Archive for the ‘: THAI’ Category
Stir Fried Crab Curry
This is a Thai dish that uses fresh ingredients as well as a packet of stir fry curry. The curry paste is a Thai brand, Lobo, and is available in the US in Asian markets. Lots of photos for this but this comes together very quickly. This is based on using a large wok but is not needed if you do not have one, and most ingredients are just estimated, there is no set rules for this. The curry sauce packet has instructions on the back in English, but they are NOT used for this dish, this recipe (guide really) is based on me watching a Thai family member prepare this.
Ingredients
- 1-2 kilos fresh crabs, blues or any swimmers are good (2-4 lb)
- 5-10 cloves garlic
- 1-2 palmfuls coarsely ground black pepper, be generous
- 1 onion
- 3-6 eggs
- 5-10 spring onions
- 1-2 bunches Thai celery, or Chinese celery
- cooking oil, as needed
Special Equipment
- large wok
Instructions
Preparation
- 1. Crabs: Remove the tail flaps and cut each crab in half, from head to tail area. 2. Onion: halve then chopped. 3. Spring Onion and Thai Celery including the tops: chopped into 1 to 2 inch pieces. 4. As an alternate to coarsely ground black pepper, use whole peppercorns and crush them in a mortar. 5. Eggs, lightly beaten. Once everything is prepped, we are ready to begin.
- Here is the curry sauce packet used.
- With Thai families, there is usually more than one person helping in the kitchen, often times the prep work is done by the whole family and the best cook prepares the dish or directs others to prepare it, basically teaching in action.
Let's Get Started
- Heat a splash of oil in your large wok or large pan on medium high heat. When hot, add the garlic, and since this is called a stir fry, so start stirring.
- When the when garlic is browned up a bit, add the crab, keep stirring.
- Sprinkle in about half of the black pepper, and you guessed it, keep stirring.
- And stirring.
- After a few minutes you will start seeing the shell turn red.
- Add the onion.
- And stir until the onion is softened up a bit, just a few minutes.
- Add the remaining black pepper and stir that in.
- Pour in the beaten eggs.
- Stir for 30 seconds or so to distribute some of the egg.
- Add the packet of curry sauce.
- Stir some more.
- Coming together beautifully. Liquid is water from the crabs as well as the sauce thinned out with that water.
- Add the spring onion and Thai celery. A note about the celery, if you cannot find Thai or Chinese celery, use regular celery but cut 1 stalk into 3-4 ling pieces then dice plus chop up about 2-3 tops.
- Stir again, almost done.
- And there you go, Stir Fried Crab Curry. From heating the wok to this, maybe 10 minutes. This is the reason to have everything prepped and ready to go.
- Pour everything onto a platter, ready to be served.
- And the cook himself with his wife, my wife is peeking out from the doorway.
- And honorable mention of the niece, she and my wife did the prep work for this dish.
Notes
Low cost as we did purchase the crabs direct from local fishermen.
Pork Rib Soup I (ต้มจับฉ่าย)
The Thai writing is simply 'boiled bok choi'. For better terms, I call this Pork Rib Soup. This is a common Thai soup, other than the ribs and bok choi, everything is optional, how easy is that? This is a non spicy soup and it is delicious. The ingredient measurements are approximations, this is not set in stone.
Ingredients
- 1 kilo pork ribs, the short ones, (2 lbs)
- 2 daikon, peeled and sliced about 1/4 inch thick
- 2 large bunches bok choi, chopped into 1 1/2 to 2 inch pieces
- 90-180 grams fresh Shiitake mushrooms, (3-6 oz)
- 1-2 bunches Chinese celery, chopped, this is much thinner than US/import celery
- 2 teaspoons pork broth powder
- 5 coriander roots, rinsed clean
- 5 cloves garlic, peeled
- 10 black peppercorns
- dash light soy sauce
- dash oyster sauce
- pinch salt
Instructions
- In a large pot, add the ribs and fill about 2/3 to 3/4 full with water. Bring to a boil and reduce to a high simmer. Cook until the ribs are just tender, about 45 minutes to an hour. Skim off and discard any foam that forms on the surface.
- While the ribs are cooking, prepare the daikon, bok choi, celery. To prepare the mushrooms, remove the stems but leave the caps whole and for a nice touch, cut an X, very gently onto the top of the caps, not very deep, when they cook, the X will show for a nice presentation.
