Rice Kingdom.

My Sweet Valen-Pie

2012-02-14T20:25:00.000-08:00

Let's make everyday a Valentine's Day

First, The Maca-Wrong, then later My First French Macarons.

2012-02-08T15:15:00.000-08:00

Then, the Maca-Wrong

I've never paid much attention to these pretty pastel color French cookies before, it's never been in my baking desire, I don't know why, even though I've seen them everywhere around NYC, until one day I happened to read the ingredients of the Macarons, and thought, "Is that IT?...only three major ingredients - almond powder, egg white and powdered sugar?.....Well!, that sounds easY!

Without any much thought, and know-how, I went on making them with those 1-2-3 steps basic how-to, and Bamm! I got the Maca-wrong instead of French Macarons.

Now that, the Macarons

Those Maca-Wrong sent me back to sitting in front of the computer with the little voice in my head "Who are you, Macarons??" I started spending times searching and reading more about making the Macarons including all of those the Facts and the Myths about making them along the way, and gave it a try one more time.

By searching, I found BraveTart the oh-so-inspired pastry blog run by Stella and friends. Stella' s blog fills with many yummy and beautiful pictures of Macarons she made, in that, there is the interesting article she wrote, about the Macarons Myths that made me go back to the kitchen, and whipped my first French Macrons, three days later after my first Maca-Wrong.

As you can see, they turned out not too bad compares to the first Maca-Wrong, well, actually, it might not be that " professionally-perfect ", but, at least I now know what I did wrong at the first time.

I'll be making them again soon because I'm now hooked by them already.

Lotus Roots Soup With Baby Pork Ribs

2012-01-12T08:04:00.000-08:00

Noom mentioned that he missed the caramelized lotus roots his mom used to make as a summer dessert when he was young, they are super delicious eating with ice cream.

Lucky Noom!, there are a lot of lotus roots coming out on the vegetable stalls in Chinatown during this time, but, since the weather outside isn't 80F, instead of caramelized lotus roots with ice cream, let's have a warm delicious soup with sweet fragrant of Chinese herbs and tender baby pork ribs better.

Lotus roots are consumed in most Asian countries with different ways of cooking in their own regions. This time I slow cooked them with some Chinese herbs with the names I couldn't pronounce, really, I only know them by the shapes and smells.

These good and weird looking roots have good health benefits, containing much iron, vitamins B & C. and lots of fiber content that help relieves constipation. In Thailand we also made them into dessert and a cool drink to cool the inside body heat down.

- 1 lb. baby pork ribs
- 2 lotus roots
- Shiitake mushroom
- 2 cilantro roots
- Mixed Chinese herbs

- 2 tbsp. oyster sauce
- 1 tbsp. soy sauce
- 1 tsp. sugar

The set of Chinese herbs I use for the soup.

Just two pieces of each and a handful of Goji berries goes along way. They give a very sweet smell, and your body will love them.

1. Marinate the pork ribs with oyster sauce, soy sauce and sugar for 15 minutes.
2. Clean all lotus roots, peel the skin off, cut into 1/4" thick, and rinse one more time.
3. Put baby pork ribs, lotus roots, Chinese herbs, cilantro roots into a pot, covered with water, bring to a full boil.
4. Reduce the heat to low, add shiitake mushroom, and let it simmer for 1 hr. - keep skimming out the oil foam floating on the surface.
5. Taste the soup, if desired, season it with a bit of soy sauce, check the ribs, they should be tender - almost melt in your mouth.
6 Turn of the heat and enjoy, to this point your house will be filled with a light sweet smell, just like what you get from lotus flower.

Steamed Pompano Fish With Soy Sauce

2012-01-06T19:31:00.000-08:00

Pla Nueng See-Ew

Recently I only cook one time a day, which is normally dinner, and then the leftover will be reheated for lunch the next day. So, most of my foods haven't met the natural light for me to have fun photographing them anymore.

This delicious steamed Pompano with soy sauce, fresh ginger and shredded scallion was also our dinner, and was taken in a kitchen light, it might not produce a salivated pictures, but it's a great fish dish I so want to share, so let's go along with the fake light for a while.

It is such a light and good dish for dinner with easy preparation and takes about 20 minute steaming - depends on size of the fish, but, most of the time 20 minutes will do just fine.

Preparation

- one good size fresh Pompano fish, cleaned.
- 8 spring onion, cut off the green part and save them for other cooking use, use a knife or folk to shred the white part spring onion
- 1 cup, julienne fresh ginger.
- 1/4 julienne red chilli for some colors (I didn't have them this time, so I left out.)

Sauce ingredients

- 1 cup stock
- 2 tbsp. soy sauce
- 1 tbsp. oyster sauce
- 1 tsp. sesame oil
- 1 tsp. sugar
- 1 tsp. Mirin wine
- 1 tbsp. white pepper powder

Preheat a steamer, have it ready to steam the fish.
1. Mix all the sauce ingredients together, set aside.
2. Put half of the ginger and scallion on the plate as the base then put the fish on top.
3. Pour all the mixing sauce on to the fish, topped with the rest of the ginger and scallion, and send them to a steamer.
4. Steam for 20 minutes, use a fork to check if the fish cooked through. Turn off the heat. Serve.

Thai Little Egg Cake

2012-01-02T22:57:00.000-08:00

Kanom Kai

Once we have been bombarded with the luxuries for the extended period of times we tend to crave for the simpleness as an antidote. Just like making this our childhood tiny yummy "cake" Thai call ka-noom-kai ( ka-nom=dessert, kai=eggs) to offset the "In The Moment" sumptuous desserts found around here in NYC, and that, my husband asked for kanoom kai instead of cupcakes lately.

I don't know if these Thai dessert could be fit into Western cake category....there is no butter or any shortening nor baking soda in the batch, just tiny air bubble beaten into the eggs that do the rising.

Originally, they are not oven-baked, which is how most Thai desserts are made, I believe these dessert is one of the Portuguese influence, since there are eggs in it, again, traditionally Thai desserts don't have eggs as recipes. That's why some people also call them Kanom Farang, which is what we call the people who comes from the West since the colonial times.

How they are made is to slowly bake them in a preheat brass mold set over an open fire charcoal stove with low heat until they start to rise and are golden crisp giving a texture of cookie-crisp at the outside and cakely soft at the inside.

Since I have to baked them in the oven, the end result wasn't that perfect as the authentic way of making them, but it's good enough to tame our craving for things from our home country.

Make 48 pieces mini muffin size.

- 1 1/2 Cake flour
- 3 Eggs
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 tbsp. vanilla extract
- butter for the pan

1. Preheat the oven at 350F, butter 2 mini muffin pans, set a side.
2. In electric mixer on high speed, beat the eggs until fluffy.
3. Gradually add sugar, and continue beating until the batter turns white at the soft peak.
4. Turn the speed to low, add flour ( divide it to tree times adding) mix the flour just to incorporate, do not over beat it. Turn the machine off.
5 Spoon the batter to the mold, 1/4 inch to the rim of the mold.
6. Bake for 12 minutes or more, use the toothpick to test if they are done.
7. Unmold. These egg cakes are more delicious when eat right away after bringing out of the oven.

Fresh Rice Noodle With Asian Sauce

2011-12-07T08:05:00.000-08:00

Gauy Teaw Lhord

This is another delicious noodle dish, and yet easy to make. I love making them for Sunday lunch. The sauce can be made ahead, keep it in the fridge, and just reheat it when you are ready to eat.

The first time I found this fresh noodle at the corner of Bowery and Hester st. in Chinatown, I was so happy. It made me think of Guay Teaw Lhord (Lhord means tube or straw in Thai) at home in Thailand.

The broad flat noodle are made fresh, rolled in with the tiny dried shrimps and chop fresh scallion forming small rolls of noodle. I don't know what the Chinese eat this soft yummy noodle with, but I know it's going to be my Guay Teaw Lhord, and it's delicious!!

If you can't find fresh noodle just like this, you can buy dried broad flat noodle - boil them up until they are soft - just like boiling pasta, and have them ready for the sauce.

Making The Sauce

- 1/3 cup dried shrimp
- 1/2 cup fresh pork, small, thinly sliced.
- 5-6 dried shiitake mushrooms, soaked in warm water, or fresh shiitake, cut into small strips.
- 1/2 cup bamboo shoots

- 1 tbsp herbal paste
- 2 cup of water + 1/2 cup of soaked shiitake mushroom water
- 1 tbsp. oyster sauce (optional)
- 1 tbsp. soy sauce
- 1 1/2 tbsp. sugar

1. A pan on medium high heat, saute herbal paste with sliced pork, add a bit of water into the pan to degrease the pan. Saute for 2-3 minutes.
2. Add in dried shrimp, and 2 cups of water and the rest of shiitake mushroom water. Let it reaches a full boil.
3. In goes bamboo shoots and shiitake mushroom.
4. Start seasoning with oyster sauce, soy sauce and sugar. Stir to incorporate.
5. Taste it, and adjust the taste you like. The taste should has a balance of sweet and salty. If it was too strong, you can always thin it out with a bit of water. Turn off the heat - ready to serve.
6. Ladle out the sauce on to the fresh noodle.

This noodle isn't a "soupy-noodle", just a little of sauce goes along way to a yummy land. I recommend adding 1 tsp. of white vinegar to the noodle before eating. It'll make the taste more complete and deliciously balancing.

Craving for Cupcakes

2011-11-10T22:07:00.000-08:00

Even though I am not a sweet tooth person, still, there is a day that I was craving for yummy cookies and cakes, especially chocolate cakes, and this time my craving for chocolate cupcakes came at night, I checked the pantry and there were no any of chocolate supplies for my cakes, so I just had to go with what I already have in the kitchen.

The easy yellow cupcake was the winner that night. I took the recipe from Martha's, and killed my craving right there.

I 'm not a fan of the icing frosting, wayyyy to sweet for me. So the frosting was just for the show, and was scraped off when I ate it. Happy tummy!!

Stuffed Cucumber Clear Soup

2011-10-31T08:11:00.000-07:00

Gang-Jeud Tang-Gwar Moo-Sub

The temperature here in NYC has dropped suddenly - It' s cold, wet and windy - we even got snow....in OCtober! You are bit early Mr. Snow.

It makes me needed something to comforting my belly, and the clear soup with light taste like this stuffed cucumber with shittake mushroom is the best.

As we know, eating Thai way is that we have a few dishes at once on the table, and we eat them all together - each dish has its own distinctive taste, and will complement each other, and that all the tastes will be balanced.

This soup is one of a perfect soup to tone down some spicy dishes like this dish or some curries.

Preparing the cucumber.
Choose one good size cucumber, clean it, cut into small cylinders, scoop out all the seed and peel off the green skin

Marinate the pork stuffing.
- 1 cup ground pork (You can use ground shrimp if you like)
- 1 tbsp. of herbal marinade paste
- 1 tbsp. soy sauce
- 1 tsp. sugar
- 1 tbsp. corn starch

Mix all ingredients well, and let it marinaded for 10 minutes then stuff the cylinder cucumbers with the marinaded ground pork.

Making the clear soup.
- 2 cup water or stock
- soy sauce
- green onion, cut into 1 inch long
- shiitake mushroom

1. On high heat, bring water to full boil.
2. Turn the heat down to medium heat, carefully put stuffed cucumbers into the pot, add shiitake mushroom.
3. Cover a pot with a lid for three minutes.
4. Start seasoning with soy sauce, put the lid on - leave it ajar- for three more minutes.
5. Taste, and adjust the taste. Use a small fork to check if the pork stuffing is cooked through.
6. Add green onion, and turn off the heat.
7. Serve....in a serving bowl, add a small spoon of garlic oil, and sprinkle with powder pepper.

Egg Noodle dressing

2011-10-27T10:33:00.000-07:00

When I don't have time to cook, and still want to have something that will make my day, I go with egg noodle salad. Just simple boiled egg noodle tossed with gingerly noodle dressing, eat as a side-dish with BBQ pork or as a main dish itself, I'll be good for the day.

This dressing has an Asian flavor, which goes perfectly with the noodle. I always have it in the fridge, in a dressing bottle, so that it can be used right away whenever I needed it.

Noodle dressing (yield about a cup of dressing)
- 2 tbsp. minced garlic
- 1 tsp. minced fresh ginger
- 2 tbsp. chopped green onion
- 1 tbsp. Asian chilli oil
- 3/4 cup red wine venigar
- 2 tbsp. sugar
- 1/3 cup soy sauce
- 2 tbsp. toasted white, black sesame seeds
- 3 tbsp. sesame oil
- 1/2 cup vegetable oil or olive oil

1. Except sesame oil, vegetable oil and sesame seeds, mix all ingredients together. Taste it, the taste should lead by sour taste.

2. Whisk all the ingredient together, and gently pour in the oils and later sesame seeds.

3. Collect the dressing in a clean bottle, it can be kept in the fridge up to two weeks.

4. Toss boiled egg noodle with the dressing, and fresh chopped cilantro.

Assorted Vegetables Sour Yellow Curry (Southern Style)

2011-10-21T19:16:00.000-07:00

Gang Leung Pak Roum ( Gang=curry, Leung=yellow, Pak=vegetable, Roum=mixed)

Another great curry when my body needs something light to consume. This sour curry is water-based curry, no coconut milk added. It's very light and energized.

There is something to be clarified about this curry; This curry is originally from the Southern part of Thailand, and it is called Gang Som, in some Southern provinces, based on the sour taste of the curry, when most, especially in the central part of Thailand, call it Gang Leung ( Yellow curry), based on the color of the curry, which is bright yellow, and Gang Som for this part of the country is, in fact, an orangey color with the sour taste.

To make it more easier; if you are in the Southern area, and you wanted this Sour Yellow curry, you might have to ask for Gang Som, not Gang Leung(yellow). If you asked for Gang Leung there, they might ask you back "What's Gang Leung?" When, practically, it is the same kind of curry.

The tiny different between the Southern Gang Leung and Gang Som for the rest of the country is in the curry paste ingredients. Gang Som (Leung) from the South has fresh Turmeric as an ingredient in curry paste when Gang Som from the other part doesn't have Turmeric in the curry paste. Turmeric makes the curry bright yellow.

When it comes to making Gang Som and Gang Leung, I normally made my own curry paste, since the ingredients of this curry are easy to find, and the best part is I get the fresh taste and fragrant from the herbs, which is better than those getting form the packaged one.

Making your own curry paste
If you have granite mortar and pestle, it's time to get them out and put them to work. If you don't, the food processor will work out fine.

- 3 heads of shallot, choped.
- 1 stalk lemongrass, fine sliced.
- 7 cloves of fresh garlic.
- 2 inches long of fresh or frozen turmeric, cut to small. (available in South East Asian groceries, mostly frozen)
- 10 small dried chillies, or as much as you think you can handle the spicy.
- 1 tsp. salt
- 1 tbsp. shrimp paste.

Head-up!....this process might make you cry because of the shallot, chilies and garlic, so if you don't want to shed some tears, go with the food processor.

Put all ingredients (except shrimp paste) in the mortar and pound them until they become paste then add shrimp paste to this point. Continue to mix until the shrimp paste incorporates with all ingredient.

- 3 tbsp. curry paste

- 2 cups of water

- Fish sauce

- Tamarind water

- Lime juice

(I don't give the exact measurement here because it's' better to gradually seasoning, starts with an equal part of fish sauce and tamarind water, and then build up the taste from there.)

Choose all vegetables you like.

These are some of vegetables that go great with this kind of curry : Bamboo shoot, young small corns, green papaya, Napa cabbages, Chinese broccoli, snow peas, cauliflowers, water spinach, watercress, mushrooms, etc.

1. Dissolve the curry paste in water, put on high heat until it reaches full boil.

2. In go, vegetables, start with the kind that isn't get soft easily. Let it reaches the full boil one more time then start seasoning.

