Cucumber Salad

I came to the conclusion that fish sauce makes everything taste good. Well, almost everything. At lease all savory food. This salad is just cucumber tossed with some mint, fish sauce, a little bit of honey and lemon juice. And it was good and refreshing. I would have added some chopped chilies to make it even better. But the boyfriend can't eat spicy food. So that's what I had to settle for. I don't particularly cucumbers because they make me burp weird. But I cleaned this salad.



Ingredients

• 2 medium cucumbers - peeled, seeded and sliced (To see the cucumbers, I halved them length-wise and scraped the seeds of with a spoon.)


• 1 tablespoon fish sauce


• Juice from 1 lemon


• 1/2 teaspoon honey


• A handful of mint leaves - chopped

Directions

1. Toss everything in a large bowl. Serve immediately.

Stir Fried Garlic Chicken

This is another dish I tried half-successfully to re-create. This one is called Gai-Pad-Gra-Tiem-Prik-Thai as in stir fried chicken with garlic and ground pepper. The original version is shocked-full of fried and crunchy garlic with a trailing heat from ground black and white pepper. The dish is quite dry. The meat is dark in color from the "black soy sauce" which is the thicker and sweeter kind of soy sauce than what you can find in normal supermarkets.

My version was very tasty but that's where the similarity ends. My dish was not dotted with crunchy garlic. It wasn't quite spicy enough or dark enough. Regardless, it's something delicious I can make from ingredients I already have in the house.



Ingredients - make about 3-4 portions when served over rice.

• 1 1/2 pounds chicken breast - cut into bite size pieces


• 1 tablespoon fish sauce


• 1 tablespoon soy sauce


• 2 teaspoon brown sugar


• 1 head of garlic - peeled and minced


• Ground white pepper and ground black pepper


• 1 tablespoon cooking oil

Directions

1. Marinate the chicken with fish sauce, soy sauce and sugar while chopping up garlic and frying it.


2. In a large pan over medium high heat, stir garlic in oil until lightly brown.


3. Add chicken. Stir occasionally until cooked through. Add ground pepper. Serve over steam jasmine rice.

Pasta with Red Curry Tuna

We have this dish called Kanom Jeen. It's an intricately cooked, smooth and creamy fish curry served over soft fresh rice noodle along side various vegetables like bean sprouts, fresh cabbage, pickled cabbage, string beans, cucumbers, morning glory vegetables and basil.

When I first served this to a friend, here was my disclaimer:

"This is kind of like the Thai dish called Kanom Jeen except that I used pasta instead of fresh rice noodle, canned tuna instead of fresh fish, red curry paste instead of Konom Jeen curry paste, frozen peas which do not exist in Thailand instead of all other vegetables."

Basically, it's nothing like the original dish. But heh... it tastes good and it's easy and convenient to make.



Ingredients - make about 4 servings

• 1 pound uncooked pasta - any long thin pasta will do


• 2 cans tuna in water


• 1 can coconut milk


• 1 tablespoon Thai red curry paste (also from a can)


• 1 cup frozen peas


• 1 cup basil - leaves picked


• Fish sauce to taste, salt to season pasta water, and some oil to keep cooked pasta from sticking together (I used lard.)

Directions

1. Cook pasta according to the directions on its packaging. Strain and stir in about a tablespoon of oil to keep it from sticking together.


2. While the pasta is cooking, stir curry paste in coconut milk. Strain the tuna and add to the coconut milk in a large saucepan over medium heat . Break tuna chunks into tiny pieces. Add frozen peas. Season with fish sauce. Turn off the heat. Rib basil and add to the curry. Reserve a few basil leaves for plating.


3. Serve the curry over pasta with a few reserved basil on top.

Laab Moo (Thai Ground Pork Salad)

I don't know if this qualifies as salad. It does involve cooking (the pork.) And majority portion of the dish is the pork. And we normally eat it warm with rice and/or other fresh vegetables (like cabbages and cucumbers.) But once you have all the ingredients together, all you have to do is toss everything together.

Don't let the cooked pork and "warm" salad fool you though. This dish is refreshing (from mint and lime) and filling at the same time.



Laab with cooked jasmine rice.

