot and place into the curry.
- Stir the ribs into the curry, and turn the heat on to bring to a low boil.
- Add the Thai basil.
- Stir and let the basil completely wilt and mix into the curry.
- Add the kaffir lime leaves.
- Stir the lime leaves in, turn off the heat, and pour into a large serving dish, serve family style with plenty of rice.
Notes
Low cost per serving.
Recipe provided and cooked by my wife, Rrayada Thayer.
Thailand.
Thailand.
Pork Rib Soup with Winter Melon
This is a Thai, non spicy soup, that is common in the rural areas due to the melon being very common and low cost. It is delicious yet so simple to make. There is many ways to make pork rib soup, this one uses winter melon. The melon, called Fock in Thai, is often grown in peoples yards, and readily available in local markets for low cost, so the only items to purchase are large shallots and pork ribs.
Ingredients
- 1 kilo pork ribs, (2 lbs)
- 1 large winter melon
- 2 large shallots
- salt, to taste, as desired
Instructions
- Rinse the strip of ribs and cut between each bone.
- Place ribs in a pot and cover with about 2 inches of water and bring to a boil then reduce heat to a low boil. Cook the ribs for about 30 to 40 minutes. Use a large spoon and skim off any foam. You are making a basic pork broth and the ribs will be nice and tender.
- While the ribs are cooking, prep the winter melon by peeling it first. slice off each end. Cut the melon in half lengthwise, use a spoon and scrape out the seeds, then cut each half into 2-3 long slices as well. Chop the long slices into about 1 inch pieces.
- This is what a winter melon looks like, you will want to peel it before you cut it apart. Winter melon is also known as wax melon and ash gourd.
- Prep the large shallots, trim of each end, peel, then quarter. Use a heavy pestle, rolling pin, or meat tenderizer and smash the quarters, this does two things, releases the liquid in the shallots, and keeps the pieces large, as a diced shallot would simply disappear in the soup during cooking. This photo shows our tool of choice for this, a 3 lb granite pestle.
- Add the shallot to the pot between 30 and 40 minutes into cooking, leave on a low boil for another 5-10 minutes. Taste the broth and season with salt as desired.
- Add the winter melon and cook on a low boil for about 20 minutes or until the melon is tender. Taste the broth and season with salt as desired.
- Typically served family style in a large serving bowl in the center of the table, and people have a bowl of rice, they scoop out some ribs, melon, and broth over their rice.
Notes
Low cost per serving.
Recipe provided and cooked by my wife, Rrayada Thayer.
Thailand.
Thailand.
Tom Yum Teen Gai
One of the most popular soups in Thailand is Tom Yum, and the most popular with tourists is Tom Yum Goong, goong is shrimp in Thai. This is a spicy and sour soup, the name comes from 'tom' meaning the boiling of the soup, and 'yum' meaning the spicy sour aspect of it. This recipe is for Tom Yum Teen Gai, 'teen' meaning feet, and 'gai' meaning chicken. No set amounts with this, which is typical in Thai cooking, but taste and adjust seasonings as you go. This is NOT a soup for those with acid reflux. There is many ways to season this, this is how my brother in law prepared it, and he is an excellent cook. Some families do not share their 'secret ingredients' to anyone, even in their own family.
Ingredients
- 500-1000 grams chicken feet, scrubbed and trimmed, (about 1 to 2 lbs)
- 3-4 stalks lemongrass
- 6-8 cloves garlic, peeled and smashed
- 3-5 shallots, peeled and quartered
- handful fresh kaffir lime leaves, young leaves are best
- 20-30 Bird's Eye Chilies, pounded in a mortar
- 10-15 cherry tomatoes, whole, or 3-4 plum tomatoes quartered
- 1-2 handfuls fresh mushrooms, straw, oyster, or white crab works well
- 10-15 small limes, halved, you will juice these later
- salt, as needed to taste
- MSG, as needed to taste, totally optional
- fish sauce, as needed to taste
- sugar, as needed to taste
- water, as needed
Instructions
- Place the cleaned and rinsed chicken feet in a pot and add water to cover by about 2 inches. Pound the bundle of lemongrass with a pestle or the flat side of a meat tenderizer, tie the bundle into an overhand knot, add to the pot. Add the garlic, shallots, and lime leaves to the pot. Bring to a boil then reduce the heat to a low boil. The Tom part of the name is the boiling process, as this soup is on a low boil the entire time while cooking. Let the feet cook for about 20-30 minutes.