3. Keep building up the taste by gradually add fish sauce and tamarind water. Add the soft vegetables.

4. Taste it...it should lead by gentle sour taste.

5. Turn off the heat, add lime juice, stir to incorporate. To this point, the curry should taste slightly sharp sour after adding lime juice. You can cut the sour taste by adding a bit more of fish sauce, if you like.

Paring this sour curry with some fried fish, chicken or some kind of meats, or stir-fried dishes, and eat with steamed rice is a great way to balance the taste of the whole meal.

Grilled Fish at Robataya, East Village.

2011-07-02T11:55:00.001-07:00

It was Friday, and Noom had a day-off, so we decided to eat out. Our fist choice was the famous Ippudo that we never get to be seated, still, because our patients for the waiting time were so short, and this time we thought we would try again since it was already late afternoon, and Bam!!..."45 min - 1 hr. waiting time" Okay, we pass!!, again.

We changed the direction to ninth street to another Japanese's called Robataya

It was Noom's friend, who is Japanese, recommended this restaurant to him, saying that the taste of the foods here is traditional Japanese. So we tried.

They open for lunch with a lunch menu which is pretty much covers the general Japanese foods.

It turned out we love what we had. Noom had grilled fish, today they offered grilled Hokke fish. It's simply delicious - not too salty, not too blend with the right portion, only that a bit much of fine bones, well, that's the purpose of eating fish, isn't it - be conscious with what you are doing it in front of you.

I had fried chicken marinated in soy sauce, yeahhhh...it sounds boring, and I usually have it most of the time, but I didn't want to order the same dish with Noom when we first come to the new restaurant, we want to try different dishes, then yes, with this menu, the fried chicken seamed to call for my appetite.

Yes, we love the taste of the foods, and how they care for the foods compares to some Japanese restaurants we've tried before. Also the garden is nice and comfy to sit and lunch. We went there late afternoon, so we didn't really know if it was crowded by noon, by the time we were there, there were only a few table with customers.

So it was very calm and quite garden with the sound of small water fountain at the center of the garden.

With all the light, the decorations and the wall painting, they did a really good job on trying to create the garden that feels like you are sitting in the real open garden.

There is also a front section which is closed during the lunch time, and will be opened for dinner time, we later know, after checking out their website, that they have an open kitchen where people sit around them and watch all the foods are made, and we've agreed that we should go back for dinner later.

Strawberry Ice Pop

2011-06-21T15:18:00.000-07:00

The real summer is here - muggy and sticky all together out side. But hey, there is no complain about it when my freezer is already stuffed with yummy homemade fruity ice pop.

It is totally appropriate time to grab a bunch of berries and make all delicious foods, drinks and desserts out of them since Summer will be gone before we know it, and all the berries are very cheap during this time of year.

This is the recipe from the same recipe of my Lime Shake but I left out the alcohol this time. It's quick and easy ice pop and when I ran out of the mold, it is turned to be a sorbet in a pretty bowl!

- A pack of very ripe strawberries with strong sweet smell.
- 1/4 cup lime juice
- 1/4 simple syrup
- a pinch of salt

Put everything in a blender, and blend it until smooth, taste it, adjust the taste, put in a mold, and freeze them. How's that easy!!

Blueberry Pie

2011-06-17T08:32:00.001-07:00

It's time for all berries. They are at reasonable price right now - strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, cherries, etc., and I love it. Yesterday, I got two pints of blueberry for $3, which is a good deal for me when normally I have to pay $4-$5 a pint...Ouch!!

So when I get a good deal of blueberries, I make pie.

This time I used the recipe from Baking with Julia cookbook, and I love it already. The pie crust is flaky crisp, the blueberry filling is delicious with a perfect balance of tang and sweet. It is one of my favorite recipe for now.

The problem is, again, this 9 inches pie is too much for two of us, so I think I have to share it with our neighbor as always.

Egg Wrap

2011-06-10T16:58:00.000-07:00

Kai Yud Sai

Another comfort dish to eat with steamed rice. You'll get all of everything in this one yummy pouch. I just think it's a great idea to make almost-tasteless-egg into a sheet and use it as a wrap to wrap a very tasteful stuffing, and make it a very well balance taste in one bite.

It might look complicated - with the egg sheet......well, believe me it isn't- a good swirl to a pan will do the job.

- 2 eggs, beaten with 1 tsp. soy sauce, set aside.
- 1/3 cup ground pork
- 2 tbsp. diced carrot
- 2 tbsp. diced tomatoes
- 2 tbsp. diced onions
- 2 tbsp. small chopped string beans
- 2 tbsp. chopped green onion

- 1 tbsp. oyster sauce
- 1 tbsp. soy sauce
- 1 tbsp. sugar
-1 tsp. ground pepper
- 2 tbsp. saute oil

Make stuffing

1. Small saute pan on hot oil, add ground pork, onion, saute until fragrant.
2. In goes, carrot, tomatoes, string beans (leave the green onion for the last) saute for 2 min.
3. Start seasoning with oyster sauce, soy sauce, sugar. Saute to incorporate together for a minute.
4. Add green onion, sprinkle in ground pepper, give a quick stir then turn off the heat.
Set aside.

Next, the egg sheet.

1. A new frying pan on medium heat, add 1 tbsp. oil. Swirl the pan making sure the oil coat the surface including the up rim of the pan.

2. Add the beaten egg to the pan, and quickly swirl the pan, spreading the egg into a thin sheet. The trick is to keep swirling for the egg to gradually spread until there is no liquid egg left. Turn the heat to low heat, and let the egg cook until the rim of the egg start to pull back from the pan. Turn the heat off.

Wrapping
Wrapping the egg sheet when it's still warm is more easier.

Spoon the stuffing on the egg sheet, and fold it close all four sides. Place a serving plate on top of the egg sheet, and flip the pan, so that the folding seams are hided.

Done!....with this egg wrapping technique, you can adapt into other wrapping as well, such as, instead of this stuffing, make fried-rice(without egg) and wrap it with egg sheet. It delicious too.

Stir-fried Shrimps with Broccoli

2011-03-13T09:59:00.001-07:00

Another quick and easy dish to make. Nothing much for the prep. - cut broccoli, cleaned shrimps, crushed garlic, and it takes only five minutes on the heat.

It's a light dish that I love to make to accompany with some heavy dishes like spicy curry or some meaty dishes, and eat with steamed rice.

Fresh and Fresh
- One small head of fresh broccoli, cut.
- Fresh shrimps, cleaned and deveined.
- 3 cloves garlic, crushed.
- Ground black pepper.

- 2 tbsp.olive oil
- 1 tbsp. fish sauce
- 1 tsp. sugar
- 1 tsp. white vinegar

1. A wok on high heat, add olive oil and crushed garlic, saute until fragrant.
2. Add shrimps, give a quick stir just for the shrimps about to turn opaque, add broccoli. Stir.
3. Start seasoning with fish sauce, sugar, white vinegar. If it's too dry, add 1 tbsp. water.
4. Give a quick stir until the shrimps cook through, 1-2 minutes, sprinkle with black pepper.
5. Taste, and adjust the taste. Turn off the heat. Serve.

I got orangey sauce because of all heads of shrimp that I keep them intact. They always make tasty sauce.

Spicy Thai Ground Pork Salad

2011-03-07T15:08:00.000-08:00

Larbb Moo

Just to mention this dish is enough to make my mouth salivary. Led by tangy, a touch of salty, sweetness of ground pork, and then complements with fresh herbs.

Eat with warm sticky rice and a bunch of fresh green leaves, this dish makes my lunch simply delicious.

- 1 1/2 cup of ground pork
- 1/3 cup of pork liver, cut to small bite and boil for 2 minutes, fetch them out.

- 6 small heads of shallot, chopped.
- 2 tbsp. chopped fresh cilantro.
- 2 tbsp. chopped green onion.
- hand full of mint leaves.
- 1 tbsp. toasted finely ground rice. (toast raw rice in a hot pan until fragrant, grind with coffee grinder)
- bunch of fresh green leaves for eating raw such as Romaine lettuce, Boston lettuce, green bean or string bean.

- 2 tbsp. fresh lime juice
- 1 1/2 tbsp, fish sauce
- 1 tsp, sugar (optional)
- 1 tsp. chili powder.

Five minutes cooking time.

1. Marinate ground pork with lime juice for 10 minutes.
2. In a small sauce pan on high heat, stir ground pork with boiled pork lever until the pink is almost gone. (keep stirring to separate the pork so they don't stick together.)
3. Start seasoning with fish sauce, chili powder and sugar(optional).
4. Give a quick stir until the pork cook through, taste and adjust the taste. If you feel it's a bit dry, add 1 tbsp. of water. Turn off the heat.
5. Add cilantro, mint leaves, shallots, green onion and toasted finely ground rice. Stir to incorporate. Serve.

Serve with green leaves - break the leaf into small bite sized, and wrap the pork salad with it.

When I wanted to have a full version of Thai Eastern food, this Lardd Moo will be serving along Papaya salad, salty fried chicken or grilled chicken, or BBQ pork, sticky rice and a big bunch of fresh raw vegetable.

They make a great finger food party.

Shrimp Pad Thai

2011-03-01T12:09:00.000-08:00

Pad Thai Goong Sod (Goong=shrimps, Sod=fresh)

For those who are already big fans of Pad Thai, and wanted to try making this delicious stir-fried noodle, following my post here, you'll get the taste of Pad Thai that we normally eat in Thailand - with all ingredients that Pad Thai should have and should taste like, only one thing missing here is beansprout....

In Thailand there are only Pad Thai and Pad Thai Goong Sod (shrimp Pad Thai) or, in some places, seafood available - there are no chicken, beef or vegetable Pad Thai like you see in most Thai restaurants here in the US.

The original Pad Thai has small dried shrimps instead of big fresh shrimps, which later added to the menu as a new choice.

Working with dried noodle is a bit tricky. They need a lot of liquid and proper times to soften them up.

Serving two hungry people.
- Hand full of dried rice noodle, soaking in warm water for 15 minutes. Save the water for later use.
- Fresh shrimps, clean and deveined
- Hand full of garlic chive leaves, cut 1" long and leave some to eat fresh with the noodle.
- Hand full of beansprout (I don't have it this time)
- 5 small heads shallot, chopped
- 3 cloves of garlic, minced
- 1/4 cup preserved reddish
- 2 pieces hard tofu, diced
- 2 eggs
- ground peanut
- wedge of lime
- chili powder (optional)

- 2 tbsp. tamarind water
- 2 tbsp. fish sauce
- 1 1/2 tbsp. sugar
- 1 cup water
- 6 tbsp. olive oil

1. In small bowl, mix tamarind water, fish sauce and sugar together.
2. Add 2 tbsp. olive oil in a hot pan, in goes shallot and garlic, saute until fragrant.
3. Add soaked soft noodle, stir-fry to incorporate with shallot and garlic, add water (used for soaking noodle), start with mall amount. Keep stirring, don't let the noodle stick together.
4. Add in mixing sauce (in no. 1). Keep stirring until the noodle get soft. If you feel that the pan get too dry and the noodle start to stick to the pan, add more water. Pick up some noodle to taste if they are soft then transfer the noodle to a resting plate.

5. In the same pan, add 2 tbsp. olive oil, hard tofu, preserved reddish and shrimps. Stir-fry until the shrimp get almost opaque.
6. Put shrimps to the side of the pan, making room for two eggs.
7. Add 2 more tbsp. of olive oil, crack in the eggs and scramble them.
8. Incorporate the shrimps and scrambled eggs.

9. In goes, the preparing noodle, stir to incorporate everything together.
10. Add chive leaves, beansprout. Stir.
11. Taste the noodle, make sure they are soft, turn off the heat. You can also adjust the taste later in your plate.
12. Serve with ground peanut, fresh beansprout, fresh chive, a wedge of lime, chili powder (if you like spicy)

Enjoy your Pad Thai with lots of shrimps as you like.

Roger's Shrimps

2011-02-23T19:55:00.000-08:00

This simply delicious shrimp dish is not from my family though, I got it from my friend, Roger, so I named it after him.

Roger made this dish when he and Wan-Yi came to NYC for their business trip. We invited them to live with us, and we all had fun cooking together. Roger loves to cook and he always cooks fresh food. His foods are light, and tasty, healthy, and good looking at the same time.

Made this dish when you are planing to have a fun and friendly party where people are ready to eat with their fingers, and don't care about the messiness of the yummy sauce running through their hands. Peeling the shell and eating is a part of the dish....So, have fun with it.

As I've said, Roger's foods are light and simple, like this dish, the only seasoning he put on was a tiny bit of salt, and that amazed me because when I tasted it, I thought that it'd got to be a lot of seasoning in there.

Fresh shrimps with shell is a trick here.
Shell will lock in the natural sweetness and freshness of shrimps. The head part of shrimp helps create a tasty yummy sauce. So, let's be friend with all things with heads ;)

- 1 lb. fresh shrimp with head and shell on.
- 10 or more green onion, chopped.
- 10 small heads shallots, chopped.
- 1 tsp. salt
- black pepper
- 1/4 cup tbsp. water or stock.
- 2 tbsp. olive oil

Prepare fresh shrimp: rinse them under cold water then use kitchen shears cut off only small part of the eyes, rostrum (a sharp pointy looking thing) and long antennae, leave the whole head intact along with shell.

1. A pan on high heat, add in olive oil, shallot, green onion. Saute 1 minute.
2. In goes shrimps, stir to incorporate. Add water or stock. Stir.
3. Cover a pan with a lid for 2 minutes - until shrimps start to look opaque then season it with salt, sprinkle with black pepper.
4. Saute until all shrimps turn opaque about 2 minutes more. Taste it and adjust the taste, and if you love lots of sauce - like my husband- add more stock. Turn off the heat.
5. Serve.

This dish's become my favorite right away. I made it three times in a week. YUM!

Shrimp Paste Rice With Caramel Pork

2011-02-18T18:07:00.000-08:00

Kao Klook Ka Pi

I love this dish. It's a chock-full of flavors and textures in one plate, well balance of sweet caramel pork and gentle salty of shrimp paste rice, touched up with a bit of tang from fresh lime, also the crunchy fried dried shrimps, the softness of egg strands, sweet pungent of fresh shallots and a kick of hot chili....I'm exhausted already.

As the name of the dish stated, Klook means Tossing in Eng. It's the idea of eating this yummy rice. Besides tossing the rice with shrimp paste, tossing the tastes and textures all together at once before eating is the way to enjoy the dish, and you will be surprise how tasty this dish brings to you.

This rice dish will be worth a million when making with good quality shrimp paste, and with the all the love, my mom gave me two kilos of her top-notch *O* It's the kind of shrimp paste she's proud of.

Making this dish requires quite a preparing. But!... no need to be intimidated, I will walk you through step by step. So, sit tight and take a sip of red wi.....bull....Yep..! better Red Bull ;) It's a long post, I think.

- 6 small heads of fresh shallot, chopped.
- hot chili (as much as you think you can beat them) chopped.
- 2-3 wedges of fresh lime
- dried shrimps
- 1 cup thin sliced pork.
- 2 eggs, beaten

- 1 tsp. fish sauce
- 2 tbsp. palm sugar (or 1 piece of cake palm sugar)
- 1 tbsp. granulate sugar
- 1 tsp soy sauce
- 1 tsp. black soy sauce
- 2 tbsp. saute oil
- 1/3 cup of water

- 2 tbsp. vegetable oil or olive oil
- 1 tbsp. shrimp paste
- steamed rice, portion of two

Step One:chopping up
Chop up fresh shallots, chilies, cut the lime. Set aside.

Step Two: making egg strands.
1. A pan on low-medium heat, heat it up, drizzling in the oil, just to coat the pan.
2. Two eggs in a measuring cup for easy pouring, beat them up and seasoning with 1 tsp of fish sauce.
3. Pour the first half of the beaten egg to the pan, lift the pan up and swirl the pan around, spreading the egg to completely cover the bottom of the pan, making a thin sheet of egg.
4 Let it cooks for 3 minutes.
5. Using a spatula, flip the egg. Let it cooks for 2 minutes. Take it off the pan, let it cool down.
6. Drizzle in a bit more of oil, and do the same with the rest of the egg, making the second sheet.

