Stir-fired Fillet White Fish With Celery Leaves

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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)