Ingredients

• 1/2 pound ground pork


• 1 tablespoon uncooked rice


• 1 bunch of fresh mint - picked for leaves


• 1 lime


• 1 teaspoon crushed dried red pepper


• Fish sauce

Directions

1. In a large non-stick pan, toast a tablespoon of rice until it start to brown slightly. Let cool a little then transfer to a spice grinder (I used clean coffee grinder) and grind for 5 to 10 seconds.


2. Cook the pork on the stove top on that same non-stick pan without any added oil or seasoning. Stir occasionally.


3. When the pork is thoroughly cooked, transfer into a large salad bowl. Add ground toasted rice, mint leaves, lime juice, dried pepper and fish sauce.

Stir Fried Beef with Garlic and Basil

This should be Thai basil. I couldn't find any in Brooklyn Heights at 10pm on Tuesday night. So this giant Italian basil which are milder would do. I would compensate with more garlic and chilies. This, like any other stir-fried, is extremely fast and easy to make.



Ingredients

• 1/2 pound top sirloin - sliced into thin strips


• 1 cup packed fresh basil leaves - roughly torn


• 3 cloves garlic - chopped


• 8 Thai chilies - halved


• 1 teaspoon dark soy sauce


• Fish sauce to taste - about 1 teaspoon


• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil


• 1/4 cup chicken broth or water

Directions

1. In a large pan over high heat, heat up oil until hot enough to cover the bottom of the pan. Stir in chopped garlic.


2. When the garlic is lightly brown, add beef. Season with soy sauce. If the pan becomes too dry, add broth or water.


3. When the beef is nicely cooked and brown, add basil and chilies. Add fish sauce to taste. When basil is wilted, turn off the heat and serve.

This dish would normally be served on top of steamed rice with a fried egg. But I'm on a South Beach diet right now. Can't eat too much carbohydrate. And I already had 2 eggs this morning. So I'll just have to do without.

Spicy Pork Salad with Sugar Snap Peas, Garlic Scapes and Cilantro

I wouldn't call this a recipe. It's more like tossing everything I had together and it turned out to taste good. If you look at all the Thai spicy salads I made, you probably get the gist of my formula.

cooked meat + some raw greens and herbs + lime + fish sauce + chilies = spicy salad



From last week's CSA pickup, I got half a quart of sugar snap peas, 3 stalks of garlic scapes and a huge bunch of cinlantro. I used 2 stalks of garlic scapes and half the cilantro in stir-fried pea shoots.


Weird veg - garlic scapes - taste like mild garlic. The leaves on the background are pea shoots.

So I chopped up the remaining scape, sliced sugar snap peas and tossed them with about 1/2 pound of cooked pork shoulder and 2 cups of chopped cilantro. Then seasoned with 2 limes, about a tablespoon of fish sauce, chopped 8 fresh chilies and a squirt of honey. And now I have dinner and some leftover for lunch tomorrow.

Tom Kha Gai - Lemongrass Coconut Soup with Chicken and Oyster Mushrooms

Something is wrong with my camera. It gave my pictures a red tint and a red strip on the top. I guess it's time I get a new one although this camera wasn't that old. It was a refurbished camera which I got to replaced another broken Cannon in the Spring of 2005. Almost 4 years old. I guess that's old for electronics.

Back to the food - Tom Kha Gai. This was the first Thai dish I learned to make when I first moved to New York. It's extremely easy to prepare once you have all the ingredients. In some Thai restaurants, they call this dish white curry. But I don't think this is qualified as a curry. It doesn't have all the spices normally used in curry and it's not as thick. The soup is actually a little light and refreshing because of all the lime in it.



Ingredients

• 4 stalks of lemongrass


• 3-inch knob of galangal (called Kha in Thai - it's a root that looks like ginger but smells lemony.)


• 10 lime leaves or a tablespoon of lime zest


• 4 limes


• 3 pounds chicken breast


• 1/2 pound oyster mushrooms


• 3 cans coconut milk


• 2 cups water


• 15 fresh Thai chilies - cut in half lengthwise


• Fish sauce


• 2 tablespoons chopped cilantro

Directions

1. Clean the lemongrass, discard a few outer barks. Trim about 2 inches of its green tip and chop of its root. Cut diagonally into 1 inch stalks.