Leave the sheets of egg to cool down, we'll come back and cut them into small strands later. In the meanwhile let's fry dried shrimps.

Step Three: frying dried shrimp
*Dried shrimps burn easily, so don't take your eyes off.*
1. With the same pan using for the eggs, set on the low heat, add 2 tbsp. of saute oil.
2. Add the dried shrimps, pan-fry them until fragrant and look golden. Fetch them out, and let them cool down.

Step Four: making caramel pork.
1. In the same pan and the oil left off from frying shrimps, on medium heat, (add more 1 tbsp. oil if needed) add the sliced pork. Saute until no pink left.
2. Add 1/3 cup of water, let it reaches full bubble then bring the heat down to low.
3. Add black soy sauce, soy sauce, palm sugar, granulate sugar. Stir to incorporate, and let the sauce simmering on low heat for 2-3 minutes.
4. Taste the sauce. The taste should be very sweet, caramel-ly sweet - sweet one step above the level you think it is because we need the sweet caramel pork to cut the salty rice later. So, don't be scare to be sweet at this point, add more sugar if needed.
5. Stir frequently, let it cooks until the liquid turn into thick caramel, coating all the pork. Turn off the heat.

Now the egg sheets are cool enough, it's time to cut.
1. Roll the sheets into small log, and cut them with a sharp knife into about 1/4" wide. Done!

Step Five: tossing the rice with shrimp paste.
1. Wrap 1 tbsp of shrimp paste with aluminum foil, bring to the open flame, and roast it for 2 minutes. Turn off the heat.
2. Steamed rice in a mixing bowl, add 2 tbsp. of vegetable oil, or olive oil, and roasted shrimp paste.
3. Use your hand, wearing a thin glove, or a spoon to incorporate the rice, oil and shrimp paste together. Make sure there are no lumps of shrimp paste left.

Now you can wake up!....it's all done

Ready to serve.
Spoon a little of each prepared ingredients to the plate, sprinkle with lime. Now you can adjust the taste of your plate right before eating. The rice has a gentle salty taste, cut with sweet caramel pork and lime, and if you love the kick on the taste buds, don't forget hot chili.

Before eating, toss all ingredients in your plate together - like making salad. That's how you eat Kao Klook Ka Pi.

Note: In Thailand you will find this dish served with chopped sour green mango or some kind of fruits that give the sour taste instead of a wedge of lime like I did. Well, where I live has no luxury of having sour green mango. So, lime is my best friend ;)

First Attempt, Roll Cake

2011-02-16T21:12:00.000-08:00

Well, it's actually not the really first time for me to make this cake. I learned to make roll cake when I was 13 at school, cooking was part of the curriculum, and promised to myself I'll never make it again.

At 13, I found myself enjoy running around town with my bike rather than trying to roll a sheet of cake. Also the teacher wasn't that my favorite one - I just didn't understand how one can look and act cranky all the times. So the roll cake I made with a group of friends at that time wasn't that pretty.

Now that I enjoy cooking and baking (and still love biking ), and have been baking for quite sometimes, but not one of roll cake still.

If I wanted to have roll cakes, I'd run to Japanese bakery nearby and buy the soft cotton Japanese style roll cake. Never attempt to try.

A day before Valentine's, I wanted to bake something for my hubby - he did mention pies, but I didn't hear it, maybe *0* I always bake pies for him, so this time I wanted to bake something I never bake before, and roll cake just POP into my mind.....It's time baby!

I went to Martha's site and choose one recipe to try on. The cake was almond cake, spread with raspberry jam, and a thick layer of whipped cream.

We both are not big fans of sweet, so we love these combination of sweet raspberry jam and thick layer of plain whipped heavy cream.

The plain whipped cream helps tone down the very sweet jam. For us, they complement each other very well.

As for the cake, I might have baked it too long, the cake came out a bit dry, and that's why it has to be a second attempt for me.

And yes!...a lot of practicing on rolling as you can see.

Stir-Fried Instant Noodles with Italian Sausages

2011-02-13T14:23:00.000-08:00

If you asked me, " What is Asian fast food ?"........ My answer would be Instant Noodles.

You just pour hot water over the dried noodles with the powder condiments and oil that comes with, and it'd be ready to eat in three minutes. If that isn't a fast food, I don't know what else would be.

Korean instant noodles

So we always have these quick-life-saving noodles in our cabinet to save my lazy days. There are so many kinds of instant noodles - Japanese, Korean, Chinese, Thai and others.

Each nation has its own taste and flavors when it comes to powder condiments and oils that usually comes in the package.

And that because of these noodle becomes part of our everyday food, in Thailand, they are adapted into many different dishes.

People love to use only the dried noodle to make new dishes and toss away those condiments, re-seasoning and enjoy the texture of the noodle in a new kind of dish.

My favorite one is to stir-fired them with what ever ingredients I wanted to cook with - and most of the time it means adding vegetables and meats. This time I cooked with hot Italian sausages and vegetables...yum!

Serve 2
- two packs of instant noodles (depends on the size of the pack)
- Vegetables, such as cabbage, broccoli, carrot, green onion, baby corns, snow peas, bean sprout - just any kind of vegetable you like.
- 2 pieces of hot or sweet Italian sausages, casing removed.
- 2 Eggs

- 1 tbsp. soy sauce
- 2 tbsp sugar
- 1 tbsp. garlic oil
- 2 tbsp. oil for stir fry

Prepare the noodle

1. Put a pot of water to the full boiled.
2. Add in the dried noodle - boil for 2 minutes. (Be careful not to over-cook the noodle. Most directions on the package say cook for 3 minutes for the completely cook, but we will later stir fry the noodle, so it's better to under cook the noodle in this step.)
3 Strain the noodle and coat them lightly with garlic oil. Set aside.

Ready to stir fry.

1. Cut up all vegetables, break the sausages into small pieces.
2. heat up a wok then add the oil.
3. In goes, the sausages. Stir fry for 2 minute then add vegetables.
4. Make small room in the wok, add more oil if needed, crack 2 eggs in and slightly beat them up with a spatula then stir vegetables and sausages to incorporate with the eggs.
5. Add noodles, give a quick stir and start seasoning with soy sauce and sugar.
6. Taste it, and adjust the taste to suit you.

Saute Spinach with Garlic and Chilies

2011-01-18T19:01:00.001-08:00

Another easy vegetable dish to accommodate heavy dish such as meat or fish dishes. It barely takes 5 minutes to get done.

My mother in law made this dish when we were back in Thailand in 2010. She used the same technique using for Flame Water Spinach, and it's delicious.

I am so happy with this dish, it means that, from now on, I don't have to crack up a fortune cookie to see if I would get the water spinach from the market in any days, when my crave for Pak Boong Fai Dang kicks in, just grab a bag of fresh spinach, and throw them in a hot wok for two minutes, I'll definitely have my resembled Pak Boong Fai Dang to enjoy with.

Fresh spinach make delicious!
- a bag of fresh cleaned spinach
- 3 cloves of garlic, crushed.
- 3 fresh Thai chilies, crushed.

- 1 tbsp. oyster sauce
- 1 tsp. sugar
- 2 tbsp water
- saute oil

* In a big bowl of fresh spinach, put oyster sauce and sugar on top of cleaned spinach, set a side*

Get the wok extremely hot.
1. Let the wok sits on the hot flame for 2 minutes then add in the oil.
2. In goes, garlic. Quickly stir until fragrant, but not burn.
3. Add a bowl of seasoning spinach into the wok, follow with chilies and a bit of water. Give a quick stir for two minutes, turn off the heat.
4. Serve.

What's with the soy milk?

2011-01-12T23:01:00.000-08:00

We got hit with lots of snow, and the weather outside is brutally cold. In this kind of weather, for me, there is nothing better than having a bowl of hot soy milk with all kind of side-dishes.

It is such a comfort treat in a very cold day. So I decided to make a big pot to fight off this dreadful weather.

As I'd mentioned, soy milk is not only considered as a drink, it is also a dessert-drink in some Asian countries.

In Thailand, we love to put some soy milk side-dishes, such as pearl tapioca, boiled Job's tears seeds, gourd candy, bean curd, jelly in hot soy milk and eat it as dessert. Some people even love to put a soft-boil egg in it as well.

See how I make soy milk here.

This time I added just a few side-dishes - only things I could easily grab from Asian market like black sesame seeds, pearl tapioca , Job's tears seeds, which is good enough for me to enjoy a bowl of hot soy milk before bed.

Boiled pearl tapioca

Boiled Job's tears seeds (some mistaken as Asian Barley)

ground toasted black sesame seed.

My husband cried for gourd candy, so I told him, " buy me plane tickets, and you will have gourd candy to eat with soy milk."

My favorite of all to put in the bowl is toasted ground sesame seeds. It gives the milk an extra nutty smell, and add more nutrient into the milk.

Now, go ahead, hit me more, Mr. snow storm. I'm ready to be stuck in the house with my hot soy milk as you are blowing your head off the roof, and I'll be fine with that.

Thai Dressing Eggs

2010-12-06T22:55:00.000-08:00

Yum Kai Tom

At my house, another yummy way, among many ways, to eat eggs is to dress hard boiled eggs with spicy Thai salad dressing. It's an easy dish for the table - easy to cook, easy to eat - nobody says No to it.

It makes a great side-dish eat with stir-fried vegetable dishes, curry dishes etc. It can even stand alone at the party as an appetizer.

The Thai spicy dressing give the tasteless eggs more flavorful. The freshness of shallots, garlic, cilantro leaves and chilies add more to the layers of taste.

Start with hard boiled eggs
- 3 small heads of shallot, chopped
- 1 clove of garlic, roughly chopped
- 2 Thai chilies, minced
- Cilantro leaves
- 2 tbsp. finely ground dried-shrimp

- 2 tbsp. fresh lime juice
- 1 1/2 tbsp. fish sauce
- 1 tbsp. sugar

Finish it within a blink
1. Put the eggs to the hard boiled. Peel them nicely after resting for cooling. Cut them up into four pieces for each egg - be ready on a serving plate.
2. In a small bowl, mix up all the dressing ingredients (except ground dried shrimp) together. Taste and adjust the taste as you like.
3. Pour the dressing on the eggs, top with dried-shrimp all over the eggs.
Serve.

Lunch Prix Fixe at DBGB

2010-11-30T15:26:00.000-08:00

My lovely sister, Sam, came to visit NYC, and, like she always does as her favorite, wanted to explore the talk-of-the-town places to eat. This time is the time for DBGB kitchen & Bar restaurant at Downtown Manhattan, one of the places owned by Chef Daniel Boulud.

Sam always wanted to try this place, and had been trying to make a reservation for dinner and hadn't got any luck, she also had to fly back to Chi-Town that evening, so we ended up having lunch instead.

We met at my place and walked there since it's just a short walk. We got there very early, the place was still empty, but filled in half an hour later.

Fall Squash Soup, amber lager emulsion, crisp sage.

Besides the regular menu, they offer Weekday Lunch Prix Fixe menu for $24.07 which was what we opted for. We both started with Fall Squash soup since it's our favorite. It comes with tiny crisp sage in the middle. The taste is silky smooooooth...really enjoy it.

Sam said no mater where you eat it, it'll always be delicious, and this one was no exception.

THAI14

My sister is another Curious George when it comes to Foods and Drinks, and when she saw THAI 14 in the menu, she went for it. Some people might think what's the point of ordering Thai food in French-American restaurant when you are Thai...

Plain and simple...she just wants to know how Thai influenced foods will taste like in this famous chef's restaurant. We were having a little fun guessing what is what originally in Thai, and I think he did a good job on creating and keeping the taste close to the original.

As for main, we chose different dishes, so we both could try two different dishes. Sam went for Spicy Tamarind Mussels, and I chose Risotto with butternut squash, chicken and mushroom.

Spicy Tamarind Mussels

Risotto

Tamarind sauce is no stranger for us as Thai, but we never have it with Mussels before, so this dish is surprisingly delicious. My Risotto is comfortably delicious, but it sits on a little salty side, for me, well... still enjoyable.

Last comes the desserts; Gateau Tout Chocolate for Sam, and Green Apple-Honey Sundae for me.

Green Apple-Honey Sundae

We both loveeee the Sundae. We were agree that the Chocolate is too Chocolate-y rich, especially for me, who isn't a big fan of Chocolate. Oh Yes, people.....the people who doesn't like Chocolate is still existing :)

Gateau Tout Chocolate

I love the ice cream, it's light and delicious - well balance - little tang, sweet, crunch, smooth...easily want more. We couldn't finish the Tout Chocolate though.

Sam swiftly picked up the tab before I blinked. I promised, I'll tie her hands to the chair next time she comes because she always does that, and I told her so.

Next stop she wants to sit in is the Japanese Ramen Noodle restaurant called Ippudo in East Village, and I'll bring a chain with me this time...be prepared, Sam.

My lovely Sis with Tamarind Mussels.

Shirmp Paste, Ka-Pi

2010-11-13T09:29:00.000-08:00

Now we are talking stinky - stinky but delicious. I believe every nations have their own delicious-stinky foods that they have to cringe their noses when smelling it, but when putting it into the mouth, it is like seeing the heaven on earth. Shrimp paste is a perfect fit in that category.

It is one of the important ingredients in South East Asian cooking. It's made from krill, Thais call Kueey shrimp. Fresh krill are fermented with salt over night, made into paste the next day then brought it out to Sun-dry for a day before storing it in an air flowed container for another seven days to be used later . We call the finish process Ka-Pi.

Ka-Pi is widely made trough out the area coast where krill are found. Kra-Pi made from krill give a very delicious gentle salty taste and not too pungent smell - in my mom' s words "Lovely Smell"....

Shrimp paste can be pricey depends on the quality of shrimps used for making Ka-Pi. Some qualities of Ka-Pi are good for making all kind of curry pastes such as red, green, Massaman curry paste etc. Those Ka-pi have strong salty taste and smell and quite dark in color, which make a perfect taste once mixed with water.

As for the dishes that uses Kra-Pi as a main ingredient which normally show off the taste of Ka-Pi, such as spicy shrimp paste dipping called Numprik Kra-Pi or the rice dish called Kaw Klook Ka-Pi (cooked rice tossed with Ka-pi) we would use Ka-Pi that is not too strong in taste and smell. In these dishes, Ka-Pi will be grilled with very low heat before using to make it more "delicious" smell.

Some women might love to splurge on their perfume....well, that's not the case of my mom. Mom loveees to splurge on Ka-Pi. She's always proud of herself if she got top-notch Ka-Pi from someone, somewhere and will announce it to everyone who happens to set foot in her kitchen, and she will make to-die-for Numprik Ka-Pi that everybody loves.

Devil's Food Cupcake

2010-10-14T13:31:00.000-07:00

Last week we went for a walk in west village and turned the corner at Magnolia on Bleecker street. I have to say though, since I've been living in NYC for ten years, I've never had famous Magnolia's cupcakes just yet.
Line snaking to the side of Magnolia Bakery on Bleecker St.

The long line in front of the store always turns me off. But because of this long line in front of Magnolia that I finally learn how to make cupcakes myself.

I'm not a big fan of sweet, but I always fall for cute cupcakes, and that makes me want to try to make them.

My only favorite kind of cake is chocolate cake, and these the Devil's food cake is my show off. This time I tried the recipe from Martha Stewart's.

I love it! This recipe makes the cupcakes that is not too sweet, which is the way I love.

Kudos for those who create super cute, yummy looking cupcakes...well....to me, trying to come up with how to make my cupcakes look cute and tempting is just....not that easy.

Thai Green Papaya Salad

2010-10-12T11:39:00.000-07:00

Som-Tum

Papaya Salad is everybody's favorite salad, almost. It's chock-full of flavors and textures yet very light and energized. This dish is usually pared up with grill or fried meats and also going great with sticky rice.