- To prepare the coriander roots, garlic, and pepper corns, place them in a mortar and pound with a pestle for a minute or two. You are not look for a paste, just crushed up. This is optional but makes the soup more traditional. (Coriander root is a different taste than the green leafy part, there is no green leafy coriander in this soup,)
- When the ribs are tender, add the bok choi, daikon, Chinese celery, mushrooms, pork broth powder, and contents from the mortar if using those. Season with a dash of soy sauce, oyster sauce, and just a pinch of salt.
- Let this simmer for 30-40 minutes. Add more water as needed. Taste and adjust seasonings to your liking.
- Serve with rice on the side. This is a common lunch and dinner soup.
Notes
Pork ribs are about 115 Baht/kilo, even less from a local vendor in a market, for 8 servings, certainly low cost per serving.
Variants: 1. Use pork neck bones in place of ribs. 2. Add sliced carrot but they can turn to mush if simmered too long. 3. Add some chopped cabbage. 4. Can add some chicken feet when you start to cook the pork ribs to make the broth even better.
Recipe provided by my wife, Rrayada Thayer.
Thailand.
Thailand.
Meatball & Egg Tofu Soup
This is a basic, non spicy Thai soup, made more for children than anything, but when I made this on 11 Aug 2018, the entire Thai family loved it. Not only did they enjoy it for dinner, they enjoyed it again (as did I) for breakfast the next morning. The ingredients are simple, flavorful, and nutritious. For readers in the US and Canada, you can find the various meatballs and egg tofu in most Asian markets. Read the Variants in the Recipe Notes section as there is many ways you can prepare this.
Ingredients
- 800 grams fish balls, (28 oz)
- 2 cubes mushroom stock
- 2 bunches spring onions, chopped, white and green parts
- 1-2 bunches cilantro, chopped
- 1-2 handfuls fresh oyster mushrooms, torn into bite size pieces
- 420 gram egg tofu, (15 oz)
- oyster sauce, to taste
- soy sauce, to taste
Instructions
- Fill a large pot about 1/3 full of water, add the stock cubes and bring to boil. The pot I am using here is my pressure cooker pot, this is NOT a pressure cooker recipe, I use the pot because it is a heavy thick walled pot.
- The brand of fish balls I used, each bag, vacuum sealed, is 400 grams (14 oz) and I used bags. These are the large fish ball. For readers in the US and Canada, these will be in the frozen or fridge section of an Asian market.
- Empty the fish balls onto a cutting board, use a knife and cut an X on opposite sides of each ball.
- Add the fish balls to the pot, and reduce heat to a simmer and let the fish balls cook through. They will swell as they cook.
- Chop the spring onion and cilantro and add to the pot and stir in. Here you can see the X's on the fish balls, the reason for doing this is more surface area to absorb the stock flavor.
- After about 15 more minutes of simmering, add the mushrooms and stir in.
- Continue to simmer for 10-15 minutes to cook the mushrooms and get them nice and tender.
- This is the egg tofu I used, it comes in a tube. Cut the end of each tube off and the tofu will slide right out. Slice into 1/4 inch thick slices.
- Add the egg tofu to the pot and stir in, simmer for about 15 minutes to heat the tofu through. Season to taste with soy sauce and oyster sauce, a splash or two of each works well.
- Ladle into bowls and enjoy.
Notes
This makes a large amount of soup. The fish balls were 104 Baht for both packages, egg tofu was 40 Baht, and the oyster mushrooms were free (I use a really good vendor). For 8 servings, this is about 55 cents per serving.
Variants: 1. Use any meatballs you like, such as fish, pork, chicken & pork, seafood, and shrimp. 2. Use any stock you like, such as chicken, pork, shrimp, vegetable, and mushroom. 3. Use any mushrooms such as Straw, Shiitake, Shimeji, Oyster, or button. 4. Add any any of the following, glass noodles, egg noodles, carrot, daikon, or even hard boiled quail or chicken eggs. 5. Serve with rice if desired.
Common Thai soup.
Cinnamon Egg Soup
This is an off the beaten path Thai soup side dish or with rice for a main dish. If you are not a fan of cinnamon, you may want to give this dish a pass. I loved seasoned or flavored hard boiled eggs so this is on my to cook list for sure.