2. Peel galangal and slice to make thin discs.


3. In a large stock pot, heat coconut milk with lemongrass and galangal on a medium heat. Take care not to let the coconut milk boil.


4. Clean the chicken and cut into small cubes. Add to the soup. Roughly tear lime leaves over the pot and add to the soup. Add water as needed.


5. When the chicken is cooked. Tear mushrooms out of its stalks and add. Season with lime juice, fish sauce and chilies. The soup should be dominantly sour followed by salty and a little spicy from fresh chilies. The coconut milk will give the soup a little sweetness.


6. Right before serving, sprinkle chopped cilantro. Served with steam rice or rice noodle. This recipe was enough to serve 9 people after 2 appetizers.

Beef Curry with Thai Eggplants and Chinese String Beans

What the heck are Thai eggplants and Chinese string beans, you ask. I got pictures for you.


Thai eggplants

We use these eggplants a lot in curry. In Thailand, we call them striped tomatoes. We call all eggplants some kind of tomatoes. For example, purple tomatoes for the purple Chinese eggplants. What do we call tomatoes? Red tomatoes... Duh.. I didn't like eating them so much for they were a little bitter. But now whenever I see them in Chinatown, I get extremely excited. Not that I like eating them any better, I just get excited.


Chinese string beans

Actually, these are the only kind of string beans I had until I came to the U.S. Don't they make much more sense than American string beans? They take less time to trim and clean. They taste much more like string beans to me. And because they are so long, I can tie them up into pretty knots. Also, nuts and beans are the same word in Thai. I guess we don't have too many words to call things. We just keep reusing them and add adjective to identify what we actually mean.



When you say curry, Thai people will assume you mean red curry. Therefore, when I was asked to make beef curry, I made this.

Ingredients (Make 10 to 15 servings)

• 4 pounds beef - any flavorful cut - I used London Broil - cut into strips


• 2 pounds Thai eggplants - quartered - or any firm eggplants


• 1 pound Chinese string beans or normal string beans - cut - and if you are like me, tie them into knots


• 3 cans coconut milk


• 1 tablespoon cooking oil


• 1 cup red curry paste


• 1 head garlic


• About 2 inches knob of ginger


• 6 shallots


• 3 stalks of lemongrass


• 1 tablespoon dry red pepper flakes


• 1 tablespoon brown sugar


• Fish sauce


• 1 cup Thai basil

Directions

1. Peel garlic, ginger and shallots. Discard a few outer layers of lemongrass. Trim away its head and about 2/3 from its tail. Keep the middle 1/3. Chop all the spices together (I used food processor.)


2. Heat oil in a large stock pot. Stir in chopped spices and curry paste. When fragrant, add the first can of coconut milk and beef. Let cook. Stir occasionally until the meat is almost cooked.


3. Add the rest of coconut milk. Season to taste with red pepper, sugar and fish sauce. Let simmer. Add water if necessary.


4. When the meat is tender, add eggplants and string beans. Let cook for 5 more minutes or until the vegetables have desired texture. I like mine soft but still a little crunchy.


5. Before serving, tear Thai basil and sprinkle on the curry. Serve with rice.

Collard Green Stem Salad

I believe in not wasting food. The last time I had a dinner party, I used leafy part of collard greens for Miang Kum and I have all these fibery stems left. I remember eating the soft part of the stems in a salad in Thailand. They were crunchy and delicious. I looked all over the internet for the recipe but I couldn't find one. So I kind of made one up.



The dish came out not bad although not exactly what I remember eating in Thailand. It also required a lot of work. I spent almost an hour picking through the stems, and cutting off the tough outer part. The result is indeed delicious - crunchy, a bit nutty and earthy and refreshing. I'll make it again if I use collard greens for other dishes.