Papaya salad is an Eastern food, but, because of its huge savories taste, it becomes food that people in every part of Thailand loves to eat, no matter where they are living in, this salad will make its ways through.

You can find and easily enjoy them at every corners of Thailand from tiny street stalls to exclusive restaurants .

Mom's papaya tree

In the US you can find these green papayas at most Asian market. Besides making salad, we love to put them in water base curry with prawns. It's DE...li....cious!!

Choose fresh and firm green papaya
- green papaya, grated into a handful of long string.
- grape tomatoes
- long string bean
- 4 cloves of garlic
- Thai chilies
- unsalted roasted peanut (optional)
- dried shrimp (optional)

- 2 tbsp. lime juice
- 1 tbsp. tamarind water
- 2 tbsp. fish sauce
- 2 tbsp. palm sugar

Mixed with carrot for extra crunch and colors

Normally, in Thailand, they mix this salad with wooden pestle and mortar, the idea of making this salad is to crushing and mixing all ingredients at the same time, but I don't have those.

So I just bruise the ingredients that need to be bruised- like string beans, garlic and chilies with my granite pestle and mortar then put everything in a salad preparing bowl and mix them together in salad bowl instead.

1. Grate papaya and carrot into long thin string. Set aside in preparing bowl.
2. Cut string bean into 1 inch long and slightly pound them with mortar and pestle, just that they are bruised. Do the same with garlic and chilies.
3. Put all ingredients in a bowl ready to dressing.
4. Add fish sauce, palm sugar, tamarind water, lime juice in a bowl and start mixing all together until everything's combined.

Serve! ....with sticky rice, BBQ pork, grilled or fried chicken. Really a great dish.

Stir-fired String Bean with Curry Paste

2010-10-09T21:28:00.000-07:00

This is a perfect dish to spice-up your table a little without having your mouth on fire even though it's made with curry paste. It's also a delicious string bean dish eating with steamed rice and a bowl of light soup.

Get a wok on fire

- A bunch of long and firm dark green string bean, cut into an inch long.
- 2 cloves of garlic, crushed.
- 2 tbsp. julienne Kaffir lime leaves
- Red curry paste, start with 1 tbsp.curry paste and you can add more if you want it more spicy.
- Generous amount of your meat of choice - pork, beef, chicken, or seafood like shrimps, squid or firmed tofu, cut into bite size. Here I used pork.

- 1 tbsp. fish sauce
- 1 tbsp. palm sugar
- water

1. Heat up the wok, drizzling in saute oil.
2. Add in crushed garlic and meat, saute for 1 minute.
3. In goes curry paste and 1 tbsp. of water.
4. Add string bean.
5. Start seasoning with fish sauce and palm sugar.
6. Add julienne kaffir lime leaves, saute to incorporate until the meat cook through, string bean getting soft, but still crunchy, add more water if it's too dry.
7.Turn off the heat. Serve.

Fried Whole Fish with Spicy Thai Chili Sauce

2010-09-26T12:02:00.000-07:00

Pla Rard Prik

We've been eating a lot of fish dishes lately. It's just one of those moments when I feel enough of red meat and heavy food, so I stuff my fridge with all kind of fishes, vegetable, soy beans and tofu.

These dish is full of flavors - spicy, tang, sweet rounded it up with a touch of salty with a complement scent of kaffir lime leaves, shallots and garlic. Yum!

Get it fresh from the fish market

- Chose one good size of fish you like. This time the red snapper was smiling at me at the fish stall in Chinatown, so I had her cleaned and brought her home with me.
- Clean it one more time, once it's home, blot it dry with paper-towel, score it on both sides, ready to fry in hot oil

Spicy Thai Chili sauce

- Fresh Thai chili ( as much as you can handle the spicy taste)
- 2 heads of fresh shalot
- 3 cloves of fresh garlic
- 10 leaves of fresh kaffir lime leaf, super fine julienne

Chop up all of these ingredients together except the julienne kaffir lime leaves

- 2 tbsp palm sugar
- 2 tbsp concentrated tamarind water
- 1 tbsp fish sauce
- 2 tbsp water

1. Fry the whole fish in hot oil until perfectly cook - a bit crispy in both side.
2. In a small sauce pan with low heat, melt palm sugar, tamarind, fish sauce and water together until it reaches full bubbles.
3. Add it chopped garlic, shallot, chili and kaffir lime leave.
4. Taste and adjust the taste that suit you. Turn off the heat.

9. Ladle the chili sauce and top it on the fried crispy fish. Serve.

We eat it with plain rice, steamed Chinese broccoli tossed with a little bit of oyster sauce and garlic oil.

Cooking Sticky Rice in a Microwave

2010-09-21T15:49:00.000-07:00

Here comes everybody's favorite rice, the sticky rice. Sticky rice is considered a staple diet for people in the Northern and Eastern part of Thailand when rice is more of staple grains consumed commonly by the rest of the country.

Cooking sticky rice is a bit tricky for most people. As Thai, we all know how easy it is to cook rice - every households have rice cookers which makes no-brainer to have perfect fluffy rice - just pluck-in and press the button. But when it comes to cooking sticky rice, manual mode is applied, and I'm not a master of that.

Last time we went back to Thailand, Noom's mom asked if I knew how to cook sticky rice in Microwave because she's heard that's how most Thai people, including her friends, living aboard cook sticky rice.

It was my first time cooking something in her kitchen, and it happened to be cooking sticky rice for my mother in law who is a master of Eastern food. Even though I wanted to run out of her kitchen, I went for it.

It turned out she loves it. She loves that it's quick and easy compare to the original way which always takes times, and it became my job to do sticky rice when she made Eastern food.

It only takes 12 minutes to cook sticky rice in a microwave.

1. Rinse a cup of sticky rice a few times to reduce the starch.
2. Soak the rice with clean water for 30 minutes.

3. After 30 minutes of soaking, check the level of water. Make sure that there is 1/4 inch. of water above the rice, or check it with your fingers. Your fingers shouldn't be covered with water when the other side of fingers touch the rice.
4. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and put in the microwave for 7 minutes.

5. Take it out of the microwave after 7 minutes. Open the plastic wrap, be careful with the steam coming out. To this point, the rice is not completely cooked, still.
6. Use a fork to fluff up the steaming rice. Fluff it thoroughly.
7. Put the plastic back on again, and send the fluffy sticky rice back to the microwave for 5 more minutes.

8. And there you have it. Easy and delicious sticky rice. Eat with grilled chicken, papaya salad. Best lunch always.

Baoguette Cafe, Vietnamese's close to home

2010-09-16T22:14:00.000-07:00

My craving for noodle kicked in, and I didn't have time to make nor to go to Chinatown. So we made our stop short at Baoguette Cafe, Vietnamese sandwich & noodle place - just ten steps away from our apartment.

It's a tiny place - just two small tables, one big table and a counter bar for seating. It's not a fancy schmancy place for a romantic dining, but it is an easy place for a quick stop with a hint of South East Asian ambient you would get from those pictures of street vibes of Vietnam on the wall and the display of Asian ingredients in the kitchen window.

The decor reminds me of a street food vibes back at home in Thailand, and I think that's what this place' s trying to say here.

We went there late afternoon, and it wasn't crowded - still there's no small tables for us, so we got big table at the front just for two of us.

I had Pho Special which has rare beef, brisket, tendon in anise broth, served with raw beansprout, fresh basil leaves and a wedge of lime on the side for $8.

The portion is huge for me. They give a generous amount of tender beef and they are delicious. The broth is tasty - not too strong nor too light, but I am a spicy girl, so Sriracha sauce helps me there.

Also, love the fresh scent of basil and raw red onion in the broth. It helps taming my craving for Thai Guy Teiw Nam Tok.

My husband asked for Baoguette, a classic Vietnamese sandwich which comes with pork pate', pickle, daikon, carrot, cucumber, cilantro and jalapeno for $5. The size of it is still big for me, but it is OK for my husband - just OK.

I will go back and try the sandwich next time. There are a few Vietnamese restaurants in our neighborhood waiting for us to stop by as well.

Rice Soup with Cod Fish

2010-09-07T14:10:00.000-07:00

Kaw Tom Pla

My husband and I are not breakfast kind of people. The only time we become breakfast persons is when we are at home in Thailand where breakfast is always ready on the table every morning.....Thanks mom.

Here in New York, we usually have only coffee in the morning and go on our lives. We know that's not a good way to live a good life, so we are trying to get rid of our bad habits and aiming for the right directions.

Now, we're making an effort to have breakfast every day and cutting down a big dinner into small amount of fruits and vegetable and soy milk before bed....sounds good huh?

Still, I am struggling to come up with what we're going to have in the morning...It has to be something that is not too complicate and doesn't take too much times to make. So, I try to think of what kind of breakfast mom would make for us every morning back home, and the one that we usually see on the table is Rice soup and Congee.

One of my favorite rice soup is rice soup with white fish. Just like most rice soup, it is light and easy to make and doesn't take much of the morning time to come up with. So, I'm stocking up white fish meats in my freezer.

You will need

- white fish of your choice. I use cod fish here - cut into big chunks.
- long grain rice
- chicken stock or stock you like
- celery leaves
- garlic oil
- Galangal powder

Soy bean condiment (optional) but it tastes better to have it
- 1 tbsp. fermented soy bean
- a wedge of lime
- a pinch of sugar

1. Boil rice with stock until the grains break. Gradually add a bit of water if it is too thick, taste it, add a pinch of salt if you like.
2. In another small pot with water boiling, put in celery stalks or roots and fish meats. Boil the fish meats for three to five minutes. Scoop out the fish, save the fish water.
3. Making soy bean condiment by mixing all the condiment ingredients together.

Serving
Ladle the rice soup into a serving blow, top with fish meats, garlic oil, celery leaves and sprinkle with Galangal powder. Add the fish water if you feel that the soup is too thick. Seasoning as you eat with a bit of soy bean condiment....my morning is as bright as sunshine.

Momofuku Noodle Bar

2010-08-07T21:16:00.000-07:00

We went out for lunch with our friend, Suzanne, at Momofuku Noodle Bar in our neighborhood since we hadn't seen her for a while.

When Suzanne asked us to choose the place, we had no idea what to choose because there are too many restaurants in our area and we don't know anymore which one to pick. So we only gave her two choices - one was Momofuku and another one was Peruvian place called Mancora on 1 Ave.

She loved to try both places, but wanted to check it out at the Momofuku first, and if, as always, the place was too busy, we would move to Mancora. Luck was on our side that day, we only waited for ten minutes to be seated.

We first got to know this place because of my foodie sister, Sam, who lives in Chicago. Every times she comes to New York, she always have the list of all talk-of-the-town restaurants in NYC to go to, and Momofuku was one on her lists. We went there to see what the buzz is all about.

As an Asian, we are always confused when we see Asian food look-like, and it isn't taste like one. That is the Momofuku Noodle Bar for us.

But it's understandable when David Chang, the owner, says that his foods are not considered as an Asian-Asian food, and he doesn't want to use the word "Fusion" either. He says It's just his own creation of food inspired by many culinary cultures.

So it is obvious that Momofuku Noodle Bar is not the place for people who wants to try Asian food because it is not the taste of Asian, it is just a hint of smell of Asian. So you will not be disappointed by it.

But if you want to catch a trend of NYC eat-out, it isn't worse to try, at least their buns would make you happy.

Suzanne is a vegetarian. She ordered prix fixe menu which comes with pork bun, so I ordered Shiitake bun then we switched, and she could have Shiitake and I had pork bun.

I have to say though, I love the pork bun, and if I wanted to go back the pork bun is the reason.

Sago Sai Moo, Stuffed Pearl Sago

2010-07-11T18:21:00.000-07:00

I would only make these appetizer when I desperately crave for them, which I try not to let it happens often. It takes too much times to make and too little to put in my mouth, and that is just torturing me because it happens to be my favorite one.

In Thailand these delicious appetizer can be founded easily everywhere - if you see food stalls, chances are you'll find one that sells these stuffed pearl sago.

Before making them, let's make sure that you are not confused between pearl sago and pearl tapioca (tapioca pearl)

Pearl sago is made from starch extracted from Sago palm tree. Tapioca pearl is starch from Cassava roots (Yucca roots). In general, they looks the same, and that how people be often mistaken, the different can be felt in texture. How would you know which is what?....read the label.

Tapioca pearl, size 1 mm.

The original of making Sago Sai Moo is to use pearl sago, but more and more pearl tapioca is used since cassava roots are more easier to grow when Sago palms start to disappear.

At my parents' house, we have a small swamp filled with sago palm trees. We always get a really good use out of them - every parts of the tree can be used. My younger sister and I used to have a play-house our big brother and his friends built for us using sago palm stems to build walls and the leaves to make thatch roof. We even spent a few nights in there.

Later when we needed a new pathway to get to the land, and the only way to get that is to fill the swamp, we decided to fill some small part of swamp just wide enough for cars to pass through, and try to keep sago trees alive as much as we can.

Some small sago trees at my house are growing back after some were cut down to make a pathway.

As expected, I couldn't find pearl sago here in New York, so pearl tapioca went home with me.

Prepare Stuffing
- 1/2 cup ground pork
- 1/2 cup onion, finely chopped
- 1/4 preserved radish (found in Asian grocery)
- 1/2 ground roasted peanut
- 1 table spoon herbal paste

- 1 1/2 table spoons fish sauce
- 2 table granulated sugar
- 1 table spoon saute oil

preserved radish

1. Pan on medium heat, add in oil, saute herbal paste until fragrant then add chopped onion, and saute until translucent.

2. Crank up the heat to high, add ground pork, saute until all the pink disappear. Season with fish sauce, sugar.

3. Add ground peanut and preserved radish. Saute all ingredients to incorporate - no liquid left. The stuffing should be a bit sticky together, so it'll hold its shape when forming a ball.

4. Taste it, the stuffing should lead with a bit sweet taste follow with salty, and it should taste a bit stronger than what you think it is because it will be a perfect taste when it is warped with tasteless pearl tapioca.

Set aside and let it cool down completely.

Preparing tapioca pearl

- 1 1/2 cups tapioca pearl (size = 1mm.)
- 1/3 cup or more warm water

Rinse tapioca pearl for a few times. Put them in a medium bowl and gradually add warm water then start to massage them until they're soft and sticking together - add a bit more water if they feel dry.

Cover them with wet paper towel or cheese cloth. Let them sit for 1 hour.
Rinsed pearl tapioca

Shaping, stuffing the balls

Scoop small amount of soaked pearl tapioca with your fingers, flat it out to from a disk shape - about 2 inches wide. Put generous amount of stuffing on and wrap it close forming a small ball - about 1 inch....continue making them.

Lay them on a steamer plate covered with lightly oiled parchment paper - leave some hole open to make sure the steam can come up. (if you can get some banana leave, use it instead of parchment paper. That is what we use in Thailand. It works fantastic for steaming.)

Steam them until they look almost translucent - take about 5 minutes - don't leave them to be completely translucent on the steamer, you will end up with over cooked pearl tapioca.

Tip : Pearl tapioca is sticky while it's still hot. They will stick to everything that comes to contact, so make sure that all tools using to handle it are lightly oiled including the resting plate.

Lightly coating the plate with garlic oil is the best way in this case. It gives Sago Sai Moo a very delicious smell.

It usually serves with fresh green leaves, cilantro and fresh Thai chillies - take a tiny bite for a good kick in a mouth.....
de-li-ci-o-so

Lime-shake for The Dog Days

2010-07-06T20:49:00.000-07:00

Holy Moly!!...We hit 103F today in NYC. It made me feel like a lame chicken in an oven. Normally our apartment can be tolerant the heat very well, but, not today when the heat waves has no mercy.

We usually turn on the AC only at night and turn it off in the morning, which is enough for the cool air to linger inside the room during the day time. With the help of an electric floor fan, we able to manage the temperature inside the apartment at 72F when the outside was 92F. But today is a record.

