Tan Kitchen - Thai Kitchen: February 2009

Chinese chive flowers with seafood

My auntie like to make this dish with sliced liver instead of seafood. I also like the liver it is good for blood. But this time I do myself and trying some new. And I still seafood in my freeze why not to use them? Chinese chive flowers with seafood is an easy dish to make and reheats well in microwave.

INGREDIENTS:

2 g shrimps
2-3 squids, cut
1 g Chinese chive flowers, cut
1 clove garlic, chopped
1 ½ tbsp fish sauce
1 tbsp oyster sauce

PREPARATION:

Chop garlic. Cut the Chinese chive flowers into 1 ½ inch long. Peel and devain shrimp. For a presentation, you can use whole shrimp (with head) and peel.
Heat a wok or a pan on high heat. Add a tablespoon of oil and chopped garlic and stir.
Add shrimp and squids when the garlic starts to brown. Stir to get the shrimp and squid somewhat cooked. The shrimp shoud start to get pinky but not all pink or cooked.
Add the chive flowers and stir to cook them.
Add oyster sauce and fish sauce. The flowers shouldn't take long to cook. You want the flowers to just cook, but not overcook and still retain their crunchiness.
When the color turns bright green, it indicates that they are cooked.
Turn off the heat and pour on a plate immediately
Serve with hot steamed rice

Tips:
For a vegetarian version, omit the shrimp and substitute salt or soy sauce for fish sauce.

Fry Mussels and Bean Sprouts (Hoy Todd)

This Thai street vendor style Fry Mussels and Bean Sprouts are quick and easy that called "Hoy Tod" in Thai. It's standard Thai one plate dishes available in many restaurants and food stalls and street.

Ingredients:

1 cup greenshell mussels
1 cup bean sprouts
1 green onion
2 sprigs cilantro
2 tsp thin soy sauce (or fish sauce)
3 eggs
¼ cup vegetable oil
1 shallot
1 clove garlic
1 cup cold water

Flour Mixture Ingredients

½ cup tapioca flour
¼ cup rice flour
¼ cup tempura flour

Preparation

Peel shallot and garlic, wash dirt, and mince. Cut green onion and cilantro roots, wash dirt, pat dry, and finely slice.
Clean greenshell mussels, remove shell, cut in halves and then set aside.
Mix 3 flours together with cold water in a mixing bowl, stir well until flours dissolve.
Heat half of oil in a fry pan on medium heat. Then divide half of flour mixture and greenshell mussels in a mixing bowl, stir well. When oil is hot, pour the mixture into the fry pan.
Let it cook without stirring, then add 2 eggs, scramble with spatula, and spread the eggs in a thin layer. Add some oil around the edge and fry until the edge is golden brown; turn it over using two spatulas.
Fry both side until done and move to one side of the fry pan.
Add 1 tsp vegetable oil in the fry pan, then add 1 tsp minced shallot and garlic, stir fry until fragrant. Add ½ cup bean sprouts and 1 tsp thin soy sauce (or fish sauce), stir fry quickly and remove from heat.
Place stir-fried bean sprouts and fried mussels on a plate, sprinkle with sliced green onion and cilantro, then serve immediately with hot chilies sauce.

Fried Chicken With Cashem Nuts (Gai pad med mamuang himmapan)

This popular dish, it’s a quick easy to make stir fry of chicken and vegetables seasoned with cashew nuts. This is idea as a side dish for Thai steamed Rice. The name break down as 'Gai' = chicken, 'pad' = fried, 'Med' = seed and 'Med Mamuang Himmapan' means cashew nut. In Thai its just as long a name! “Gai Pad Med Mamuang Himmapan”

INGREDIENTS:

400 g. chicken meat
100 g. fried cashew nuts
3 red chillies
2 red dry chillies
5 stalks spring onion
1 tbsp garlic, crushed
2 tbsp light soy sauce
2 tbsp oyster sauce
1 tsp salt
1 onion
2 tbsp cooking oil

PREPARATION:

Rinse clean chicken, slice thinly.
Rinse chilli and slice on bias.
Wash spring onions, cut into small pieces. Peel onion, slice thinly.
Fry dry chillies until fragrant and cutt into 1-2 cm. leave in the small bowl.
Heat cooking oil in wok. Stir fry garlic until fragrant.
Add chicken, cashew nuts, chilli and onion. Stir fry.
Season with light soy sauce, oyster sauce, and salt.
Stir fry to mix well.
Transfer to a serving dish with fried cutt chillies on top.

