I did it!! I did it!! I set out to cook Thai dishes and I did- fantastically! It was so much fun and so amazingly delicious.
Let me start by saying that this idea has been brewing in the back of my head for a while. I absolutely love Asian food (Japanese, Thai, Vietnamese, etc.) and have been wanting to try cooking it for a long time. Cooking Asian food is definitely a different experience than cooking Western food. It is a different food philosophy, different food techniques, different ingredients and a very different food shopping experience. I remember my friend Toni (who is half Thai herself) mentioning that there is no one right way to cook Thai Food. You do it by taste and smell and sight. You don't have to ritually follow a recipe.
One thing I have realized is that the more you cook, the more you go to restaurants and think either "I could cook this on my own for cheaper and better" or "How do I recreate cooking this on my own?" When Scott and I went to Jia Tella's restaurant in Scott's Valley (a very good Cambodian restaurant; highly recommend it), I thought about how good the food was. And how expensive. Could I recreate it at home? Cambodian food is very similar to Thai food (but less spicy), so I decided to start with Thai. Specifically, to my four favorite Thai dishes: Pad see ew, Tom Ka soup, Mango with sticky rice and Thai Iced tea.
There is nothing like going to an Asian grocery market. If you have never been to one, I highly recommend it as long as you are willing to expand your horizons! Scott and I went to 99 Ranch market in Cupertino, CA. I didn't realize it at the time, but he had never been to an Asian market before. He was amazed at all the live sea food, strange produce and different animal parts (e.g., chicken "paws") they sold at the market. It was fun. And busy. And eye-opening. So many different ingredients. So many ways to expand your eating and cooking repertoire.
Tom Kha Gai
Recipe, pictures and notes from instructables.com
http://www.instructables.com/id/Tom-Kha-Gai-Thai-Coconut-Soup/
Ingredients:
For the broth:
1 can coconut milk
2-3 cups chicken stock (homemade is best, then the stuff in cartons; boullion cubes are a last resort.)
pinch of salt
1 teaspoon palm sugar (I usually substitute brown sugar)
2 stalks fresh lemongrass, washed and chopped in chunks (dried lemongrass is far inferior - punch it up with extra lime juice and zest at the end if you're forced to go this route)
3 red shallots, peeled and chunked (I often substitute 3 smashed cloves of garlic plus a bit of onion)
2 coriander roots, scraped (I usually substitute a pinch of whole coriander seed plus a handful of fresh coriander (cilantro) leaves)
2 chili peppers, halved (pick your favorite type, and modify number to suit your spice taste)
1.5 inch chunk of galanga root, chunked (ginger is in the same family, but tastes totally different - galanga TOTALLY makes the flavor of this dish. If you can't get this locally, travel to a nearby city and visit the asian markets or scour the internet, buy a pound, then freeze what you can't use now. It's a floral flavor that you'll definitely recognize if you've had tom kha gai before.)
3 kaffir lime leaves, coarsely chopped (I have a kaffir lime tree in my yard, but you can substitute lime zest if necessary. It just won't be as fragrant and complex.)
1 teaspoon chili garlic sauce (optional, and kind of a cheat, but often good.)
Chunks:
1 pound boneless skinless chicken thighs, cut to 1" pieces (you can use breasts, but the thighs are moister and tastier)
1 cup chopped mushrooms (your choice - mix it up)
1-3 Tablespoons fish sauce (This stuff is pungent - if you're not familiar, add incrementally and taste before increasing. But don't be turned off by the smell. Definitely use some, as it's a key flavor that softens when you add it to the soup.)
1 can baby corn, drained and chopped to 1/2" chunks (optional)
Finish:
1 Tablespoon lime juice (more if compensating - see notes above)
1 handful fresh cilantro, chopped
1/2 cup grape tomatoes halved, or 2 plum tomatoes coarsely chopped (optional)
Procedure:
1) Combine all broth ingredients (coconut milk, stock, salt, sugar, shallots/garlic, coriander, galanga, lemongrass, kaffir lime leaves, chili sauce), bring to a low boil, and simmer for at least 15 minutes.