I could feel the heat right after half an hour of turning off the AC, still I had the orders to finish off and I needed the iron on, so I beat my self up to finish all the orders off before noon and turned on the AC all day and made each of us a glass of lime-shake.

It's my favorite non-alcohol, non dairy drink in the hot days. It is truly simple refreshing with just pure fresh lime juice, simple syrup and a half cup of ice. From this easy recipe, you can make tons of delicious cocktails - Mojito, Amaretto Sour (fresh lime version), Margarita etc.

Make Simple Syrup
- 1 : 1 granulated sugar and water (I love to add a tiny pinch of salt to make the sweetness a little bit round)

Put them together in a pot, heat to bubbling boil, reduce the heat, keep stirring til all the sugar melted. Turn off the heat and let it cool completely.

Shake Shake Shake
- 2 fresh limes, juiced
- 2 table spoons simple syrup
- 1/2 tea spoon salt
- 1 cup of ice
( put in some mint leaves is another good choice)

Put everything in a blender, blend until it becomes smoothie ice and enjoy the hot day. It really works, trust me.

Pullman Bread

2010-07-01T21:34:00.000-07:00

When I wanted to try to baking breads, I chose this Pullman Bread to be my first try. I just thought that if I knew how to bake this basic bread, I'd never buy sandwich breads again, and we never buy them since.

It really feels good to have a sandwich with your own homemade bread. The fresh taste and homey smell makes everyone happy.

When I first try this recipe, it came out a bit salty for us. I thought the recipe was giving a wrong portion of salt then I remember the surprising face on one of my friend when I told her that we eat rotis with condensed milk and sugar sprinkled on top.

She thought it was weird because when it comes to table breads most westerners love their breads in a bit of salty side.

When I don't bake my own breads, I usually go to Panya, the Japanese bakery on 9th street btw 3&2 Ave. They have white breads just like what we have in Thailand - the familiar taste and texture.

So in this recipe I reduced salt and adjust sugar.

- 4 1/2 cups bread flour, plus more for dusting
- 3 1/2 teaspoons instant yeast
- 1/2 tablespoon coarse salt
- 1 tablespoon sugar
- 1/3 cup nonfat dry milk
- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature
- 1 3/4 cups warm water, vegetable oil for bowl and pan

1. Combine the flour, yeast, salt, sugar, dry milk, and butter together with the electric mixer fitted with a dough hook. Add the warm water, and beat on low speed until the dough smooth and elastic, about 5 mins.

2. Oil lightly another large bowl for resting the dough. Turn the dough onto a lightly floured work surface and starts knead it by hand about five times to make sure that the dough is fully incorporated, and forms a smooth ball. Put the dough into the oiled bowl, cover it with plastic wrap, let it rise in a warm place until doubled in bulk, about 1 hour.

3. Punch down the dough (one punch is enough) to release air. Pull all the side to the center (a punch hole) Invert the dough in the bowl, so the smooth side is up. Cover it with the plastic wrap again, and let it rise for about 1 hour more.

4. Generously brush a 13" Pullman loaf pan with vegetable oil, making sure to coat the underside of the lid, and all sides of the pan. Set aside.

5. Turn out the dough onto the lightly floured work surface. Using a rolling-pin, roll out the dough to a 13-by-8 inch rectangle, with the long side facing you. With your hands, roll the dough toward you, gently pressing as you go to form a tight log. Pat in the end to make it even. Gently roll the log back and forth to seal the final seam.

6. Place the log into the prepared pan, seam side down. Close the lid with three-quarters left open. Let it rise in the warm place until the log almost touching the lid, about 45 mins. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 425F

7. Close the lid completely and bake, rotate the pan halfway through, until the loaf is light golden brown, about 45 mins.

8. Reduce the temperature to 350F, and continue baking for another 30 mins.

9. Transfer pan to w a wire rack, let it cool down for 10 mins. ( the bread should have a hollow sound when tapped on the bottom, if not, continue baking and checking at every 5 mins. until the crust is deep golden brown.

10. Remove the bread form the pan, let it cool down completely before slicing.

Lunch at Sharaku, East Village

2010-06-24T20:14:00.000-07:00

I have been avoiding being in the kitchen for a while after the mercury keeps raising, and we already hit 92 degrees today.

After I had been thinking of sashimi for all week long, we decided to drop by Sharaku, another Japanese restaurant in the neighborhood, on 9th street btw 2 & 3 Ave, for lunch.

They offer lunch menu and, of course, sashimi is on the list. When it comes to sashimi, I usually go to another place which was reasonable for both the price and the quality of the food, but, lately, we have been noticing that the quality of the food's gradually dropping when they reopened after the renovation.

Some of the dishes have been changed along with the new price that turns out we have to pay more for less than what it used to be, so I gave them back a ring and broke up with them.....and go back to Sharaku.

Since I have to pay more, why not pay for good quality then. Sharaku is a bit pricier compares to the place I just broke up with, but the quality of the food is also better.

Their lunch menu is reasonable at $7 to $13 with all the side dishes - soup or salad, 1 choice of appetizer, a bow of white or brown rice.

I went for sashimi, $13, which comes with a bow of rice and soup or salad - I chose salad because of the DRESSINGggggg.

I love salad dressing here, it's rich, but not like mayo-rich. They use carrot, daikon, ginger and some other root vegetables to make it rich by grating them up very finely to give the dressing creamy-like body, and it's really tasty.

My husband went for fried salmon with some kind of sauce with the soup, California rolls and brown rice, $7.

Mine didn't come with appetizer, so I ordered shrimp tempura separately.....yum!

Childhood Calling, Checkerboard Cookies

2010-05-11T16:42:00.000-07:00

I just had the urge for easy cookies - I mean easy like...easy recipe, not a Fancy Shmancy recipe - just something that I can make it with what ever I already have in the cabinet.

And this is my version of easy cookies for Sunday afternoon which also reminds me of my childhood cookies.

I don't like too sweet cookies and this recipe is perfect for me. The cocoa powder really makes a different for these cookies. It gives the real taste and smell of chocolate - dutch process cocoa powder is used for the recipe.

- 1 cup unsalted butter, softened
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1/4 tsp. pure orange extract
- 1/4 tsp. salt
- 1 tsp. pure vanilla extract
- 2 3/4 cups sifted all-purpose flour
- 3 tbsp. Dutch-process cocoa powder
- 1 large egg

1. Cream the butter and sugar together until well blend then add the vanilla extract, orange extract and salt.
2. With mixture on low speed, gradually add the flour. (scraping down the side of the bowl if needed) Mix until all incorporate. The mixture will be loose and crumbly.
3. Turn the dough onto a work surface and knead the dough by using the heel of your hand pushing small amounts of the dough away from you for 2 - 3 minutes.
4. Divide the dough in half. Sprinkle cocoa powder over one of the halves. Knead until the cocoa powder has been fully incorporated.

Making checkerboard pattern

1. Put each half of the dough between two sheets of plastic wrap. Using a rolling pin to shape the dough into 7 inches square - about 3/8 inch thick then cut the dough into long strips - 3/4 inch wide using the sharp knife and ruler for a perfect cut.
2.Whisk together the egg and 1 tbsp. of water.
3. Cover the work surface with plastic wrap, place three trips of dough on plastic, alternating white and chocolate strips.
4. Brush tops and in between strips with egg wash. Gently press strips together. Repeat, forming second, third or fourth layers to from the checkerboard pattern.
5. Wrap the assembly log with plastic wrap. Put it the the freezer for 15 minutes or 30 minutes in the fridge.
6. Repeat the same process to finish the second log.
7. Heat oven to 350F, line the baking sheet with parchment paper. Slice the log into 1/4 inch thick slices. Bake until done - about at least 12 minutes.
8. Remove the cookies from baking pan, transfer to wire rack to let them cool completely and store them in an airtight container.

Stir-fired Fillet White Fish With Celery Leaves

2010-04-13T13:48:00.000-07:00

This dish's called Pla-Pad-Kuen-Chai inThai (Pla = Fish, Pad = Stir fired, Kuen-Chai = Chinese Celery)

Next time if you don't know what to do with celery leaves left after using all of their stalks, try this dish and you will never throw away celery leaves again.

Chinese celery leaves

Tilapia fillet or any kind of white fish

I've heard many people ask if celery leaves are edible. Oh Yes, they are - celery leaves is commonly used in Asian cooking. They taste good and make you feel better with your food - low calorie, high fiber, help lower blood pressure, and some medicine benefit is mentioned.

Now, pair them up with low calorie kind of fish, what else I can say.

Any white fish you like.
This time I went to fish market too late, all they had in the stall was fillet Tilapia, so that's what I'm using.

- 2 pieces of fillet white fish, cut to a bit big bite size.
- a bunch of Chinese celery, roughly chopped.
- 3 cloves of garlic, crushed.
- 2 part tapioca flour, 1 part rice flour - mix together.
- oil for frying the fish.
- 1 tbsp. saute oil

Black fermented soy beans.

Seasoning Sauce (Mix all the following together in a small bowl)

- 1 tbsp. black fermented soy beans.
- 1 tbsp. soy sauce.
- 1 tsp. oyster sauce.
- 2 tbsp. sugar.
- 1 tsp. Asian white cooking wine
- 1 tbsp. lukewarm water

Note: the black fermented soy beans is strongly salty. Start with a little, taste it, then gradually add up because the salty taste is very hard to be fixed once it already is.

Seasoning mixture

1. Heat up the frying oil.
2. Put all cut white fish in the flours mixture.
3. Fry the floured fish until golden crisp, rest them on the rack.
4. In the same wok or pan, take out all the frying oil, put in saute oil.
5. Put in crushed garlic until fragrant.
6. In goes, the crispy fish, celery leaves and seasoning mixture. Give a quick stir (if you feel it's too dry, add a tbsp. of extra water.)
7. Taste the taste and adjust to your taste. Turn off the heat.
8. Serve with steamed rice.

Fresh Pasta Couldn't Be More Fresh.

2010-04-08T20:32:00.000-07:00

For the pass couple of days I had a handful of my orders and hunting for supplies, in order to help me, my husband put on his cooking pants most of the times.

So, when I mentioned I wanted a meat grinder attachment for my KitchenAid, I got it within the next two days because he, too, wanted to have fun with it. The set comes with five pasta making plates and two meat grinding plates.

I don't buy ground meat from supermarket. I just don't. If I need ground meat I'll do it myself from a chunk of meat - either pork or beef - so I know what part of meat I really have.

Now that my husband had ordered a set of KitchenAid attachment "For Me", we had to make something.

I wanted a meat grinder attachment because I wanted to make Thai spicy sausages. My husband, on the other hand, always wanted to try on making fresh pasta, and now the kitchen is his, we made pasta.

He made all the pasta dough himself, and with our four hands together we made funny looking pasta noodle.

At first, the dough was too wet, so when strands of pasta came out form a pasta making plate they stuck together.

It took a while before I finally got a grip with trying to separate all the strands when my husband already backed off an got busy with his pasta sauce instead. My kitchen floor and my whole body was ended up covered with flour all over.....what a mess!

But, no complain! here....though the pasta look funny, it tastes good, and really has a texture of fresh dough - a bit gooey (in a nice way), and, all of the matter, the sauce' d made every things perfect.

Now next time would be my turn having fun with these set of KitchenAid attachment - Thai spicy sausages. Uhmm....I think I also need sausage feeding tube!!

Chicken Green Curry

2010-03-24T12:21:00.000-07:00

Gaang Keaw Wan Gai

This green curry has become the must-try-to-make curry for my foreign friends, once they get the chance to taste it.

To me, this is one of the very savory curry among many curries we have. It's full of a bunch of aromas from the varieties of herbs using to make this type of curry paste and a richness of coconut milk.

Green curry paste

The question I get most about this curry is " What does make it green? " the answer is the green chilies make the curry paste green. In Thailand some people even add the chili leaves to make it even greener.

Don't freak out when seeing green curry with a thick layer of oil floating on the surface which is released from coconut milk, that is how you tell green curry you are about to eat is made by experienced hands, and it tastes real darn delicious. Those oil can also tell that the curry is made with very fresh coconut milk, in away that the canned coconut milk can never do it .

Make the most out of what you can find.
Japanese Eggplants

- 3 tbsp. of Thai green curry paste - available in most Asian groceries.
- 1 canned coconut milk. (about 1 1/2 cups)
- 3-4 pieces of big chicken thighs - either with bones or boned, cut into a bite size.
- 10 Thai eggplant or 3 Japanese eggplants, cut into a bite size.
- a bunch of basil, using only the leaves.
- handful of kaffir lime leaves.

- 3 tbsp. of fish sauce
- a pinch of salt
- 2 tbsp. of paste or 2 pieces of cake palm sugar.
- 1 tbsp. tamarind water.
- 1 tbsp. of oil
- a cup of warm water

Kaffir lime leaves at mom's edible garden in Thailand.

1. Heat up the cooking pot, add in the oil and green curry paste, saute the curry paste until fragrant - be careful not to burn the paste.
2. Add a cup (half of can) of coconut milk to saute with the curry paste. Keep sauteing them until you can see streaks of oil seeping from under the paste up through the surface.
3. Add chicken thighs to incorporate with curry paste.
4. Mix the rest of the coconut milk with water then pour into the pot.
5. Put the lid on, and let the curry reaches the full boil.
6. Once the curry reaches the full boil, start seasoning with fish sauce, palm sugar and tamarind water.
7. Bruise all the kaffire lime leaves with your hands to release the aroma , and add to the curry.
8. Bring the heat down to medium put the lid on, but let it ajar for 15 min.
9. In goes eggplant and cook until the eggplant soft, add basil leaves.
10 Taste your curry and adjust the taste you like.
11. Serve with rice or Thai noodle.

Yum Mommy Yum!

Palm Sugar, Num Taal Puk

2010-03-18T13:12:00.000-07:00

Palm sugar is one of the most important ingredient in Thai cooking. It gives the sweet taste more rounded in food. In Thailand, this kind of sugar can be made from the sap of Palmyra palm and sap of coconut palm.

When I was about 10, during the school break, my aunt would take a vacation and take me to many interesting places for me to see and learn things by myself. One of the trip that I still remember is going to the place where the palm sugar is made locally.

coconut trees on the Haad Kuad beach, Koh Pa-ngan, Thailand

There I learn how the sugary sap was collected out of the palm trees into a bamboo container, which is later transferred into a big pot on an open fire, ready to slow cook the sweet liquid into thick caramel-ly sugar.

I also learn that the sugary sap can be fermented and make into coconut wine. I was then even allowed to taste it. I had no idea why the adults love it, to me, it was like sugar canes go bad...yuk!

In Thailand you can find palm sugar in many shapes and forms, depends on what kind of palm sugar, I mean what kinds of palm tree they are made of.

But, I'm not going to go that far because it would take more than a page to talk about it. Out of Thailand, you can find palm sugar at most Asian groceries. They come in a form of either hard cake or soft paste.

This soft paste in container is usually sealed with wax on the surface, just use a tip of the knife to pick off the wax and you are good to go.

Long Eggplant Salad, Yum Ma Keu Yoaw

2010-03-09T12:59:00.000-08:00

If you are an eggplant lover, you'll love this beautiful purple long eggplant dish.

In Thailand we call it Ma Keu Yoaw or Long Eggplant, when here, in the state, is known as Japanese eggplant.

Like other Thai salads, it is light yet full of flavors and textures. Once you think you've got all the flavors, you'll be surprised with another, and the next thing you know - you want more of it.

The taste is well balance of sweetness, tang and salty. Fresh shallot and pickled garlic give a dish very distinctive taste and flavors. The textures of soft eggplant, cooked shrimps and ground dried shrimp are just perfect together. A kick of chilies will wake up your taste buds at the end.

pickled garlic

Let's give the kitchen some purple

- 1 beautiful long purple eggplant.
- 4 cooked shrimps.
- 1/4 cup, ground, dried shrimp. (I ground them with a coffee grinder that never be used to grind coffee beans)
- 1 head, pickled garlic, (available in Asian grocery) thinly sliced.
- 2 heads, shallots, finely sliced.
- 4 small Thai chilies, crushed.