- While the feet are cooking, add the chilies to a mortar and pound them to get them all crushed, not looking for a paste, just well crushed.
- This will give you the idea on how many chilies to use.
- When the feet are good and tender, add the tomatoes, mushrooms (white crab were used in this), chilies from the mortar, and squeeze in the juice from about 5 limes (squeeze into a cupped hand, juice will go into the soup, seeds stay in your hand). Pot is still on a low boil.
- Stir in a spoon of sugar and a couple of splashes of fish sauce. Still boiling.
- Taste and adjust salt, fish sauce, lime juice, and MSG if using, to your liking. Continue to gently boil the soup and taste again about 10 minutes later and adjust as needed. Goal is sour but with the distinct spiciness from the chilies. (Here it is finally turned off and a serving bowl ladled out.)
- Ladle into a serving bowl and serve family style just letting people spoon out what they want.
Notes
Low cost.
Prepared by my brother in law who is an excellent cook.
Thailand.
Thailand.
Sauteed King Oyster Mushrooms
This is a simple and easy recipe, 4 ingredients, and this is for smaller King Oyster mushrooms, as they are more tender than the larger ones. King Oyster mushrooms have more of a texture than other mushrooms. No servings or quantities or times are given as this is a make with what you have or want to serve as a side dish. Link to the Shortcut is listed in the Recipe Notes section.
Ingredients
- King Oyster mushrooms, smaller would be better for this
- cooking oil, your choice, I use Ghee, (Shortcut)
- salt and pepper, as desired
Instructions
- Cut of the root end of the mushrooms if not done when purchased and give them a quick rinse. This amount here makes 2 servings. These are the prefect size for this dish.
- Slice each mushroom lengthwise, about 1/4 inch thick.
- The smaller ones on the left simple cut in half lengthwise, the ones on the right were cut into 3 slices.
- Heat about 2 tablespoons of oil of your choice, ghee is highly recommended, in a non stick pan on medium heat. When hot add the mushrooms. Season with salt and pepper as desired.
- Turn the mushrooms after allowing them to cook for a few minutes. The mushrooms will release a little water as well, and the key to nice and tender and juicy mushrooms is to keep oil in the pan, don't let the mushrooms dry out.
- Turn often, and add a bit of oil as they cook down, edges are starting to brown. Season with additional black pepper if desired.
- Perfect mushrooms.
- Serve as a side dish with any meal.
Notes
Low cost per serving.
Shortcut: Homemade Ghee (Slow Cooker).
Variant: 1. Add a few sliced red Bird's Eye chilies with the mushrooms.
Common way to prepare King Oyster mushrooms. No secrets to this.
Soup Fixings in a Bag
This is a Thai thing and throughout Asia, and I am assuming a product like this is available in the US. Many village markets will have the 'fixings' in a bag, you add meat to make broth, add the contents of the bag, and you have a nice soup. Instead of buying the fixings separately, some vendors buy all the various ingredients, assemble the bags, and everything is used. They make stir fry bags the same way. And the beauty of these bags is the price, just 15 Baht (46 cents) or 25 Baht (78 cents) with the egg tofu tube.