Ingredients
- 4 hard boiled eggs, peeled
- 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
- tofu, I need to clarify amount/type
- 2 cloves garlic, peeled
- 1-2 black peppercorns
- 1 tablespoon fresh coriander leaves, chopped
- 1 teaspoon dark soy sauce
- 1 teaspoon light soy sauce
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2 tablespoons sugar
- 1 cube chicken stock
- 1 cup water, + 2 tablespoons
- 1 teaspoon cooking oil
Instructions
- Using a mortar and pestle, pound the garlic, peppercorns, and coriander together.
- In a medium small pot, add the water, the 1 cup and the 2 tablespoons, and the chicken stock cube. Turn on the heat to medium high and let the water and stock come to a boil.
- While the water is heating, heat a non stick pan with the oil, when hot, add the mixture from the mortar and fry until the garlic is softened.
- Add the soy sauces, salt, and sugar and stir into the mixture.
- Add the eggs to the pan, and just stir fry for a minute or two to take on some intense flavor and then remove from heat.
- Use a slotted spoon and transfer the eggs to the pot of boiling chicken stock, and pour in the contents of the pan.
- Cut the tofu into bite size pieces and add to the pot.
- Bring to a gentle boil and hold that for 10 minutes, reduce to a low simmer for 30 minutes. Remove from heat and allow to cool a few minutes.
- Serve as a side of 2 eggs and tofu with any Thai dish or as a main when served with rice as a side.
Notes
Low cost.
This recipe for Cinnamon Soup with Egg is adapted from Appon's Thai Food.
Sausage Salad II
This is a Thai spicy sausage salad based on pork sausage, specifically, Vietnamese sausage, aka, Cha Lue or Cha Hue for the pepper variety. On my to cook list. Keep in mind, the number of Bird's Eye chilies will determine how spicy you would like this.
Ingredients
- 75 grams Vietnamese sausage, see Steps 1-3, (3 oz)
- 1/2 small onion, coarsely chopped
- 1-4 red Bird's Eye chilies, seeded, finely chopped, as desired
- 2 cloves garlic, smashed and finely minced
- 2 tablespoons lemon or lime juice
- 2 tablespoons fish sauce
- fresh mint leaves
- fresh coriander leaves
Instructions
- For the Vietnamese sausage, which is a pork sausage that is already cooked and found in the refrigerator section of grocery stores, the name is Cha Lua for the regular flavor. This is the Moo Dee brand (moo = pig, dee = good). Similar brands will close to what this looks like, grocery stores have all the Vietnamese sausage together as well.
- This is the Cha Hue variety, which is heavy with cracked black pepper and garlic. When looking for this in the store, the pepper is clearly seen in the sausage, and more than likely, there is a picture of black pepper on the package. This is also the Moo Dee brand. I prefer this variety due to the pepper.
- Unwrap the sausage and slice into about 1/4 inch thick slices, place on a serving plate.
- To a mixing bowl, add the garlic, onion, chilies, lemon or lime juice, and the fish sauce and mix together well.
- Pour over the sausage and garnish with mint and coriander leaves.
- Serve as a side dish to any Thai meal or as an appetizer.
Notes
Low cost.
This recipe for Spicy Home Made Sausage Salad is adapted from Appon's Thai Food.
Wide Rice Noodles with Pork Gravy (ราดหน้า)
This is a Thai dish with origins in China. This is a delicious meal with many variations. Salted soy beans are key in this, so do not omit those or the taste will not be the same. Rad Nah is the base, for this dish here, this recipe is called Rad Nah Moo (moo meaning pork).
Ingredients
- 500 grams pork loin, sliced thin, 2 inch pieces, (1 lb)
- 500 grams fresh wide rice noodles, (1 lb)
- 500 grams Chinese broccoli, sliced
- 5 cloves garlic, smashed and minced
- 2 tablespoons light soy sauce
- 2 tablespoons dark soy sauce
- 2 tablespoons oyster sauce
- 1 tablespoon seasoning sauce, or Maggi sauce
- 1 tablespoon sugar
- 2 tablespoons salted soy beans, also called yellow sauce
- 3 tablespoons corn starch
- 4 tablespoons cooking oil, divided
- 3 cups water
- black pepper, for serving
Instructions
- Separate the noodles into strips and microwave for 1-2 minutes.
- Heat 2 tablespoons of oil in a non stick pan on medium heat, when hot, add the noodles and dark soy sauce. Stir fry to coat all the noodles until the sauce coats all the noodles. Remove the noodles and set aside. Wipe out the pan.