- 1 tbsp. pickle garlic water
- 1 tbsp. fish sauce
- 1 tsp. sugar
- 1 tbsp. lime juice

1. Put eggplant on the grill until the skin gets dark and wilted.
2. Peel off the skin, let it cools down, put it on the serving plate then cut into one inch long.

Prepare the dressing.

- In a small bowl, mix together pickled water, fish sauce, sugar, lime juice, chilies and sliced pickled garlic.

Layering
- Put shallots on top of eggplant as a first layer, the second is cooked shrimps than pour the mixture dressing over the layers then top with the last layer of ground dried shrimp.
- Serve!!

Red Sauce Chicken, Gai Ob Num Dang

2010-03-06T10:11:00.000-08:00

Last week my husband and I were watching Lidia's cooking show on PBS. She was cooking pasta and chickens in some kind of red sauce, then my husband turned to me......drooling!!

OK...... it means I have to go to the market the next day.

This recipe is not from Lidia though, it's my family's recipe my aunt used to cook for us quite often when we were little, and of course we eat them with rice - not pasta.

Surprisingly!..our red sauce chicken and Lidia's looks quite similar, but the ingredients we use are a bit different. Ours has a hint of Asian flavor which comes from soy sauce and Thai original chili sauce, Sri-ra-cha sauce, we put in....and oh....we use ketchup instead of canned tomatoes *--*

Chicken Thigh with Bone Rocks!
*I made a big portion though, you can just reduce the portion to suit you.*

- 12 pieces of chicken thigh with bone intact.
- 1 big head of sweet onion, roughly chopped.
- 3 cloves of garlic, crushed.
- 3 bay leaves.

- 1 tbsp. salt
- 1 tbsp. white pepper powder
- 1/2 cup, ketchup
- 1/2 cup, Worcestershire sauce
- 1/2 cup, soy sauce
- 1/4 cup, Sri-ra-cha chili sauce
- 1/4 cup, sugar
- 2 tbsp. tomato paste
- 1 tbsp. Chinese cooking wine
- 2 cups, water
- 1/2 cup, frying oil

1. Toss chicken thighs with salt and pepper powder and keep them marinated for 10 min.
2. Heat up the oil - ready to brown the chicken.
3. Brown all chicken thighs.
4. Pour off the frying oil, in the same pot, goes garlic and chopped onion and tomato paste, saute to incorporate and the onion get translucent.
5. Add ketchup then add 1/2 cup of water, stir to incorporate.
6. Start seasoning with soy sauce, Worcestershire sauce, Sri-ra-cha sauce, sugar and Chinese cooking wine.
7. Add in all browned chicken thighs follow with the rest of water - make sure water cover the chicken thighs, stir a little for everything to incorporate, stick in bay leaves.
8. Put the lid on completely, bring the heat down to low and let the chicken simmering in a sauce for 1 hr. - open and adjust the taste a haft way to an hour.
9. Serve with steamed, oiled green beans, broccoli, carrot and steamed rice.

Crab Fried Rice, Koa Pad Poo

2010-02-28T12:31:00.000-08:00

Poo is a crab in English.

Whenever I have some crabs left over from the other day, I usually take time to pick all the crab meat out, so the next day I can make this delicious fried rice with it.

Making fried rice is a good way to turn the left-overs into a new dish that is very delicious and easy to make. Next time you have steamed rice left over from your Chinese day, don't throw it away. Make fried rice.

Five minutes, done!
- left-over steamed rice is the best.
- crab meat
- 2 eggs, beaten.
- fresh garlic, crushed.
- carrot, snow pea, green onion, cut into small pieces.
- lemon
- oil

- 1 tbsp. fish sauce
- 1/2 tbsp. sugar
- white pepper powder

1. Heat up a wok, drizzling in oil.
2. Add garlic and saute until fragrant.
3. Put in crab meat, follow with beaten egg. Give a quick stir until crab meats are lightly coated with egg.
4. In goes, steamed rice, carrot, snow pea, make quick stir for everything coming together.
5. Start seasoning with fish sauce, sugar and white pepper powder. Sprinkle with green onion. Taste and adjust the taste you like.
6 Serve with chili fish sauce and a wedge of lemon - sprinkle over it before eating.

Num Pla Prik (Chili fish sauce)

Saute Garlic Chives With Pork Livers

2010-02-27T10:59:00.000-08:00

Another great dish of pork liver and chives. I love the soft texture of lever and a mild garlic aroma of garlic chives, which perfectly complement each other.

Seasoning with fresh garlic, black pepper, soy sauce and a hint of rice cooking wine, creating a full Asian flavor for the table, and did I mention that they have a lot of good health benefit.

Any Garlic Chives In The Garden?

- hand full of garlic chives, cut into one inch long.
- 2 cloves of fresh garlic, crushed.
- half piece of pork liver, cut into small bite pieces.

- 1 1/2 tbsp. soy sauce
- 1 tbsp. sugar
- 1 tsp. white vinegar
- 1 1/2 tsp. rice wine
- 1/2 cup water
- 2 tbsp. oil

1. Heat up a wok until hot, add oil into a wok.
2. Add garlic saute until fragrant.
3. In goes, pork liver, stir and add a half cup of water, keep stirring until liver turn opaque, but still have blood seeping through.
4. Add garlic chives, stir.
5. Start seasoning with soy sauce, sugar, white vinegar and rice cooking wine. Stir until there is no blood on the liver.
6. Sprinkle with crushed black pepper. Turn off the heat.
7. Serve with steamed rice.

Spicy Thai Seafood Dipping.

2010-02-24T14:02:00.000-08:00

If you plan to have seafood in Thailand, you might want to try to make this dipping before you go so you'll not surprise when you are there, and you might get a look if you asked for the butter dipping there.

Steamed blue crab full of roe. I bought fresh from Chinatown.

Grill fresh squids, again, full of roe at street stall on Pa-ngan island, Thailand

Thai love to dip their seafood in this tangy and spicy dip. We usually don't season our seafood before putting them on the grill or a steam plate.

We rather let the real taste of the sea to show off then add a kick in a mouth with this dipping.

Fresh Fresh Fresh

- 4-5 Thai chilies (reduce if you are not a big fan)
- 8 cloves of fresh garlic
- 2 tbsp. of lime juice
- 1 1/2 tbsp. fish sauce
- 1 1/2 tbsp. palm sugar
- a pinch of salt

1. pound chillies and garlic together.
2. add palm sugar and pound to incorporate.
3. add lemon juice, fish sauce and salt.

and you are ready to dip in.

Stir-fired Blue Crabs With Coconut Milk.

2010-02-20T08:13:00.000-08:00

I am a super giant fan of crabs.
They are de-li-ci-o-s*0*
I can eat a whole biggg tray full of grilled or steamed crabs with spicy seafood dipping by myself. They are my number one of choice when it comes to seafood

For me, the best way to enjoy crabs is to steam or grill - no boiled crabs, no seasoning at all - then later dip them into Thai spicy seafood dipping . It's truly my heaven on earth.

So, when my mom asked what I wanted to eat at a very first day we got home, no doubt, my answer was crabs.

This is how female crabs look like when it's turned

Another delicious way to enjoy a crabs dish is to stir-fire. There are a few different ingredients to stir-fire crabs. This recipe is from my mother. It was one of her crab dish that she had to make it over and over when I was there because I just couldn't get enough of it.....gimme more!

Get crabs and coconut milk ready

At my parent's house, we have enough coconut trees at our land, so we often make fresh coconut milk ourselves by using a coconut grater or Kra-ty, as Thai call, grating coconut meat then pour in a little of lukewarm water and use hands to squeeze the white milk out.

Well, you don't have to beat yourself up making coconut milk as my mom did, just go ahead use your can of coconut milk, it's perfect too.

- Clean the blue crabs, take off the hard shells then cut each of them into a half.
- Cut green onion into one inch long.

Seasoning

- 1 1/2 cup coconut milk
- 1 tsp. fish sauce
- 1 tbsp. palm sugar
- a pinch of salt

1. Heat up coconut milk till bubbling, add in crabs, stir a little to make sure all the crabs are coated with coconut milk, turn the heat to medium.

2. Start seasoning with palm sugar, fish sauce and salt, give them a stir to incorporate.

3. Let it cooks until the coconut milk is reduced.

4. Add spring onion, give a quick stir then turn off the heat.

5. Serve with steamed rice....

What a Crab!!

Green Wrap and Thai Desserts

2010-02-09T12:59:00.000-08:00

There is one thing (out of a lot of things) I wanted to put in my blog about Thai food as soon as I have a chance to get my hands on it, which is Thai desserts in leaves wrapping, to me it is a very genius way of packing the food.

Kanoom Hua Lan wrapped with banana leaves, belted with coconut leaf, secured with coconut leaf' s vein (a wooden-like, thin, long strip), which is cut into short brochettes to secure the wrap.

Thais use Palm leaves, coconut leaves, Banana leaves, the most common used for food wrapping in Thai cuisine, which I think it is a cool way to use what the nature has given to us.

Kanoom Jaak wrapped in two coconut leaves, which are weaving the leaves into each other, and secured with their vein brochettes.

And in the same way, you are giving nice and clean trash back to the nature without destroy the good benefits of the earth....win win for us and for the earth, and they look pretty, too.

Kanoom Krooy wrapped in banana leaves.

Kanoom Tom wrapped in palm leaves.

with coconut milk sticky rice and black beans inside, yum!

yellow sticky rice with sweet shrimp coconut on top, also wrapped in banana leaf.

These are some of the desserts my mom put on the table for us to have them with coffee each morning when we were there......Love!

Restaurant Week Lunching at Matsugen, Tribeca.

2010-02-08T05:56:00.000-08:00

It is great to have foodies around you 'cause they always have nice places to go to, just like my lovely foodie sister, Sam, and our friend, Grim. Finding places to eat is their mission.

Grim suggested that we should get together for lunch at Matsugen, the Soba place in Tribeca. They were offering a Restaurant Week Menu for $24.

Huy and Grim, the graphic designers merge the foodies.

Grim says that she always wanted to go to this place and this is a chance to try the foods there without breaking our wallets.

set of appetizer.
Crispy Shrimp, Spinach Gomae
Yuba Sashimi, Uni with Yuzu Gelee

They're all tasty. I love them all and the spoon too.

Vanilla caramel pudding.

This one too, delicious, even though I'm not a sweet person, I love it, and again that silver spoon, I so want one.

I chose Chicken Nanban ( Soba in a soup) for my main. The broth is rich, not as blend as I expect when it comes to Japanese food, and again, the spoon.

Every time I eat out, the food is one thing, the interior decoration is another that always gets my attention.

Here at Matsugen, the place has a contemporary, sleek decor with beautiful lighting and the streamlined set up plus gorgeous tableware, which I love the most.....impressed.

Buffet in a Trend, Charcoal Grill.

2010-02-01T04:52:00.000-08:00

Moo Gra Ta( moo=pork, gra ta= pan)

For the pass three years I've been reading about the new trend of eating in Thailand - there is one trend that is quite popular for a period of time which is a Buffet Eating or like the....All You Can Eat...here in the state. You just get in there, pay for a mount of each person, and off you go - dig in as much as you can eat.

Moo Kra Ta is one of a big hit in this type of category. There is no reason that I was gonna miss it when I was in Thailand, so my sister and niece, Fon and Bai-Fern, took us to the place close to her house where Fon said that it is Bai-Fern's favorite place, she can almost eat here every day, I can see why.

The grilling pan comes with soup ready to be working on.

It is an open space kind of restaurant, which is appropriate for grilling. The restaurant prepares all the meats, seafood and vegetable for you, all you do is to dig in what ever you want, bring to the table and get you hands on over the charcoal grilling.

They also have already cooked food as an appetizer. I can see why it's such a favorite for my niece, which is in her teens, she eats a lot and she can only choose what she wants. I found it is enjoyable if you are an eater.

Back to the heaven of Thai Foods. Part One, Bangkok

2010-01-30T06:46:00.000-08:00

Our first meal back home at Noom's parents's house in BKK

It'd been two and a half months I spent my precious times in my home country, Thailand, where I almost drowned in a vast sea of yummy foods.

The great thing of them all is that most of the times I didn't have to lift my fingers to cook it at all. In Thailand, there are always foods ready to eat everywhere we were. Kitchen is always mom's territory that I can only be a helper.

Noom's mom at her usual butcher stall in fresh market

Fresh market where you can find everything, and I mean everything.

Both my mom and Noom's mom are serious cooks. They are always busy thinking about what we will be eating right next after each meal. It could be exhausted sometimes. They cook tree times a day. I have no idea how they do it, but they make it happen everyday.

In BKK, at Noom's house, mom has a helper named Kra-Taar. She's from Lao, and that's why she made a dead on delicious Som-tum or papaya salad with a secret that I have never known before - adding shrimp paste in it, instead of Pla-Ra or fermented fish as usual, and it is soooo yummy.

Noom's mom in her territory.

With Kra-Taar, the lovely helper

Noom's mom is the Eastern origin, so if you want to have a dead on delicious Thai Eastern foods, come to her kitchen, you'll never be disappointed.

Kra-Taar's signature Som-Tum that made me cry...so spicy

goes with grilled herbal chicken

and mom's Nam Sod Kao Tod ( Seasoned Fried Rice Ball with sour aging pork)

Fresh vegetable picked right off her garden

another delicious meal at home

From Noom's mom's kitchen, I got a tip of making oh-so delicious Som-Tum that I took it with me going back to my mom's kitchen which is the Southern kitchen, and from my mom kitchen, I brought back my mom's signature - Southern curries to Noom's mom kitchen....like a small food ambassador between the Eastern and the Southern in our family.

Fruit from Home

2009-10-03T16:01:00.000-07:00

Lambutan (Ngao)

This time of the year is the time when most tropical fruits come to Chinatown. It is the time that I can enjoy the delicious, sweet taste from home. Like these red hairy fruit called Lambutan or Ngao in Thai. They are my favorite tropical fruits ever. I can eat up to two kilos. by myself.

My brothers, sister and I always to go grandma's orchard when these fruits are in the season. We eat them right there on the trees. You peel the red hairy skin off and eat the sweet, white meat at the inside. It is an almond-size pit inside that you don't want to eat it, or you can, if you wanted to, only that it doesn't taste anything. As for cooking, some people put them in some red curries. It is delicious.

Sweet Pamelo (Som-O)

These guys are so refreshing and juicy. There are many kinds of Pamelo. The one that is quite sour, we put them in salads, and eat the sweet one just like other fruits. To me, they are the giant grapefruits with a very thick think skin and thick white membrane that you need a knife to peel it off.

Pomegranate (Tub-tim)

Pomegranate are in as well, but I am not a big fan of them. I am taught not to eat their seeds, I can put all the seed in my mouth, once I get all the juice I have to spit the white seeds out - do not swallow them, and that's quite annoying.

Longan (Lum-yai)

These fruits will give me mouth ulcer if I eat too much of them at one time, which happens quite often because the white meat inside the brown skin is so irresistible. It is sweet and fluidly - a bit like hard-jelly. They have a hard black pit inside, just don't eat those.

In Thailand we have so much varieties of fruits year-round, and that what I miss the most.

vegetables and fruits store on Mulberry and Canal street, Chinatown, Manhattan

Thai Jungle Curry with Beef, Gang Pah Neau

2009-09-14T15:07:00.000-07:00

I don't know what your jungle looks like, my jungle looks like this - lots of mixed vegetables and herbs and beef. This jungle is wild. It makes my mouth on fire every time I eat it. But, that is a good thing though, according Dr. Oz, spicy food helps booting your metabolism, burning your fat.

Gang Pah, Gang means curry, Pah means jungle in Thai, is once considered as a peasant curry. When you live in the jungle, your foods come from what ever it is the jungle provides you- wild herbs, wild vegetable and wild meats.