Crispy Pork with rice (Mou Krob)

This Crispy Pork is Chinese style. Some family is best served with stir-fried pak choi, but my daughter don't like much vegetable, then I decided to made this Crispy Pork with rice for my little girl.

INGREDIENTS:

800 g. streaky pork
1 tsp salt
3 Tbsp thin soy sauce
1 Tbsp seasoning soy sauce
1 Tbsp sugar
8 cups water
2 cups vegetable oil

PREPARATIONS:

Pour water in a pot, bring to boil on medium-high heat, add cleaned streaky pork, season with salt and 1 Tbsp thin soy sauce, reduce heat to low and simmer for 1 hour until the pork is tender.
Pierce pork skin with folk all over the strip, pat dry, and cut along the strip in half.
Mix thin soy sauce, 2 Tbsp seasoning soy sauce, and sugar in a mixing bowl, add boiled pork strips, stir well, and marinate for 1 hour.
Preheat oven at 325˚F. Bring marinated pork strips on rack and let both side dry well.
Bake the strips for 30 minutes.
Heat oil in a wok on medium-low heat. When oil is hot, add baked pork strips, deep fry until both sides are crispy, remove from heat and drain well.
Cut crispy pork into pieces and put on top of hot steamed rice.
Serve with sliced cucumber, green onion, boiled egg.

Pork Panaeng (Panaeng Mou)

Although traditional Panaeng Mou doesn't include vegetables, but you can try adding your own favourite vegetables to the curry and leave a comment if you come up with a good combination!

INGREDIENTS:

500g Pork fillet or Tenderloin - thinly sliced
2 tins coconut milk - separated into a saucepan of the thin milk, retaining the thick milk (creamy, solid) for later
1 tin cold water (measure with the empty coconut milk tin)
3 tablespoons groundnut or similar oil
2 tablespoons Panaeng curry paste
2 tablespoons fish sauce
5 kaffir lime leaves - torn into pieces, discarding the stem
2 tablespoons palm sugar (or brown sugar)
2 big red chillies (optional)
Sweet basil leaves

PREPARATIONS:

Put the pork into the wok with the thin coconut milk and water. Make sure the pork is covered by the liquid, then bring to the boil and simmer gently for 30 minutes. Stir occasionally.
Put the oil in a wok and fry the Panaeng curry paste for about 4 minutes until cooked. Be careful at this stage not to burn the paste. Frying the paste produces a strong, spicy smell so you might want to close the kitchen door, turn on the extractor fan or open a window! For best results just keep moving the paste around the wok and keep the heat fairly gentle.
Once the paste has been frying for a few minutes add most of the thick coconut milk and bring to the boil.
Add the cooked pork and all the remaining thin coconut milk and incorporate it into the curry base, bring back to the boil.
Add the palm sugar and stir to melt and combine, then add the fish sauce and kaffir lime leaves. Stir to combine.
Turn off the heat and garnish with basil leaves, chillies and a swirl of thick coconut milk. Serve with steamed Thai fragrant rice.

Hot Yellow Fish Curry (Kaeng Leung)

This is a curry that is best if you have an angler in the family. And this curry is hot. You can probably prepare it with anything that you catch that doesn’t eat you before you get it on the plate. I particularly like it done with catfish. If you don’t have access to fresh caught fish, you can use any shop bought fish. Mackerel is a good staple.

