Richard Barrow's Life in Thailand - Category: Enjoy Thai Food
|
How to cook... Chicken Stirfried with Chilli (Updated: 06/01/2009) |
 |
|
This is a simple Thai dish that you can cook with either pork or chicken. In Thai, this one is called "gai pad prik sod". In the ingredients below, you can see chicken, spring onion, red and green spur chilli, onion and crushed garlic in the centre. The larger chillies seen here are not as hot and spicy as their smaller cousins, so don't be scared to use a lot.
 As with most Thai dishes, the cooking process is very quick so you need to prepare all of the ingredients beforehand. Cut the chillies diagonally and then chop up the onions. Put some oil in your wok and then add the crushed garlic. Some people put the garlic into hot oil. But, I prefer to start it from cold so that it doesn't burn. As soon as it is brown and fragrant, add the chicken that has already been cut up into bite-sized pieces. Keep stirring all the time. When it is nearly done, add the chilli and onions. You can season with either fish sauce or soy sauce and some sugar. In Thailand they don't fry their onions for long, so turn off the heat before they become too limp. Next Friday on www.thai-blogs.com I will bring you another Thai cooking blog.
Don't forget to visit the forums to discuss Thai food!
|
|
How to cook... Penang Curry (Updated: 06/01/2009) |
| |
|
Penang curry is one of my favourite Thai dishes. It is simple to make as long as you can buy the ready-prepared chilli paste. In the ingredients below, you can see coriander, sliced beef (you can also use pork or chicken), sliced spur chilli, thinly sliced kaffir lime leaves, sweet basil, coconut milk and penang chili paste in the middle. If you don't have the chilli paste, you can use a carton like the one in the picture that already mixes coconut milk, chilli paste, fish sauce and palm sugar. The taste is good but not really authentic as it is for foreigners. The paste contains ingredients such as dried chillies, shallots, garlic, galangal, lemon grass, coriander root and shrimp paste.
 Fry the chilli paste in a pan making sure it doesn't dry out or burn. Gradually keep adding more coconut to keep it moist. Keep going for about four minutes or so. Next, add the sliced beef. If you didn't use the pre-prepared sauce, season the curry with fish sauce and palm sugar. Make sure that you taste it to check the balance of flavours. If too sweet, add more salt. Adding more coconut milk can also help with the final taste but this shouldn't be a runny curry. Finish with the spur chilli, sliced kaffir lime leaves and coriander. Save the sweet basil and some kaffir lime leaves for decoration. Check out our websites at www.EnjoyThaiFood.com and www.ThaiStreetFood.com for more pictures of Thai food.
Don't forget to visit the forums to discuss Thai food!
|
|
How to cook...Hard-Boiled Egg in Tamarind Sauce (Updated: 06/01/2009) |
| |
|
This is another one of those simple dishes that doesn't need much effot in making. In Thai, it is called "kai luk kery". Interestingly, this translates literally as "son-in-law eggs"! In the ingredients below, you can see tamarind juice at the top and soy sauce below that. You can use fish sauce instead if you don't mind the smell. At the bottom left we have dried hot chillies and garlic cloves. Or you could use red shallots instead. You also need two hard boiled eggs. On the right is the palm sugar - though obviously don't put it all in!
 Heat some oil in a wok and when hot add your hardboiled eggs. When they are golden brown then set aside. Next you need to fry some crushed garlic or red shallots. Then set these aside. Stir fry the palm sugar next. Add the tamarind juice and soy sauce and continue to stir until it becomes like a syrup. The taste should be sour, salty and sweet. Adjust the balance if it is not right. Next, cut the eggs in half and place face up on a plate. Sprinkle the top with the fried garlic and fried dried chillies. Pour the sauce over the top. You will find it is a very delicious dish. I will share with you another dish to cook at www.thai-blogs.com next week.
Don't forget to visit the forums to discuss Thai food!
|
|
How to cook... Winged Bean Salad (Updated: 06/01/2009) |
| |
|
Our Thai meal today didn't need, of course, any cooking as it is a salad. It is Winged Bean Salad or "yum tua pu" in Thai. We actually bought all the ingredients at the local market and all we had to do is mix everything together! In the ingredients below, you can see fresh shrimp, hard-boiled egg, boiled chicken slices, fried garlic, chilli, a mixture of peanut and dried coconut meat and winged bean that has been scalded and cut into horizontal slices. The sauce in themiddle does vary. This one looks like it has tamarind juice, chilli paste, fish sauce, palm sugar and coconut milk.
To make, all you have to do is mix all of the ingredients together in a large bowl and add the sauce. Very simple to do as long as someone else has prepared all the ingredients for you. You can view our archives of Thai Street Food which includes hundreds of pictures and many cooking videos which you can download for free.
Don't forget to visit the forums to discuss Thai food!
|
|
How to cook... Pad Thai (Updated: 06/01/2009) |
| |
 Today we are going to show you how to cook one of the most popular Thai dishes for foreigners. It is called "pad thai" or Thai Fried Noodles. It is not that difficult to cook but it involves a bit of an effort to prepare the ingredients. To be honest with you, we cheated a bit today. Our local pad thai food stall kindly gave us all the ingredients and also allowed us to make notes on her method of cooking. However, she wouldn't tell us the secret ingredients for the sauce. This is what makes her stall more popular than others around this area. She actually admitted that even she doesn't know the recipe as it is made by her mother in a back room. The ingredients you can see below are, from top and going clockwise, roasted peanuts, fresh rice noodles (sen jan), salted Chinese radish, fried tofu, red shallots, dried shrimp, fresh shrimp and two eggs in the middle. Normally it is one egg per dish. On the left, you can see Chinese chives, beansprouts and sliced lime. Some people use garlic instead of red shallots. I have also sometimes seen chicken instead of the more popular shrimp.
 Heat the oil up in a wok. Add red shallots and cook until fragrant. Then add the fresh shrimp, salted radish, tofu and dried shrimp. Give a good stir all the time. Move the ingredients to one side and then break two eggs into the pan. Cook for about a minute and then mix in with the other ingredients. Move to one side again. Add the fresh rice noodles. If you are using dried noodles you must soak in water for about 10 minutes. Then add tamarind paste and the secret sauce. Adjust the taste to your liking by adding soy sauce or fish sauce and sugar. Stir slowly until the noodles become dry. Now mix all the ingredients together. Finally, add the Chinese chives and beansprouts. Stir this in but there is no need to cook it. Serve with fresh vegetables, ground roasted peanuts and a slice of lime. I think ours tasted just as good as the real thing! Looks good too.
You will find the archives for my Thai Street Food blogs over at our new site www.ThaiStreetFood.com. You will also find there cooking videos that I shot at our local food vendors. You can download these for free. Some of the more popular videos have already been download more than 25,000 times!
Don't forget to visit the forums to discuss Thai food!
|
These blogs were originally published at thai-blogs.com |