Thai eggplant, Kabocha squash (Japanese pumpkin)

Cooking in the jungle with wild meat, which some have a very strong meaty smell, the curry paste using for this kind of curry is made with strong fragrant and spicy herbs to help dilute the scent of the meat.

Today the jungle curry has made its way to the city, so that, in some area, the level of spice has been toned down because of a supermarket meats and vegetables have been used instead of the wild animals out there.

preserved Bamboo Shoot

This is the water base curry.
It's light, but it can make your mouth on fire.

- Gang Pah curry paste (available at Thai groceries)
- Vegetables : Thai eggplants, string beans, preserved bamboo shoot, Kabocha squash, cut them all up into bite pieces.
- Thai basil or holy basil, use only the leaves
- kaffir lime leaves, fresh galangal, julienned
- beef, thinly slice

- fish sauce
- palm sugar(optional)
- water

Gang Pah curry paste

1. Heat up a 5 tbsp. of curry paste with a half cup of water until fragrant then add 3 cups of water more, leave it until boil.

2. putting in vegetable, start with squash since they are the hardest to get soft then follow with others except the basil leave (basil leaves go in last)

3. leave them to reach full boil then season it with fish sauce, start with 2tbsp. then taste it, and you can little by little adjust the taste as you go, too salty add more water.

4. (optional) add a small piece of palm sugar for more rounder taste.

5. With fully boil, in goes beef, stir a few times, add basil leaves, close the lid for a few minutes then turn off the heat, leave it for three to five minutes, and it's ready to serve.

Serve with fried fish or stir-fried vegetable and steamed rice. YUM!

Secret tip:
If you feel that the curry is too watery, before cooking this dish, soak up 1 tbsp. of uncooked rice with water for 1 hour then pound or grind them into powder and add into curry, it will help curry to have more body, just what I like.

Pan-fired Turmeric Red Mullet, Pla Kra Bok Tod Kamin

2009-09-03T08:42:00.000-07:00

Red Mullet, my mom favorite fish. She always comes up with delicious recipe with this yummy fish, and this is one of hers that becomes my favorite fish dish ever. It is also another delicious recipe using turmeric powder. You need to add more turmeric to your diet, people. The research shows it helps prevent Alzheimer

I got two Red Mullets for $2.60 from fish store in Chinatown. The fish was very fresh with clear eyes and red gills, and when thing is fresh, it tastes SOoo good.

Easy preparing

- 2 tbsp. turmeric powder
- 5 cloves of garlic
- 15 seeds black pepper
- 2 tsp. salt
- fresh red Mullet, cleaned and scored
turmeric powder

Make the rub and fry

1. using mortar and pestle to crush garlic and black pepper together until it becomes paste then mix in turmeric power and salt.
2. * wear gloves, otherwise your hands will be yellow stained for two weeks* rub the paste all over the fish. If there are any paste lump left, try to put them inside the fish stomach so they will not get burn when frying.
3. Fry them in hot oil and serve.

Warning : Be prepare for the delicious smell that comes out from these garlic, black pepper and turmeric rub, it'll make your stomach groans so bad.

They are golden delicious indeed.

Stir-fried Brussels sprout with Garlic

2009-08-21T14:19:00.000-07:00

I love these cute little green cabbages. They are so green and crunchy and yummyyyy. Shame that they cannot grow in hot weather like Thailand. It was here, in the state, that I had the first taste of them, and I was hooked since.

At first I didn't really know how to cook these guys, so I just thought that since they are tiny cabbages, I'll cook them just like how I cook big cabbages - Stir-fried, and I wasn't disappointed. They taste better than big cabbages.

Wok is the best thing to stir-fry vegetable
I was watching one of the cooking show, the guy was talking about woks, comparing the benefit of woks and saute pans, which one keeps the heat better during the process of stir-fry, and then he concluded that wok can't do a good job because of its lack of to be able to keep the heat during stir-frying according to the shape of the wok.

After that show, he came back again and said that he got a lot of letters and emails, (well, he should) saying that he was so wrong about woks, and that he doesn't know what he is doing, so he had to come back and cleared it out that he meant woks are not good for using with the regular gas stoves because, according to the shape of the wok, the heat will lose anyway.....Again, he's still wrong about that.

Working with wok
You can stir-fry vegetable with wok with regular gas stoves and get the best stir-fried vegetable still.

The tip is.....
the wok has to be really really really Hot....before adding oil. Once wok gets really hot it will keep the heat through out the stir-fly process. Keep in mind that stir-fry is a quick cooking process, you only need 2-3 minutes to do it, so it preserves the crunchiness and taste of vegetable. To say that, with a very hot wok and only 2-3 minutes of stir-fly, the wok will not lose the heat that bad as some might think it will, and they do an excellent job as we all know.

How hot is the wok?
The heavy stainless steel wok is the ideal for stir-fly cooking though. Forget about those non-stick wok, since you need to heat it up to the extreme. I usually heat the empty wok until I can see the hot air dancing over the wok, that tells me that the wok is heated up all over then I'll add oil and, right away, start to stir-fry.

Now, let's get Brussels sprout stir-fried

- Fresh Brussels sprout
- 3 cloves of garlic, smashed
- ground black pepper
- 1 1/2 tbsp. Oyster sauce or Soy sauce
- 1 tsp. fish sauce
- 2 tsp. sugar
- oil
- 4 tbsp. water

1. Rinse vegetable to clean a few times, cut them into a half.
2. If seasoning with oyster sauce like I do, pour oyster sauce over the raw vegetable before hitting a wok.
3. Heat up the wok until you can see the hot air dancing over the wok then add the oil.
4. In goes garlic and Brussels sprout.
5. Add some water, give a few quick stir, add fish sauce and sugar, stir. (* add more water if the wok's getting to dry because of the heat*)
6. Turn off the heat, sprinkle with black pepper.

Hot and Sour Salmon Soup, Tom Yum Pla Salmon

2009-08-21T09:58:00.000-07:00

This recipe is another delicious choice you can cook with fresh Salmon. It is very light and flavorful yet easy to cook. The tangy soup full with the freshness from Asian herbs complements the taste of fresh Salmon perfectly.

Fresh from the market
- Salmon
- 2 stalks of lemongrass
- bunch of kaffir lime leaves
- 1 tube of fresh Galangal
- Thai chilies
- 6 button mushrooms
- cilantro leaves
- 1 lime

Seasoning
- 1 1/2 tbsp. fish sauce
- 2 tbsp. fresh lime juice
- (optional) 2 tbsp. tapioca flour mixed with 1 tbsp water

fresh galangal and fresh kaffir lime leaves

Preparing
First part of herbs.

1. cut 1 stalk of lemongrass into 2 inches, and smash to break them.
2. slice galangal into tin pieces - about 4-5 pieces.
3. 4 leaves of kaffir lime.

Second part of herbs

4. finely slice another stalk of lemongrass.
5. finely chop more galangal.
6. julienne kaffir lime leaves.
7. finely chop Thai chilies.

5 minutes cooking
1. Boil 1 1/2 cup of water with the first part of herbs.
2. In the boiling water, add Salmon, after 2 minutes, season it with fish sauce.
3. Use a fork to check if the fish is cooked then take the fish out of the soup, put the fish in to the serving bowl, let it sit.
4. reduce the heat to medium low, use a slot spoon to spoon all the chunky herbs out of the soup, leave the soup clear. These part of the herbs are no longer used.

5. In goes mushroom and the second part herbs.
6. Add in the tapioca flour mixture ( this will give the soup more soupy body)
7. Turn off the heat.
8. Add in fresh lime juice, stir.
9. Pour the soup over the fish sitting in a serving bowl, top with fresh cilantro leaves.
10 Serve.

Oh! Taisho, gimme Yakitori!!

2009-08-06T20:57:00.000-07:00

After a long walk of the day, we decided to have something to eat in the neighborhood before climbing back to the apartment. We ended up ten steps away from our apartment at Oh! Taisho, the Japanese Izayaka style restaurant, a type of Japanese street food place that served foods to accompany the drinks . The place is on Saint Marks Place and 3 Avenue, Manhattan.

I don't drink,...Really!!...so my aim was the Yakitori, grilled meats and vegetables on sticks.
B set Yakitori

Seaweed Salad

Even though I have not yet had a real Izayaka experience in Japan, growing up reading Japanese comics my eyes out, I can say that this Oh! Taisho is exactly what I always see in Japanese comic books, a tiny stall with a long counter attached to the stall as a long table for customers to sit and have hot Ramen.
Grilled Squid

The place is so tiny, and always cramped and bustling. We don't come here as often as we did before anymore, for a while we just get tired of a lot of people and long waiting line.

It is a fun place to hang out with a gang of friends though....for a date?...I won't recommend. With the bustling, yelling for the foods from very busy waiters and waitresses, I don't think it's romantic at all.
Steamed Rice Ball with Spicy Cod Roe inside

Japanese Sausages

Over a past year or two, we I've noticed a drop in quality - the Yakitory most of the time comes out cold when it supposes to be hot from the grill. I believe they are too busy to keep the quality of the food stable, and that's might be one reason that we step back a little.

But, it's not that bad, after a long break, I still enjoy my favorite Yakitori even though, again, it came out a little bit cold instead of hot from the grill.
Grilled Green Onion

This time we sat at the counter because we didn't want to wait for a table inside, and that we realized that it was a bad idea for our appetite to be able to see how they handle the foods with their hands.

I used to work in the restaurant, I understand the nature of a kitchen frenzy, when you have to be on top of a pile of orders. That's why we prefer not to see it to be able to eat out.

Beef Noodle, Gui Teaw Neur

2009-07-11T10:08:00.000-07:00

When I want some fast noodle as a lunch, I'll go to Chinatown. But, when it comes to a real treat noodle, I'll make it myself. When I say "real treat" I mean the taste that I am familiar with, the taste from home, just like this delicious Thai beef noodle.

In New York, if you want to find the real Thai noodle, you have to go to Queens. There are many Thai restaurants that make very good noodle. In Manhattan, there is the one I recommend, located at downtown on Fulton st. between Gold st. & William St. The restaurant name is the Bennie's Thai Cafe. They make a very delicious beef needle called Gui Teaw Num Tok or Waterfall Noodle, cute:)
dried rice noodle

Make this noodle when you have the whole day for cooking. It takes at least three hours to slowly cook the soup until beefs get very tender and soft, almost melt in your mouth. But, it's all worth it.
Chinese celery

What vegetable to buy?
- Chinese Celery
- Cilantro (with the roots intact)
- Green Onion
- Green-leaf Lettuce, here I used water spinach

Condiment for the soup
- 3 star anises
- 2 cinnamon sticks
- 1 root of galangal, slice
Galangal

Star anises, Cinnamon Sticks

Herbal Paste
- 5 cilantro roots
- 5 cloves of garlic
- 10 black or white pepper

Seasoning
- Soy sauce
- 1 small piece of sugar candy (optional)
- salt

Beef : I use chunk beef stew meat

Note : There is no specific measurement for these one. I made a big pot that would last us for almost a week. The best way is to taste it as you go, so you can make the right portion for yourself.

Making the soup

1. Make the Herbal Paste
2. Put all the meat into a pot, cover them up with water and put on high heat.
3. In goes, condiments and herbal paste to the pot.
4. As the meat start to get hot they will release the oil to the surface, gradually skim those foamy oil out.
5. Reduce the heat to medium and start the seasoning, start with three table spoon of soy sauce, and a pinch of salt, later you can taste and adjust the taste as you like it.
6. After the seasoning, reduce the heat to low, cover the pot with a lid and let them stew until the beef get very soft and tender.

Serving

water spinach

There are quite a lot of things to prepare when it comes to serving noodle.

1. Cut coarsely fresh cilantro, green Onion, Chinese Celery, water spinach or green-leaf lettuce.
2. Boil dried rice noodle (just like boiling pasta).
3. Put soften noodle in a serving bowl, in goes, fresh cilantro, green onion, Chinese celery and green-leaf lettuce or water spinach.
4. Ladle beef and soup in the bowl, top with garlic oil and serve.

Again, you can adjust the taste of your noodle before eating by seasoning them with sugar, white vinegar and fish sauce...oh...also a bit of chili powder is Delicious!!!

I also love to have some extra beef balls to go with this noodle. It is a real treat for me.

Thai Herbal Marinade Paste

2009-07-07T13:55:00.000-07:00

When I was watching Daisy from the Daisy Cooks talking about her Sofrito, the herbal mixture she uses for her cooking, it surprised me how close the Spanish and Thai cooking is.

As for Thai cooking, these three pals, Cilantro roots, Garlic and pepper, play a very important part as a marinade paste to give a freshness, herbal scent to your nose, especially for meat that have a strong meaty smell. If you wonder what those distinctive fragrant in Thai grilled chicken or Barbecue Pork is, the secret is here.

Now that you love cooking Thai food, from now on, stop throwing away cilantro roots. Those are the gems. Here in the US, in most super markets, cilantro roots are more likely cut off, only the leaves and stems are left for use. That makes me cry.

Many time I have to use the cilantro stems to substitute for the roots, the part of cilantro that give out the strongest fragrant. Whenever I get cilantro with the roots are still intact I save them up by making them into this marinade paste and freeze them up to use it later.

Thai barbecue pork marinated with herbal paste

Only easy pounding is needed

Clean the cilantro roots with water thoroughly, use mortar and pestle, pound cilantro roots, garlic, black or white peppers and a pinch of salt into a paste. Use them to marinate meat, fish and seafood as the recipes call for.

Chinese Fried Bread, Pa Tong Go

2009-07-06T20:21:00.000-07:00

As far as I remember eating this bread, I've never known before that it is Chinese's. We, Thai, also growing up with them, call them Pa-tong-go or Ja Qwai in some part of the South. I now know more that Chinese call them You Tiao and some others different names......You will never learn enough about food you eat every day.

As a Thai, every day waking up in the morning, it is quite common to see a plate of Pa-tong-go on the table along with everyday breakfast. Every morning, either my mom or aunty will get up early and go to the market or to a nearby stall that sells these yummy bread and buy them for the house.

Pa-tong-go with Jok

We eat them with Jok or Soy milk or other warm drinks as a breakfast . Since I've moved to New York, I long for them. I now know that they are Chinese breads, I went to Chinatown hoping to find them, but it is too difficult to communicate. Chinese are so diversity in their own language, different region speak different Chinese, as well, these fried bread has so many names in Chinese. I gave up!....

Pa-tong-go with Clam Chowder

I started to search for the recipes, and there are tons of them out there. The original recipes of making these bread mostly call for Ammonia powder, and I have a hard time finding it. I searched for more and got lucky with this recipe, posted on Thai community website by Thai woman living in another country, my bad that I don't remember exactly what the site was.

Her recipe is simple and doesn't call for Ammonia powder. I am dancing with this recipe. Even though this recipe is not exactly as the original Pa-tong-go has, the taste is as good as its original, and I like it already.

Making the dough Serve for three people

- 1 1/4 cups of Self-Rising flour
- 1 1/2 tsp. active dry yeast
- 1/2 cup of warm water
- 1 tbsp. vegetable oil

1. Mix the yeast with warm water until it becomes foamy.

2. Mix flour and oil together, and in goes the yeast mixture.

3. Mix them well to from a dough.

4. Flour the surface of your kitchen top, put the dough and kneel them with hands for 3 min.

5. Leave it in a bowl, cover with plastic wrap for the rising for 1 hour.

6. After the dough get a good rise, take it out on the floured surface and kneel it a bit more then start to shape it into a long strip dough.

7. Cut the long strip dough into small strips about 1 x 2 inches.

8. On one strip, use your finger tip touch a bit of water and apply on one side of the strip, stick two strips together, water will act as a glue to hold them together.

Fry the Dough

1. Heat oil to the high, then reduce the heat to medium high, in goes the doughs.
2. Fry them until golden, take them out, and rest on the rack.
3. Enjoy.