Ingredients

• 2 cups of collard green stems - trimmed, cut out the rough fibery outer part and sliced into about 1 inch long


• 1/4 cup of ground beef or other kind of meat


• 1 tablespoon cooking oil


• 3 shallots - chopped


• 1 tablespoon Nam Prik Pao - chilli paste in soy bean oil


• 1 teaspoon red pepper flakes


• 1 lime


• About 2 teaspoon of fish sauce

Directions

1. Cook the ground beef on a stove top with a tablespoon of cooking oil.


2. In a large bowl, toss the cooked meat, collard green stems, chopped shallots together.


3. In a small bowl, dissolve chilli paste and red pepper flakes in lime juice and fish sauce. Pour over the salad. Toss well. And serve immediately.

Beef Green Curry with Chinese Eggplants

After a few weekends of eating out in fancy restaurants, I felt a need for home cooked food. I enjoy eating out. But the bill and the commute home with extremely full stomach are not quite ideal. So I plot to invite a few of my friends over for dinner at my apartment on Sunday night instead of eating out. This way there's no bill and no commute home (for me). And my food is as good as any restaurant food. Perfect!

I made Miang-Kum. It was perfect for the hot weather and my chilli loving friends. With stems leftover from collard green I used for Miang-Kum, I made collard green stem spicy salad. The recipe is kind of experimental but I'll post it here soon.

And for the main dish, I made beef green curry with Chinese eggplants served with rice - which was very well received by my guests.



Ingredients

• 2 pounds of beef (I used top sirloin) - sliced


• 2 Chinese eggplants, cleaned, trimmed and cut into chunks


• 1 head of garlic - peeled


• About 3 inches of ginger - peeled


• 5 shallots


• 5 kafir lime leaves (or substitute with lime zest)


• 2 cans coconut milk


• 1/2 cup green curry paste


• 1 tablespoon cooking oil


• 1 teaspoon raw sugar


• Fish sauce to taste


• About a cup of picked Thai basil

Directions

1. Chop garlic, ginger, shallots and lime leaves really finely. I put everything in a food processor and let it run for about 1 minute.


2. Coat the bottom of a large pot with oil and place on a stove top at medium high heat. Stir curry paste and chopped spice in the heated pot for about 30 seconds. Be careful not to burn.


3. Pour two cans of coconut milk into the pot. Add beef. Reduce the heat to medium and let the beef cooked. Stir occasionally so that pieces of beef cooked evenly.


4. When the beef is cooked, reduce the heat to low and add eggplants. Add sugar and fish sauce to taste. Take care not to let the curry bubble or boil.


5. When the eggplants are cooked and soft but not too soft, turn off the heat. Sprinkle Thai basil over the curry. Serve with cooked rice.

I wish eggplants keep their color when cooked. The dish would have been much prettier.

Massaman Curry

Or the best spicy beef stew recipe ever ever. My friends love love love this curry. I got a special request for it for our biggest potluck party of the year. I pointed somebody to this blog and realized that the recipe is actually on my old blog. So I'm re-publishing it with slightly different scale.

The secret to this is very simple - simmering for a loooooonnnggggggg time. There's nothing else to it. I used pre-packaged massaman curry paste, added a lot of other chopped spices and peanuts and then cooked it for about 6 hours. Massaman curry is a little different from all other Thai curries. It requires some dry spices (cinnamon and bay leaves) as opposed to just fresh spices. Massaman is not exactly a Thai word either. I think it came from Muslim-man telling the origin of the recipe.

Regardless, it's a wonderful and hearty dish to serve in a cold weather.



Ingredients

• 5 pounds of any flavorful cut of beef - cubed (I used sirloin tips because they were on sale - but chucks would be fine too.)


• 3 pounds of potatoes - peeled and quartered and then soaked in cold water so that they don't turn brown


• 1/2 cup of ginger - peeled - chopped


• 1 head garlic - peeled and chopped *


• 15 shallots - peeled - chop 5 and leave the rest whole *


• 3 stalks of lemongrass - discard outer layers and both tips and chopped *


• 2 tablespoons of galangal - chopped *


• 2 cinnamon sticks


• 5 bay leaves


• 1 cup of massaman curry paste


• 2 cans coconut milk


• 1/2 cup chopped peanuts


• 2 tablespoon red pepper flakes


• 1 cup tamarind juice (I soaked about half a cup of packaged tamarind in a cup of water. This makes the curry a little tangy.)