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2. Pour through a sieve/strainer to remove chunks, and return the broth to your big pot. You can rescue a few items from the strainer, mince them, and return them to the pot if you like - I usually don't bother. You can usually smoosh more tasty liquid out of the chunks if you try, so give them a stiff squeeze.
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3. Chop chicken, mushrooms, and baby corn and add to pot with broth. Add fish sauce, and lime zest if using. Simmer lightly until chicken is cooked.
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4. Add the cilantro, tomatoes, and lime juice. Taste - the soup should be fragrant, with a rich (read: nicely fatty) taste, and a mix of sweet/sour/salty flavors in the broth. You can tweak the latter with more sugar (sweet), lime juice (sour), or fish sauce (salty and tangy). Serve hot.
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Although I looked and looked (in several stores), I could not find kaffir lime leaves so just used lime zest instead. The broth didn't turn out quite the way I wanted, although was definitely improved the next day with some more lime juice and coconut milk. I added a bit too many chilies (and chili sauce) so it was a bit too spicy for the taste I was looking for. I also didn't buy boneless chicken thighs which meant Scott spent the whole time cutting up the chicken for me! Still, it was really really really close to what you get in the restaurant and Scott absolutely loved it.
Pad See Ew (Thai River noodle with chicken and broccoli)
By Darlene Schmidt, About.com Guide
http://thaifood.about.com/od/oodlesofnoodles/r/rivernoodles.htm
Note:
Pad See Ew is a Thai noodle dish that is made with broad, flat rice noodles, also known as "river noodles". Pad See Ew can be made with chicken, pork, or beef, but otherwise has the same basic ingredients. This noodle dish is truly Asian comfort food at its best; at the same time, Thai river noodles make a healthy and energy-giving lunch or dinner. This Pad See Ew recipe features marinated strips of beef and still-crisp broccoli for a nutritionally complete and oh-so-satisfying meal.
Ingredients:
- 2 lbs. fresh broad flat rice noodles (908 g.), available in the deli section or refrigerator of Asian food stores
- 1 egg
- 1-2 heads broccoli, chopped into florets
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 2 chicken breasts, cut into thin pieces (OR equivalent)
- 2 Tbsp. oil, plus 1/4 cup sherry (OR chicken/beef broth) for stir-frying
- MARINADE:
- 1 Tbsp. oyster sauce
- 2 Tbsp. soy sauce
- 1 heaping tsp. brown sugar
- STIR-FRY SAUCE:
- 1 Tbsp. dark soy sauce
- 2 Tbsp. regular soy sauce
- 3 Tbsp. fish sauce
- 2 tsp. brown sugar
- 1/2 tsp. white pepper
- 1/2 tsp. cayenne pepper
- GARNISH:
- handful of fresh coriander
Procedure:
1. Stir together the simple marinade: oyster sauce, soy sauce, and brown sugar. Pour over the strips of chicken and mix well. Set aside to marinate while you prepare the other ingredients.
2. If your fresh rice noodles came pressed together, take a few minutes to separate them (some may break or remain stuck together - this is normal). Note that if your rice noodles come direct from your refrigerator, it may help to very briefly microwave them before separating (see packet instructions).
3. Stir all the stir-fry sauce ingredients together in a cup and set near the stove.
4. Place a wok or large frying pan over medium-high heat. Add 2 Tbsp. oil and swirl around.
5. Add the garlic and briefly stir-fry until fragrant (30 seconds).
6. Add the chicken (along with marinade) and stir-fry 2 minutes. Add a little sherry or broth whenever your wok/pan becomes dry - enough to keep ingredients stir-frying nicely.
7. Add the broccoli and continue stir-frying in the same way for 1 more minute.
8. Push ingredients aside and break the egg into the center of the wok or pan. Quickly stir-fry to cook the egg (like making scrambled eggs).
9. Add the noodles and pour the stir-fry sauce over. Using two utensils, gently lift and turn the noodles to mix with the other ingredients and the sauce (these noodles break easily). Noodles will gradually soften (about 2 minutes).
10. When noodles are soft, remove from heat. Taste-test for salt, adding more fish sauce until desired taste is achieved. Serve with Thai chili sauce on the side.