They are good with
Milk, soup, porridge, dip with sweet condensed milk.

Saute Garlic Liver, Tub Tod Kratiem

2009-07-06T12:46:00.000-07:00

Last time I did an annual health check-up, my doctor said that I need to add more iron into my dietary list. He said my red blood cell count is a little below normal, and that my body needs more iron to help the process of increasing red blood cells.

Besides green leaves, one of my iron-rich of choice is liver. As we all know, it is also very concentrated source of high-quality protein, vitamins and minerals.

Just like other kids out there, I fed my aunt's dog with livers from my plate as soon as she turned away. I didn't like the smell of it, and the taste was bitter to me. As I grow up, all of the sudden the bitter livers become tasty, and the smell never bother me anymore. I now know how to deal with liver smell......Got Milk?

Since liver is known in high cholesterol, to balancing them out with garlic is a good way to enjoy eating liver. Light soy sauce using as a marinate gives liver a very tasteful dish.

Preparing

- 2 oz. Pork liver or Beef liver
- 10 cloves of fresh garlic, coarsely chopped
- black pepper
- 1 cup of milk
- 2 tbsp. vegetable oil

- 2 tbsp. soy sauce
- 1 tsp. salt
- 2 tbsp. sugar
- 1 tbsp. whisky

1. Cut liver into 1/4 inch thick. To get rid of the liver smell, soak them in milk for 10 min.
2. Rinse off the milk, and then marinate the liver with all ingredients for another 10 min.

Get your saute pan ready

1. Heat up a pan, put in vegetable oil.
2. Add marinated liver to the pan, and saute until no red blood on the liver left. Seasoning with black pepper. Turn off the heat. Serve.

*Be conscious that liver doesn't need to be cooked too long, if so it will become dry and too hard.*

Eat them together with any kind of vegetable dishes and steamed rice. Make your mother proud this time, and listen to her when she say "Eat your liver, they are good for your body."

Thai Fragrant Cookies, Kanom Kleeb Lumdual

2009-06-27T10:43:00.000-07:00

Kleeb Lumdual, Thai Cookies

I wish you could smell and taste these delicious yet beautiful Thai cookies. I don't know exactly when it started, but I know that these fragrant cookies have been around in Thai cuisine for many decades.

Rumduol or Lumdual is the name of the national flower of the kingdom of Cambodia. The plant belongs to an Annonaceae family. The flowers have a very lovely sweet scent. I remember when I was a little, I used to play under the Annonaceae shrub we call Nom Maew or Cat's nipples flowers because of the size and....have you ever seen cat's nipples? The Cat's Nipples flower is a close cousin of Rumduol flowers only that they are much smaller than Rumduol.

Rumduol Flowers

What makes these lovely Thai cookies distinctive, besides their look, is the way they are scented. Since most traditional Thai desserts have very simple ingredients, flour and sugar, they need to be scented after finished.

The Thai fragrant candle, or Tien-Ob, in Thai, is a candle that is made out of bee wax mixed with a bunch of dried fragrant herbs and frankincense, is used for scenting Thai desserts since the old time.

Thai Fragrant Candle, Tien Ob

Even though these cookies are made out of very simple ingredients, they are quite pricey because of the times and effort put into making them. I used to whine a lot when I knew how much I had to pay per gram for these cookies.

From now on, I will keep my mouth shut if I had to buy them again because I now know how much effort I have to put in to shape up each flowers.

It needs gentle hands and patience to shape them into delicate flowers resembling the real Rumduol flowers.

Believe me, my version, as you see here from the pictures, is not even close to those that is made by professional which are smaller, look more delicate and prettier than what you've seen here, and that is the price you pay for.

But, hey, my mom already cried seeing I can make these kind of delicate Thai dessert.

Simple ingredients kill.
Make about 30+ flowers

- 2 cups, all purpose flour
- 1 cup, sugar powder or icing sugar
- 1 tsp. salt
- 1/2 cup + 2 tbsp. vegetable oil
- Thai fragrant candle for scenting

1. Mix flour, sugar, salt together.
2. Gradually drizzling in the oil. Mix them throughly. Be careful not to make the mixture too wet.

* Testing by grabbing a small handful of mixture and squeeze it tightly in your palm, shape it into a small ball. If you cannot shape a ball, the mixture is too dry. Little by little, add more oil. If you feel the oil in the ball, it is too wet, add little flour.*

3. After the mixture is well mixed, start making Rumduol flowers.

Making delicate flowers.

1. Shape the mixture into one inch balls, or if you wanted to feel like a pro, make them a half inch ball.
2. Cut the ball in to four pieces to form petals.
3. Attach three petals together, using your finger tip to smooth out the top where they are met, so the petals won't separate when baked.
4. Make a tiny tiny ball, attach it into the middle of the three petals, slash the tiny ball open with a sharp knife.
5. Put them on a cookie baking sheet. Send them to the pre-warmed oven with 350F for 12 minutes. These cookies should look off-white, not yellow crispy kind of cookies.
6. Take them out of the oven, let them cool down completely on a cookie rack before scenting.

Scenting the cookies

1. You need a wide open jar with a lid.
2. Place a small dipping bowl at the center, inside the jar.
3. Piece by piece, carefully place each flowers into the jar.
4. Light both of the candle wicks, make sure they are well burned to the wax before blowing them out.
5. As soon as the candle is blew out, place it on the small dipping bowl inside the jar, close the lid right away, keeping the candle smoke lingering inside the jar until faded.
6. Your lovely edible Rumduol flowers are scented.

The best Kanom Kleeb Lumdual cookies should be off-white in color, but here I used unbleached flour, so the color is not that white, and it supposes to melt in your mouth when you eat it.

I do really wish you could smell it...Loveeeeely!

Grilled Turmeric Chicken, Gai Yang Kamin

2009-06-10T16:58:00.001-07:00

I am so happy that I've got to do the dishes today. It means that I don't have to do the cooking, my husband, Noom, is the one who will be wearing the cooking pants, and this is what he's served me - Grilled Turmeric, or Kamin as Thai say it, Chicken.

We use a lot of turmeric in Thai cooking, mainly in curry paste. It is another influence from our neighboring country, India. Besides using them in our food, this miracle yellow herb is used on our skin and body too

turmeric powder

Make the rub
- 1 tbsp. turmeric powder
- 1 tbsp. garam masala
- 1 tsp. ground black pepper
- 2 tbsp. fish sauce

1. Rub 2 pieces of big chicken thigh with the rub ingredient, let them sit for 10 min. *mind you, wear the gloves, this turmeric powder will stain your hand yellow for two weeks*
2. Grill until fragrant and properly cooked in both sides.
3. Serve with green salad and Noom's signature salad dressing, homemade toasts or fried.

Noom's Salad Dressing
This salad dressing happened after we got back from the Moroccan restaurant in the neighborhood. I ordered one of their specials and I just love the dressing, so we'd tried to make it without knowing what kind of ingredients in those dressing, all we had was just the taste, and Noom's come up with this recipe.....nothing new :)

- 2-3 tbsp chopped shallot
- 1 tbsp. dried oregano
- 1 tsp. ground black pepper
- 1/3 cup virgin olive oil
- 2 tbsp. balsamic vinegar
- 1 tbsp. soy sauce
- 2 tbsp. honey
- 1 tsp. salt
Mix them together, can be kept in the fridge for a month.

toasted homemade bread

Chive Cake, Kanom Guui Chy

2009-06-07T15:14:00.000-07:00

I just got a good looking bunch of chives from the market. My mind flew back to a street where my university is located. There was a smoke filled stall on the side walk in front of the university gate selling these filling appetite called Kanom Guui Chy or Chive cake in English.
Fresh Chives

As an art student, I normally spend long period of times in each classes-painting, sculpturing, printing, and more often had little times to eat before running to another class. To tame my hunger before a next meal, I would run out to grab these chive cakes, sizzling in a flat, wide, hot pan, bathed with dark, sweet spicy sauce. They are tasty and filling kind of appetizer made with very simple ingredients-flours and chives.

You need three kind of flours
The cake part
- 1 1/2 cups rice flour
- 1/2 cup tapioca flour
- 1/2 cup glutenous rice flour
- 2 cup water
- 1/4 cup vegetable oil

The chive part
- 200 gram chives, cut into one inch long
- 1/4 baking soda
- 1 tbsp. black soy sauce
- 2 tbsp. soy sauce
- 1 tbsp. vegetable oil
- 1 tbsp. mince garlic
- 2 tsp. sugar

Saute the chives
1. In a small bowl, combine backing soda, black soy sauce, soy sauce, sugar together.
2. In a frying pan, put in vegetable oil, heat it up to medium heat.
3. Put in mince garlic saute until fragrant.
4. In goes chives and sauce mixture.
5. Saute until chives are wilted and incorporated with sauce, turn the heat off.
6. let them cool down.

- Prepare a steamer, bring it to boil, get ready for steaming.
- lightly oil a small brownie pan, set aside.

Mix the flours
1. Mix all flours together.
2. Mix in vegetable oil, and gradually add water, stir until incorporated.
3. Mix in saute chive, stir.
4. Pour the mixture into a oiled pan.
5. Bring it into a steamer. With the lid close, steam for 20 minutes, until the mixture looks almost translucence.
6. Bring it out, let it sit and cool down before cutting.

Now they are ready to eat, or sear them in a hot oil pan to make skin crispy like I love.

Black Sweet Dipping Sauce
- 1-2 crushed small chilies.
- 2 cup sweet black soy sauce.
- 1/4 soy sauce
- 2 tbsp. white vineger.
- 2 tbsp. sugar.

1. Mix all ingredients in a sauce pan, bring it to medium heat to incorporate.
2. Turn off the heat, serve.

Son In law Eggs, Khai Luk Koei

2009-06-02T15:57:00.001-07:00

The son in law eggs

The word Luk-Koei means Son in law in Thai. Why they are given such a name, I have no clue. I've heard some say that these eggs are traditionally served at the wedding celebration. Well, there is something relevant here, at least.

dried chilies

This is a very delightful dish. Most kids love it, adults ask for it. It is almost like a comfort food from childhood. Sweeten with palm sugar, a hint of sour of tamarind, and fish sauce to complete the taste. Then glam up with fried shallots and fried, dried chilies to challenge the taste buds.

This is not a spicy dish even though there are the fried chilies on top of the eggs. As I said the kids love it because of the sweet taste, so those fried chilies are meant for adults who wants a little kick to wake up their taste buds, and the kids can just pick them out.

hard boiled eggs

Start with hard boiled eggs

- 5 hard boiled eggs
- 3 heads fresh shallots, chopped.
-4-5 dried small chilies
- oil for frying

fried shallots and fried dried chillies

1. put 2 tbsp. oil into a pan, heat it up to medium hot, then in goes fresh shallots. Fry them until they start to be golden, fetch them out, let them rest. Like garlic, shallot is easily burn, so be careful if you don't want to end up with nasty bitter burn shallots.

2. With the same oil, fry dried chilies about 1 min., take them out.

3. Add more a mount of oil into the pan for frying hard boiled eggs. Fry them until the skin turn golden and look crispy.

4. Take them out of the pan, let them cool down before cutting them into a half.

Making the sauce

- 2 tbsp. palm sugar
- 1 1/2 tbsp. tamarind puree
- 2 tsp. fish sauce

1. In the same pan, take out some oil and leave about 1 tbsp. in a pan, turn the heat to low, put all ingredients into the pan.
2. Let the sauce simmering on low heat until it comes thick syrup, turn off the heat.

Glam up the son in law
- put the sauce on the eggs, top with fried shallots and fried chilies, serve.
- We eat them with rice along with other foods on the table.

Thai people don't consider eggs as for breakfast only. We eat eggs whenever we want to-breakfast, lunch, dinner, so don't cringe when we say we have fried eggs, boiled eggs for dinner.

Thai Barbecue Pork ,Moo Ping, Yummy Street Food

2009-05-29T19:47:00.000-07:00

If you are a meat lover and happen to have a chance walking on streets of Thailand, look for smoke filled stalls. A chance is you might find a stall that sells this flavorful barbecue pork .

It is a must for the meat lovers. The taste and fragrant of charcoal, coconut milk, pepper, garlic and a kick of cilantro make this Thai style barbecue pork different from others. They usually sell with a bag of steamed sticky rice to eat together. When I was living with a hectic life in Bangkok, this is my fast food on the go.

What a different from the pictures you see here is that in Thailand they skewer them with short wooden skewers, and slowly grill on charcoal. Here in my tiny apartment, in New York City I don't have a luxury to do a charcoal grill, so I make do of it - put them into a broiler and let them fill my room with yummy fragrant.

The marinade
- 6 cloves of garlic
- 20 seed of black peppers
- 6 cilantro root or a bunch of cilantro stems
- 1 tsp. coarse sea salt
- 1 cup of fresh cilantro leaves

- 1 cup of coconut milk
- 2 tbsp. oyster sauce
- 1 tbsp. soy sauce
- 1 tbsp. fish sauce
- 3 tbsp. palm sugar

Pork
- 2 lb. of pork butt, slice into thin strips.

Make a marinade paste
Put garlic, black pepper, cilantro roots and salt together in mortar (leave the fresh cilantro leaves for the marinate bowl later), crush them with pestle until they become a paste.

Get your hands dirty.
1. Put all ingredients including the marinade paste together in one bowl, use your hands, you can wear gloves if you want, to mix the ingredients thoroughly, make sure there is no lumps of palm sugar left.

2. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap, let it sit for at least 3-12 hours, and it would be the best if you leave it over night in the fridge.

3. If you want to use wooden skewers, just do it. If you prefer metal skewers like I do, they do a good job as well. Skewer pork, push them tightly together on a skewer, to keep the marinade locked in at the inside. Grill until fragrant and well cooked.

4. Serve with spicy tamarind dipping sauce and soft steamy sticky rice....Holy Moly!

Ginger Chicken, Gai Pad Khing

2009-05-28T20:51:00.000-07:00

If you had Ginger Chicken in some Thai restaurants here before, you might find this dish looks a little different from the one they serve in the restaurants, which some have bell peppers, scallion or even broccoli?...

Gai=chicken, Pad=stir fried, Khing=ginger

This is a kind of Ginger Chicken we eat at home in Thailand. There are no other vegetable besides julienne gingers and black fungus ( aka cloud ear, tree ear, wood fungus, mouse ear, and jelly mushroom) put into it.

soaked black fungus

The taste is quite rich with Asian sauces, touch of spice from ginger and a little punch from whisky, which makes it a perfect dish to eat with plain, steamed rice.

julienne fresh ginger

Ingredients : serve four people.
- 2 cups of fresh julienne gingers
- 1 hand full of dried Black Fungus (available at most Chinese market and groceries), soaked with water until soft
* These dried fungus need to be rinsed and squeezed a few times until the water is clean.*
- 2 big pieces of boneless chicken thigh, cut into medium chunks

- 2 tbsp. vegetable oil
- 1 tbsp. oyster sauce
- 2 tbsp. soy sauce
- 3/4 cup of water
- 2 tbsp. sugar
- 1 1/2 tbsp. whisky (any kind your husband has)
- 1 tbsp. of fine ground white pepper

Dried Black Fungus

soak them with water

Heat up the pan

1. In a small bowl, mix up all sauces and sugar, leave out the whisky.
1. In a hot pan, put in vegetable oil, follow with ginger, saute till fragrant and soft.
2. In goes chicken, saute until no pink meat left.
3. Add in mixing sauces and water, stir until all ingredients are incorporate, cover the pan with a lid for 3-4 minutes
4. Add whisky, black fungus, saute about 2-3 minutes, sprinkle in ground pepper ( up to this point, it should have quite a lot of sauce in the pan, if it isn't, add 2 more tbsp of water.)
5. Put the lid on again and let it simmers for another 3 minutes, let the sauce subsided. Turn off the heat, serve with steamed rice.

Ginger Chicken, Gai Pad Khing