• 1 tablespoon cooking oil


• 2 tablespoon brown sugar


• Fish sauce - to taste

Directions

1. Marinate the beef in a can of coconut milk, 1/4 cup of chopped ginger and about 2 tablespoons of fish sauce for 30 minutes.


2. Cook the marinated meat on medium heat for 45 minutes. Stir occasionally.


3. In a different pot - preferably the larger one, fry massaman curry paste with the rest of chopped spices in oil for 1 minute. Stir vigorously and try not to burn the curry. Add a can of coconut milk. Reduce the heat to medium.


4. Combine meat into the curry pot. Once the content is a little bubble, reduce heat to very low. Add potatoes, whole shallots, peanuts, bay leaves and cinnamon sticks. Season to taste with sugar, red pepper flakes, tamarind juice and fish sauce.


5. Let simmer for a few hours or until the meat is tender.

* I processed all the spices other than ginger together in my food processor. It saved me a lot of time and tears.

Nam Prik Ong - Northern Thai Tamato and Meat Dip

This is one of my mother's favourite dishes. I would see her sit down with a small bowl of Nam Prik Ong and a gigantic bowl of assortment of fresh vegetables - slowing picking and dipping her way until everything disappears. Her version is with tofu because she's a vegan. This one is with ground turkey - my meat of choice.

The dish is extremely easy to make once you have all the ingredients. Now that I have a food processor, I cooked the thing within 15 minutes. Nam Prik Ong is quite good by itself - looking like Italian meat sauce but with more spices and heat. Its flavor and texture improve significantly when you pair it with fresh crunchy vegetables - like cucumber, lettuce, green beans, etc.



Ingredients

• 5 cloves garlic


• 2 stalks of lemongrass* - discard a few hard outer layers and the leafy end


• 2 inches of galangal root* - peeled


• 5-6 shallots or 1 large onion - peeled


• 1 tablespoon cooking oil


• 1 pound ground turkey (or any other meat)


• 1 28 ounce can of crushed or chopped tomatoes


• 2 teaspoon dry red pepper flakes


• 1 teaspoon kapi or Thai fermented shrimp paste


• 2 teaspoon fish sauce


• A small bunch of fresh cilantro to garnish

Directions

1. Finely chop garlic, lemongrass, galangal and shallots or process them in a food processor.


2. In a large heavy bottom pot or a deep pan, heat up the oil. Stir in the chopped spices. Stir vigorously for 30 seconds or until fragrant but not burnt. Add ground turkey. Stir occasionally until the meat is cooked.


3. Add canned tomatoes. Reduce the heat. Season with red pepper flakes, shrimp paste and fish sauce. Let simmer for a few minutes.


4. The real Thai cook will tell you to pound kapi or the shrimp paste with all the spices and fry the paste in oil before adding the meat. Since I'm cooking in a small apartment with no window in the kitchen and I do not wish to disturb my neighbor with the extremely exotic aroma of the shrimp paste (it's pretty vile for people who are not used to it), I add it at the end.


5. When ready to serve, sprinkle with chopped cilantro. Serve with crunchy fresh vegetables like cucumbers, romaine lettuce, iceberg lettuce, etc.

* I got my lemongrass and galangal from Chinatown. I keep them frozen in the refrigerator - when ready to be use, just run hot water over them to soften.

Yum Woon Sen - Glass Noodle Salad - Two Ways

I have been craving Thai Salad. Maybe it's because I have been eating those make-your-own salads from the deli next to my work almost everyday for lunch. Maybe it's just another attempt of mine trying to eat healthy at home.

Last week I made Laab from ground turkey. I had a bit of the cooked turkey left so I bought these wonderful glass noodle or mung bean noodle or woon-sen in Thai.

From a package of woon-sen, I got two different salad based on what I had in the refrigerator.


Yum woon-sen with cherry tomatoes and cilatro.

One with less noodle but more vegetables - cherry tomatoes and flat-leaf cilantro served over lettuce. And the other one with more noodle and with dry baby shrimp.


Yum woon-sen with dry baby shimp and carrot.

The basic ingredients are the same - the woon-sen soaked in hot water for a few minutes, chopped shallots and chilies, cooked ground turkey (or other meat), fish sauce and lime juice. And whatever fresh vegetable you have that you deem fit to be in the salad. Everything tossed together and served immediately.