- Add another 2 tablespoons of oil to the pan, When hot, add the garlic and fry for 1-2 minutes until fragrant, then add the pork and stir fry.
- When the pork is starting to change color, add the light soy sauce, seasoning sauce (Maggi), oyster sauce, and sugar.
- Stir fry until the pork is nearly cooked through, add the water and bring to a boil.
- Stir in the salted soy beans and allow the mixture to come to a boil again.
- Add the broccoli and stir in. In a small bowl, mix together the corn starch with 3 tablespoons of water to make a slurry and mix until dissolved.
- Stir the slurry into the pan and stir until thickened, if not thick enough, sprinkle in some corn starch and stir in, if the gravy is too thick, sprinkle in some water and stir in. When the gravy is bubbling and thickened to your liking, remove from heat.
- To serve, place some noodles on a plate and ladle on the gravy with a good amount of broccoli and pork. Sprinkle on some black pepper to taste, enjoy.
Notes
The pork loin will cost about 60 Baht/500 grams. For 4 servings, this is about 46 cents per serving.
Adapted from an internet recipe.
Mushroom Spring Rolls
Sounds delicious. Making spring rolls seems tricky but it is so easy. These are Spring Rolls, Chinese in origin, spring roll wrappers fry up crispy. Egg Rolls are American in origin and are a thicker, chewier wrapper. On my to cook list. I will verify how many spring rolls, wrappers, are needed when I make these. And I will have step by step photos to show you how to assemble these.
Ingredients
- spring roll wrappers, I will determine the number needed
- 50 grams fresh Shiitake mushrooms, coarsely minced, (2 oz)
- 100 grams fresh shrimp, peeled, coarsely minced, (4 oz)
- 1-5 red Bird's Eye chilies, seeded and minced
- 2 cloves garlic, smashed and minced
- 1 teaspoon Thai Basil, minced
- 1 teaspoon oyster sauce
- 1 teaspoon light soy sauce
- pinch sugar
- cooking oil, as needed
- 1 tablespoon water
- 2 teaspoons corn starch
Instructions
- For the mushrooms and the shrimp, you can either use a knife to mince the stems, caps, and shrimp or just run them through a meat grinder if you have one, using the coarse plate, aka, the wagon wheel, you can mince the mushrooms and shrimp at the same time with the grinder.
- Prepare the chilies, garlic, and basil.
- Heat the oil in a non stick pan, when hot, add the chilies and garlic, stir fry for a minute, then add the shrimp, mushrooms, sauces, sugar, and basil. Stir fry for 1-2 minutes. Remove to a plate to cool to room temp.
- To assemble the spring rolls, first we need to make the glue to seal the edge of the pastry. Mix together the water and corn starch in a small bowl, set that aside but close to where you will be working.
- Open the package of spring roll sheets. Carefully pull off one sheet and place smooth side down on a clean counter with one corner of the sheet facing you. Very important, place a damp towel on the unused sheets, if the sheets dry out they are hard to pull apart and will tear. (This is where two people is very handy, one to pull the the pastry apart and the other rolling the spring rolls.)
- Place a tablespoon or so of filling near the corner closest to you.
- Fold the bottom (the corner closest to you) up over the filling.
- Tightly roll, the filling will spread some, that is fine. When the roll is in the widest part of the pastry (left and right corners will be on the sides of the roll) fold each side towards the center. The roll should be about 5 inches long, and should look like an open envelope.
- Continue to roll, and when there is just a pointy section at the end away from you, use your finger and apply some of the cornstarch slurry you made just a few minutes ago to the edges of the pointy section (just like sealing an envelope), continue to roll and seal the edge, and just pat that seam down with your fingers. There, you just made a spring roll.
- Repeat until you have either used all the filling or all the pastry sheets.
- To fry these, heat about 1 inch of oil in a pot. When hot, add 4-5 spring rolls at a time and fry, turn often, until golden brown, These cook fast so keep an eye on them. Remove to paper towels to drain and fry the remaining rolls.
- Let cool for a few minutes then serve hot as is or serve with a dipping sauce of your choice. My Sweet & Sour Sauce is listed as a shortcut in the Recipe Notes section.
Notes
Low cost.
Shortcut:Â Sweet & Sour Dipping Sauce.
Variant: 1. Bake instead of fry, place on a rack on a baking sheet, spray with oil all sides, bake in a 200 C (400 F) oven until golden brown.