Ingredients
- 1 bag soup fixings
- meat, of choice, pork, chicken, and fish is commonly used
- broth
- 1 tube egg tofu, optional (it may or may not be in the bag)
- salt, as desired, to taste
Instructions
The Soup Fixings
- This is a typical bag of soup fixings. This contains bok choi, carrot, pumpkin, mushrooms (Enoki, Oyster, or Ear Wood), bottle gourd, and winter melon. The ingredients vary by who is putting this together, many folks have their own types of flavors they add which makes soup bags different from village to village, or stall to stall in a market. Many of the bags will also contain a tube of egg tofu, which will increase the price of the bag by 10 Baht.
- Remove the tube of egg tofu from the soup fixings bag, and add the soup fixings to a colander and give that a quick rinse. To use the egg tofu, slice off one end of the tube and pinch the other end and the tofu will slide right out. Slice the tofu into about 1/2 inch slices, set that aside.
Using Chicken, Pork, or even Sausage
- For chicken, cut several breasts into cubes or even boneless thighs. For pork ribs, cut the ribs between each bone, for pork shoulder, just cut into cubes. Pork loin may be a bit to lean for a soup. For sausage, just slice into 1/2 - 3/4 inch pieces. Amount is up to you, 250-500 grams (1/2 - 1 lb) is a good choice.
- Add the meat to a pot and add 1 quart of water and more if needed to cover the meat by an inch or so. Bring the pot to a boil and hold that for about 2-3 minutes.
- When the water is boiling in the pot, there, you are making the soup broth, see, very easy, then add the rinsed soup fixings but not the tofu. Reduce heat to a simmer and cook until the carrot is tender and meat of your choice is cooked through.
Using Fish, Shrimp, and or Imitation Crab
- You can use any boneless skinless whitefish of your choice, cut into bite size pieces. For shrimp, peel, devein, and remove the tails. For imitation crab, just remove the packaging wrappers and cut into 1 inch pieces.
- Heat about a quart of water to a boil with two broth cubes, either vegetable or mushroom cubes work well.
- Once the water is at a boil, add the rinsed soup fixings, reduce to a simmer until the carrot is just tender, then add the fish, shrimp, and or imitation crab. Simmer until the fish flakes easily, just a few minutes. This can be served as a main dish as is, with rice on the side, or as a side dish.
Broth or Stock without Meat
- Simply add about a quart of broth or stock, chicken, pork, vegetable, mushroom, or even bean broth to a pot and bring to a boil.
- Once the water is at a boil, add the rinsed soup fixings, reduce to a simmer until the carrot is just tender. This can be served as a main dish as is, with rice on the side, or as a side dish.
Notes
Low cost per serving.
Commonly used throughout Thailand and Asia.
Fish in Coconut Milk
This is a quick recipe with minimum ingredients. Nothing short of an excellent way to prepare white fish! I made this on 8 Dec 2018 and used two large Pangasius fillets, my wife and I really loved this, this will be a regular for sure now. Link to the Shortcut is listed in the Recipe Notes section.
Ingredients
- 2-3 whitefish fillets
- 1/2 cup fine bread crumbs, (Shortcut)
- 1/2 - 1 teaspoon paprika
- 4 tablespoons butter
- 1 1/2 cups coconut milk, or to cover
- fresh parsley, chopped, as desired
Instructions
- For the fish, good choices in Thailand would be Pangasius (Shark Catfish), Barramundi, and Tilapia. For those in the US / Canada, good choices can be Tilapia, catfish, whitefish, bass, drum, cod, grouper, snapper, redfish, etc.
- Rinse the fillets, don't dry them, and to make them easier to manage in a pan, cut each fillet in half crosswise to make 2 smaller fillets.
- Mix together the bread crumbs and paprika in a shallow bowl. Roll the fillets in the crumbs to coat them well. I used two large fillets, each cut in half to make 4 pieces, easier to manage.
- Heat the butter in a large non stick pan on medium heat. In a separate saucepan, heat the coconut milk to a near boil.
- When the butter is hot, brown the fillets on each side, work in batches if needed, then when all are browned, return all the fillets to the pan.