I love Thai food. So simple and tasty.

Turkey Laab

Laab is a delicious, very spicy Northeastern Thai meat salad. It's usually made with ground pork, chicken or beef. (We don't really eat turkey in Thailand.) The dish is extremely easy to prepare. You basically just mix cooked meat with fish sauce, lime juice, dry red pepper and minced shallot together. One thing that can make this salad different from any other Thai salad is ground roasted rice. It added unique crunch and aroma to the dish. Laab is usually served with a few fresh vegetables - lettuce, cabbage, or string beans.



Ingredients

• 1 tablespoon uncooked rice - preferably the kind that you use to make sticky rice


• 1/2 pound ground turkey (or other meat)


• 1 tablespoon cooking oil


• 4 shallots - chopped


• 1/4 cup shredded carrots (optional - we don't add carrots to laab in Thailand - I just happened to have them and thought that I should use them.)


• A few sprigs of mint - picked


• Juice from 1-2 limes, to taste


• About 2 teaspoon of fish sauce


• 1 teaspoon of dried red pepper flakes

Directions

1. Roast the rice with a non-stick pan on a stove top until slightly brown. Let cool and grind with coffee grinder.


2. Cook the turkey in heated oil on a medium high heat stove top. Stir occasionally until the meat is completely cooked.


3. Toss all the ingredients in a large bowl. Add more lime juice, fish sauce and/or red pepper flakes to taste.


4. Serve immediately with warm rice and your choice of fresh leaves.

Chicken Panang Curry (Panag Gai)

Panang Curry looks and tastes very similar to red curry except that it's a little sweeter, milder and not as liquid-ie. I have seen restaurants in New York made this curry with peanuts. But from what I remember eating in Thailand, there's no peanuts in it.

The main spice (at least the visible one) in Panang Curry is kaffir lime leaves. The leaves give this sharp lime-y, refreshing scent to the curry. I bought bags of these leaves whenever I saw them in Chinatown. They freeze well.



Ingredients

• 1 tablespoon cooking oil


• 1 can coconut milk


• 1/2 cup panang curry paste


• 4 cloves garlic


• 6 shallots


• 2 inches fresh ginger


• 2 inches galangal


• 1 stalk lemongrass


• 2 pounds chicken breast - cubed


• 1 tablespoon dark brown sugar


• 20 kaffir lime leaves - thinly sliced width-wise


• Water


• Fish sauce

Directions

1. Chop garlic, shallots, ginger, galangal, and lemongrass really finely. (I use my food processor fitted with a mini cup and mini blade to chop everything up. This step used to be the longest and hardest process to make curry for me. Now it takes 10 seconds!)


2. In a large saucepan, fry curry paste in oil over medium heat. Add the chopped spice. Stir vigorously. Be careful not to burn. Add half the can of coconut milk. Let cook until fragrant and coconut milk is bubbly.


3. Add chicken and the rest of coconut milk. Stir frequently until the chicken is cooked. Add water if the curry becomes too dry (but not too much water.)


4. Season with sugar and fish sauce. The curry should be mild, and just a tiny bit sweet.


5. Simmer until the chopped spices become tender (about an hour) or until ready to serve.


6. Right before serving, sprinkle chopped kaffir lime leaves over the curry.


7. Serve over steamed rice. I served mine over blanched asparagus and collard green.

Baked Basil Chicken

I wish I have a food processor. I would have called this baked pesto chicken had my basil resembled pesto a little bit more. My chopping skill is far behind food processor.

In Thailand we have this dish called Pad-Krapao-Gai which means chicken stir fried with Thai basil. I'm making a version of the dish but instead of stir frying I baked and instead of Thai basil I used huge American basil.

It came out not bad although I felt like it's missing something -- maybe stir fry grease - maybe more chilies - I don't know. Definitely next time I'll use dark meat instead of breast and add chopped onions. And definitely get a food processor.



Ingredients

• 4 pounds chicken breast - cut into portion


• 7 cloves garlic - chopped


• 12 Thai chilies - chopped


• About 2 cups chopped basil leaves


• 1 tablespoon fish sauce

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.