My pad see ew came out amazing!! I always judge a new Thai restaurant on the quality of their Pad See Ew as it is one of my favorite Thai dishes. When I was finished cooking the pad see ew (which cooked up in a flash, by the way), it still tasted a bit salty to me. So, I wanted to add a bit more brown sugar. I ended up adding a lot more than I wanted (as it all spilled out of the bag), but it made the difference. All of a sudden, it tasted like top restaurant quality Pad See Ew. So add more brown sugar if you'd like!
Oh, and do microwave the noodles a little bit before you break them up. Much much easier!
Thai Iced Tea
Ingredients:
2/3 cup Thai tea leaves
1 2/3 cup Water
1/2 cup Sugar
1 1/2 cup Evaporated Milk (12oz can)
Notes/Equipment:
Big pot for boiling water
Big, fine strainer or seive, or a traditional tea sock, if you can find one at the asian market
Heat-resistant pitcher
Stirring implement (long spoon, piece of rebar, etc.)
These are the ingredients for 2 glasses of tea. Scale up if you desire. I often make a huge batch of the sweetened tea, save it in the fridge, and then break it out whenever I want, adding evaporated milk at the time of serving.
As far as ingredients go, the hardest to find item is the Thai tea leaves. Go to your local asian food store and look for “Thai Seasoning Mix” or “Thai Tea Dust”. It usually comes in a clear plastic brick-like bag, and looks like dark brown shredded tea leaves. The kind I have right now is called “Police Dog Brand Thai Tea Dust.” Evaporated milk can be substituted with soy or rice milk (I recommend Odwalla Milk, if you can get it, its a mixture of oat milk, rice milk, soy milk, and a little banana/mango puree) if you want to make it vegan. You can also substitute white sugar for evaporated cane juice or “raw sugar”.
If your water tastes bad out of the tap, it will make bad tea! Filter it, or use bottled water for the best results.
Procedure:
1) Bring your water to a boil in a pot with some head space. You'll need room for the tea leaves, you'll be using a lot. When the water begins to boil, remove the pot from the heat to stop the boiling, and then add the tea leaves to the pot, stirring to moisten them. Don't try to use a tea bag, or tea ball, or anything, we are using a LOT of tea, and we need it to steep fully.
2) Don't boil the tea! It will be bitter! Just let it sit in the hot water.
3) Set your timer for 4 minutes, and wait.
4) When your timer goes off, carefully strain the tea into your heat resistant pitcher through a sieve or tea sock. I've got a round seive that nestles well in the opening of my pitcher. I pour slowly, letting the sieve catch most of the tea leaves. As the sieve clogs up, I stop pouring, let the sieve drip for a minute, and then knock the tea leaves out of it into the compost.
5) When the tea is in the pitcher, add your sweetener, and stir to dissolve. You have to add the sweetener when the tea is hot, otherwise you'll never get it to dissolve fully.
6) Put the tea in the fridge for a few hours to cool it down. If you must have tea soon, you can use the ice to help cool it down, but it won't be as strong. This sweetened tea will save for a week or more in the fridge. I make big batches, and just save the full pitcher in the fridge for serving on demand.
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Serving:
To serve the tea, fill a tall glass with ice, and pour the tea over the ice, leaving about 1/4 of the glass empty at the top. Open a can of evaporated whole milk (NOT sweetened condensed milk), and top the glass off with it. Pour slowly, so that the layers stay distinct. Serve with a straw or long spoon for mixing!
Some people like more milk than others, so you'll have to experiment a bit. Likewise, some people like to drink their tea with the layers intact, and others like to mix it up right away. Thats the fun of the drink! If you serve it with layers intact, then each person decides what they want to do. Personally, I mix it very gently, so that it still has some swirls of milkier and less milky tea, but isn't completely layered.