This recipe for Mushroom Parcels is adapted from Appon's Thai Food.
Spicy Caramelized Quail Eggs (Khai Luk Khoei)
This is Thai in nature and is a variant of Son-in-Law Eggs (Khai Luk Khoei). The recipe is from a Thai person but omits the tamarind and shallot oil. This sounds good and is a nice way to prepare quail eggs. On my to cook list. This recipes assumes you have hard boiled or canned eggs available. Link to the shortcut is listed in the Notes section.
Ingredients
- 7 hard boiled quail eggs, see Step 1
- 1-3 red Bird's Eye chilies, seeded and thinly sliced
- 2 cloves garlic, peeled and thinly sliced
- 2 tablespoons light soy sauce
- 2 tablespoons fish sauce
- 1 tablespoon white vinegar, or rice vinegar
- 1 tablespoon sugar
- 1 tablespoon onion, finely chopped
- 1 teaspoon fresh coriander leaves, chopped
Instructions
- For the quail eggs, you can use fresh or canned, a shortcut for perfect hard boiled quail eggs is in the Recipe Notes section. If using canned eggs, and there is nothing wrong with that, just drain the eggs needed and refrigerate the rest.
- Once you have the hard boiled quail eggs sorted out, fresh and peeled or canned, cut each in half lengthwise.
- Heat a non stick pan to medium heat with about ½ inch of cooking oil, when hot, add the egg halves, fry until lightly browned on both sides, remove the eggs to a serving plate.
- Pour out all but 1 tablespoon of oil, easy way is to pour out all hot oil into a jar and add 1 tablespoon of oil back to the pan.
- Heat the oil and when hot, add the chilies and garlic, and cook until fragrant, about 1 minute. Turn the heat down to medium.
- Add the soy sauce, fish sauce, sugar, and vinegar and cook, stirring, until the sugar caramelizes and the sauce thickens and turns brown.
- Pour sauce over the eggs, sprinkle with the onion and coriander, serve, and enjoy.
Notes
Shortcut: Perfect Hard Boiled Quail Eggs.
Fried Seasoned Wontons
Quick and easy appetizer or snack, think great with beer, and they are addictive! This is a make as you need recipe, no set amounts needed here.
Ingredients
- wonton wrappers, thawed if frozen
- water, as needed
- chicken seasoning powder, or pork seasoning powder
- oil, for frying
Instructions
- Lay out some wonton wrappers on some parchment paper or foil, lightly spray water on each wrapper.
- Lightly dust with either the chicken or pork seasoning powder. Use either Knorr or Ros-Dee brands, very popular in Thailand and available in the US in Asian markets.
- Heat some oil in a large pan, about 1/4 inch, to medium hot. Place a few wontons at a time in the oil and fry until golden brown, they fry up very quickly.
- Remove to paper towels to drain, and continue the process to cook all the wonton wrappers you have prepared.
- Serve as an appetizer or with beer or drinks of your choice.
Notes
Low cost.
This recipe for Fried Seasoned Wontons is adapted from Appon's Thai Food.
Turmeric Curry Pork Chops
Thai recipe, sounds good as the flavors are very nice. On my to cook list and I will verify some of the times and quantities.
Ingredients
To Marinate
- 400 grams pork chops, bone in, I am thinking 2-3 chops
- 3 tablespoons white wine, or chicken stock
- 2 teaspoons salt
- 1/4 cup milk
To Cook
- 1 teaspoon green curry paste
- 1 teaspoon ground turmeric
- 1/4 cup coconut milk
- 2 tablespoons onion, diced
- 1 tablespoon garlic, smashed and minced
- 1/4 cup water
Instructions
- Add the wine or stock, milk, and salt to a shallow dish, stir to mix in the salt. Rinse the chops place in the dish shallow dish, turning occasionally to coat them, and place in the fridge for 2 hours.
- Add the To Cook ingredients to a a large non stick pan, and whisk to mix the turmeric and curry paste in.
- When the mixture is starting to simmer, add the pork chops, keep on a medium to low simmer, cover, and cook the chops for 20 minutes.
- When the juices run clear and the chops are tender, remove from the pan and server with rice or potatoes with some curry drizzled over them.
Notes
I will price this when I get pork chops again in the city, I will say low price now.
This recipe for Turmeric Curry Pork Chop is adapted from Appon's Thai Food.