2. Mix chopped garlic, chopped chilies, chopped basil and fish sauce together. Rub chicken with the sauce. Arrange the chicken in baking pan. Cover with foil and bake for 30 minutes. Flip the chicken and bake for 15 minutes more. Discard the foil and bake 10 minutes more or until chicken is slight browned.

Grilled Chicken

I wanted to make Satay Chicken - but I didn't have fresh spices (galangal and lemongrass) and I was too lazy to make satay chicken's peanut sauce and cucumber salad (Aa-jaad). So I made this grilled chicken - which is basically satay chicken minus all of the above....

It came out nicely spiced - although I would have liked it spicier. Have to put more pepper next time.



Ingredients

• 3-4 pounds boneless skinless chicken thigh - cubed


• 4 cloves garlic - chopped


• 4 teaspoon ground coriander seed


• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 
  
• 2 teaspoon turmeric


• 1 teaspoon ground white pepper


• 2 teaspoon salt


• 1 tablespoon brown sugar


• 1 cup coconut milk

Directions

1. Combine all the spices in coconut milk. Marinate the chicken for at least 30 minutes.


2. Line broiler with aluminum foil. Skewer the chicken and grilled under the broiler for about 7 to 10 minutes. Flip the skewers and cook 5 more minutes or until the chicken is cooked.

Asparagus Omelet (Khai Jiew)

We have a Thai version of omelet - it's called Khai Jiew (Khai = egg, Jiew = pan fry). We don't fold it in half and fill it with all kinds of things like Western omelet. We beat all the ingredients together - whatever you wish to put - and fry it in hot hot hot oil so that we get crisp edges of fried eggs with fluffy center.

The smell of fried eggs with fish sauce in the air brings back memory from my childhood - reminds me of the kitchen where I got all my food up until I was 6 years old. Make me homesick somehow. Maybe it's the rain...



Ingredients

• 2 eggs - beaten


• 1 clove garlic - chopped


• 5 spears asparagus - trimmed and cut


• 2 chillies


• 1 tablespoon soy milk


• 1 teaspoon fish sauce


• 1 tablespoon cooking oil

Directions

Beat all the ingredients together in a small bowl.

1. Heat up cooking oil in a pan. Pour the ingredients over the pan and wait for a minute or until the surface is brown. Flip the omelet and let cook for a minute more. Serve with steamed rice.

Choo Chee Pla Salmon

This is one variation of Choo Chee Curry. I guess you can make any seafood a Choo Chee by cooking the seafood appropriately and then dress with this thick curry. Seared scallops can be nice or baked snapper.... Maybe I'll try that next time.



For this I pan fried salmon fillets on a non-stick pan with a little bit of olive oil. The smell and smoke are vicious. I still live in a salmon smoked studio a day after....

Green Curry Fried Rice with Ground Turkey and Spinach

.... or how I used all things leftover in my refrigerator. Well, the ground turkey wasn't exactly a leftover. I picked it up on the way home from a supermarket. I was actually thinking about cooking red curry fried rice instead because it's more would have been prettier. You know - green spinach on red background. But I made that a bunch of times. I wanted to try something new.



Ingredients

• 5 cloves garlic - minced


• 2 inches fresh ginger - minced


• 1 onion - chopped


• 1/2 pound ground turkey


• 1/2 cup green curry paste


• 3 cups staled cooked rice


• 1 cup frozen mixed vegetable


• 1/2 pound spinach - very roughly chopped


• 2 tablespoon cooking oil


• Fish sauce

Directions

1. Heat a huge non-stock pan on medium high heat. Add oil. Stir in garlic. Add turkey. Stir vigorously for a few minutes. Add ginger and onion. Add green curry paste. Stir and stir and stir until turkey looks cooked.


2. Stir in rice. Stir some more. Let cook for a few minutes. Add frozen vegetable. When the vegetable becomes un-frozen, add spinach. Turn off the heat. Mix everything together one last time. Season with fish sauce if needed.

So - there - I used up my old ginger + onion + stale rice + all leftover spinach from the weekend + frozen vegetable. And I got yummy spicy fried rice for dinner and lunch!

Mission accomplished.