INGREDIENTS:

1 pound filleted fish (catfish or mackerel)
¼ cup fish sauce
½ cup shallots
½ cup crushed garlic
1/2 cup Thai chillis
2 tablespoon kapi (fermented shrimp paste)
5 cups water
2 tablespoon palm sugar
1/3 cup tamarind juice
½ cup long beans
½ cup bamboo shoots

PREPARATIONS:

If using mackerel discard the head and tail, cut the fish in half along its belly, discard the backbone. If using catfish just chop it into chunks, and warn the diners about the bones.
Briefly fry the kapi to bring out it’s flavor.
In a blender or food processor, place a cup of water, the fish sauce, shallots, garlic, thinly sliced Thai chillis and fermented shrimp paste.
Blend to a coarse paste, and add to 4 cups of water in a saucepan and bring to a boil.
Add the fish, palm sugar, tamarind juice, sliced long beans and sliced bamboo shoots.
Bring to a boil, reduce the heat until it is just boiling and the fish is cooked (about 5 minutes).
Serve with hot steamed rice.

Search for Thai Curry Paste

Chicken wrapped in Pandanus Leaf (Kai ho bai toei)

Kai Ho Bai Toei or Chicken wrapped in Pandanus Leaf. Pandanus leaves act as both a wrapping and flavoring in this dish. Leaving a long tail on the parcels will make them prettier and easier to handle so don't trim the leaves. To eat, carefully unwrap the parcels and dip the chicken into the sauce.

INGREDIENTS:

5 cilantro roots, cleaned and roughly chopped
4 to 5 garlic cloves
1 teaspoon ground white pepper
¼ teaspoon salt
1 pound, 5 ounces skinless chicken breast fillet, cut into 25 cubes
2 tablespoons oyster sauce
1 ½ tablespoons sesame oil
1 tablespoon plain, all-purpose flour
25 pandanus leaves, cleaned and dried
vegetable oil for deep-frying
plum sauce or a chilli sauce, to serve

PREPARATIONS:

Using a motar and pestle or a small blender, pound or blend the cilantro roots, garlic, white pepper, and salt into a paste. In a bowl, combine the paste with the chicken, oyster sauce, sesame oil, and flour. Cover with plastic wrap and marinade in the refrigerator for at least 3 hours, or overnight.
Fold one of the pandanus leaves, bringing the base up in front of the tip, making a cup. Put a piece of chicken in the fold and, moving the bottom of the leaf, wrap it around the chicken to create a tie and enclose the chicken. Repeat until you have used all the chicken.
Heat oil in a wok or deep frying pan over medium heat. When the oil seems hot, drop a small piece of leaf into it. If it sizzles immediately, the oil is ready. Lower some parcels into the oil and deep-fry for 7 to 10 minutes, or until the parcels feel firm. Lift out with a slotted spoon and drain on paper towels. Keep the cooked ones warm while deep-frying the rest. Transfer to a serving plate, and serve with plum sauce or a chilli sauce.

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Fried Ground Pork With Basil Leave (Pad Ka-prao mou sub & Khai dow)

I just back from wet market this morning. We did't have any breakfast only a cup of coffee this morning before going to market. My daughter so hungry. I should make easy and fast food for lunch. Even we have lot of things in our freeze. I won't do any special food. Because when people hungry they're easy to be angry. I should do "Pad ka-prao mou + khai dow" or fried ground pork with basil leave and fried egg. This is one plate dish. OK. let's see what I need.

INGREDIENTS:

450 g ground pork
5 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1/2 cup onion, sliced
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 teaspoons black soy sauce
2 tablespoons fish sauce
1 cup fresh holy basil
7-8 chillies, chopped and pounded coarsely
Dash of ground white pepper

PREPARATIONS:

Heat a wok until the oil is hot, then stir in the garlic, and then add chillies. Stir another few seconds before adding the ground pork.
Continue Stir-frying until pork is cooked throughly.
Add onion and sprinkle black soy sauce over the mixture and stir-fry another 15-20 seconds.
Then add fresh basil leaves and fish sauce to taste.
Stir and mix well. Sprinkle with white pepper. Stir and transfer to a serving dish.
Normally, Thai people love to eat this dish with steamed rice and fried egg. This 2-3 serving.

Tip: You can add more vegetables such as carrot, string bean, baby corn as extra ingredients.