- By this time, the coconut milk should be at a near boil, or boiling, pour that evenly over the fish in the pan. The fish should be covered or near covered, let this simmer for 3-4 minutes, the fish should easily flake with a fork.
- Sprinkle with parsley as desired and serve.
Notes
Low cost per serving.
Shortcut: Bread Crumbs.
Recipe adapted from Just A Pinch Recipe Club, Martha Price, and the original recipe is here.
United States.
United States.
Basic Stir Fried Mushrooms
This is just a basic guide. I used two types of mushrooms which I had on hand and needed to use, and quick, but you can use any mushrooms, any amounts you want. The sauce is key for a good mushroom stir fry, no amounts given this is a taste as you go guide. If you have no mushroom sauce, worries, just use Soy and Oyster Sauces. Enjoy.
Ingredients
- 110 grams fresh white button mushrooms, (3 3/4 oz)
- 100 grams fresh Shimeji mushrooms, (3 1/2 oz)
- olive oil, as needed
- soy sauce, as needed
- oyster sauce, as needed
- mushroom sauce, as needed
Instructions
- Here is the mushrooms I used. Finally found a place that has local grown white button mushrooms. The other package is Shimeji mushrooms.
- The mushrooms are rinsed and excess water shaken off. The buttons were halved and the larger ones quartered. The Shimeji, the root end of the bunch cut off and discarded, and the bundle just cut in half and separated.
- Heat a non stick pan with a tablespoon of olive oil, when hot, add the mushrooms. Cook, stirring often until wilted and their water is released. Takes just a few minutes.
- Sauces used, left to right, Oyster Sauce, Mushroom Sauce, and Light Soy Sauce.
- When the mushrooms have cooked down, now you add the seasoning, the sauces. Just add a splash of each sauce, stir fry to mix, taste, and adjust the sauces as desired. Soy sauce being the salt aspect, Oyster sauce will be the important sauce to adjust. You basically cannot go wrong with this.
- Serve as side with any dish, in this case, fried Pomfret and white beans with bell peppers.
Notes
Low cost per serving.
I just winged this knowing what sauces to use. Lee Thayer.
Thailand.
Thailand.
Lime & Lemongrass Fried Chicken
This recipe uses a marinade and seasoned flour packet available in Thailand, Lobo brand. This may be available in the US/Canada in Asian markets or through Amazon. This seasoning pack has no added MSG or preservatives, and is very reasonable priced, just under $1 per packet (30 Baht). This has a little heat to it as this does contain Thai chili powder, in the marinade and seasoned flour, but excellent flavor!
Ingredients
- 1 packet Lime & Lemongrass Seasoning, Lobo brand
- 1 kilo chicken pieces, wings, legs, thighs, breasts
- cooking oil, as needed
Instructions
- Here is what the packet looks like, there is two sections.
- And separated, there is a serrated line to pull these apart, one for the marinade and one for the flour mixture.
- Mix the Marinade labeled pouch with 1/4 cup of water in large mixing bowl.
- Add the chicken and mix them with the marinade, place in the fridge for st least 2 hours, and overnight is preferred. I used 4 thighs that was 1 kilo (2.2 lbs.)
- When you are ready to cook, open the Flour packet and place in a shallow bowl. Remove the chicken pieces from the marinade and coat the chicken pieces well with the flour mixture.
- Heat cooking oil in a pan or pot, you can deep fry or shallow fry, when the oil is hot but not smoking, add the chicken pieces.
- Allow to fry until golden brown, about 12 minutes for large pieces, 7 minutes for small pieces. If shallow frying, when golden brown on the brown on the bottom, turn and cook the other side. I shallow fried the thighs, and they were large so I cut the largest one open and had to continue cooking for a few more minutes on each side.
- Drain on paper towels.
- Serve with sides of your choice.
Notes
Low cost per serving.
From a seasoning pack in Thailand.