I couldn't find the Thai seasoning mix or Thai tea dust that this recipe talked about. Instead, I bough Thai tea mix and kept my fingers crossed that it was the right one. As soon as I opened the bag, I knew it. I just smells like Thai Iced tea. When you brew it, it already smells sweet! The strainer I had didn't strain out all of the tea leaves, but oh well. They mostly just stayed on the bottom. I also had fun learning about evaporated milk as I had no idea what it was. How could evaporated milk be liquid? Well, it turns out it just has some of the water taken out, not all so it is simply more concentrated... not to be confused with sweetened condensed milk (which also has water taken out but also sugar added in). Anyways... the tea itself was fantastic. Literally the best Thai Iced tea I have ever have. Ever! I scaled the recipe so it would make four glasses but somehow I only ended up getting two glasses out of it. I think it was because I didn't have real ice (only reusable ice cubes) that didn't take up as much space. But it was super super rich and delicious. The only thing I didn't like about it was the fact that Thai Iced tea has food coloring added to it. That is why it is such a bright orange. Oh well. It was still fantastic!!
Mango with Sticky rice
From about.com with John Mitzewich
http://video.about.com/thaifood/Mango-Sticky-Rice.htm
Ingredients:
glutinous (sweet) rice
can of coconut milk
sugar
salt
raw shredded coconut
mango
Procedure:
1) Soak the Sticky Rice:
We're going to take 1 cup of what's called glutinous, or sweet rice. You'll find that in your Asian markets. It's very white, and a very short grain rice, very unusual looking. Take 1 cup of that and put it in a heavy bottomed saucepan. This much will make about 6 servings. Add 1 cup of cold water and we're going to let that soak for 30 minutes to soften.
2) Mix the Sweet Coconut Sauce:
In the meantime we're going to make a sort of coconut sauce to go in this. I have one can of coconut milk, I'm using the light, you can use regular, but the light has much less fat and works well for this. We're going to whisk that together with 1/2 cup of sugar, 1/2 tsp of salt, and 1/2 cup of the coconut milk. Just whisk until the sugar dissolves and you're done - set it aside.
3)Cook the Sticky Rice:
To cook the rice, add 3/4 cup of water, 1/4 cup coconut milk and 1 tablespoon of raw shredded coconut. Give it a stir, bring to a simmer over medium heat, turn down the heat to low and simmer covered for 15 minutes.
4) Prepare the Mango:
In the meantime, we're going to get the mango ready. The small ones are called Manilla, which I think are a little sweeter if you can find them. The regular work fine though. I'm simply going to slice the meat off that big flat pit and dice it up. You can dice or slice it doesn’t matter.
5) Sweeten the Sticky Rice:
After 15 minutes the rice is soft and sticky. It's cooked and not crunchy. We're going to take a fork and stir in the coconut sauce. I like to do it in two additions. So pour half and stir it in. we're going to do this to the hot rice so it really soaks in. We're going to pour in the other half and stir it in. A lot of these recipes call for a separate coconut, but I think it's much simpler to put it in now.
It looks kind of soupy, but as it sits it will really tighten up perfectly and be this amazing creamy, just beautiful silky texture. So let that sit covered 15 minutes. In the meantime, I'm going to toast some shredded coconut (in a dry pan) until it's a light nutty brown.
6) Serve the Mango Sticky Rice:
Then we are ready to serve. You can serve warm, room temp, or cold - it's delicious any way. We're going to scoop that on to the plate, you can see how it's really thickened up. Spoon the diced mango around it and top with the toasted coconut.
This recipe came out... okay. It has the beginnings of the flavors that I like, but something was missing. The mango itself was over-ripe so didn't help things out. I think the next time I make mango with sticky rice I might try another recipe. Although I'd be willing to give this one another chance.
All in all, I am very very proud of myself. I set out to do something, researched it, bought the materials and did it. There are not a lot of people out there who would want (or even be brave enough) to try something so far away from their home cuisine. But I did and found it was pretty easy and creates amazing and delicious results. Plus, it was amazingly cheap to boot. This same exact menu at a Thai restaurant would set you back $30-$40. If you are lucky, that would feed you for two meals or so. Making it at home, ignoring the initial increase in price (from having to buy all these sauces for the first time), I figured the whole meal cost me $27. We had about 5 meals from it (feeding 2 people), so you figure that is about $2.70 a plate. Not bad at all!!
To sum it all up, I shall quote my husband "It was worth marrying you for this meal alone." Now what chef doesn't love hearing that?
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| Pad See Ew |
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| Tom Ka Gai |
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Thai Iced Tea. Those little stars you see in it
are re-usable ice cubes |
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| Mango with sticky rice |
