SuzanneW

I'm just following up with reports on my grachai and shrimp salad reports (previous page). I finally got some fresh grachai for once, and it made a huge difference -- a much better, subtler salad, but still different enough from the typical salad to stand out.

So in the last two nights, I tried both the egglant salad with shrimp substituting for trout, mentioned just above, and the shrimp/grachai ("wild ginger")/sour mango salad from Thai food. This shrimp-eggplant-lemongrass one is a definite keeper--very, very easy. The texture just works very nicely. I'd up the lemongrass some from the rough proportions Thompson gives, as my lemongrass tends not to be too pungent I need to try the shrimp/grachai one a second try, because although it was good, it wasn't quite as fabulous as I hoped. First, the recipe calls for sweet shrimp--cooked in sugar, basically--and I don't think I let the sugar really caramelize down enough before I tossed in the shrimp. So they were a little overcooked and weren't as sweet as I hoped. To get around the soggy grachai problem, I used a frozen pack that came pre-shrdedded. It worked perfectly letting it thaw and then sit in the colander to dry out for a few hours--didn't seem soggy at all. But it changes the look of the salad to more of a som tam look, and I hadn't cut my green mango into similar slices, so the different pieces didn't quite hang together. Still, a big tangle of grachai makes for a very interesting flavor. I think the mango needs to be the same size as the grachai, and I think I needed to amplify the shrimp more -- probably more shrimp paste in the dressing would bring it out.

Great looking yum neua -- very jealous of ye with access to grills... What was next up?

Belated thanks to all for khao soi friendly cocktail ideas. I especially like people explaining the principles at work, and "showing the math" of their thinking. In the end, I jettisoned cocktails altogether, as I got way behind: the morning of, as I went to pound the curry paste for 16 people, I discovered I was out of shrimp paste. Time consuming run into Chinatown on a sleety, rainy day just to get the little tub.... But it was all worth it, the khao soi came out well, perfect for a sleety day. Next up: roast duck curry for a crowd. What would you serve with it? It's rich and has some sweetness (I put in some pineapple and sometimes some grapes), so I want another dish, other than greens (which I usually do) that goes towards tart/fresh/bitter. I'm thinking that shrimp/apple eggplant salad may be the ticket -- I'll try a go-round this weekend -- but was open to other suggestions. It's especially helpful to have things I can do a little in advance, as I hate to be working right up until service. Has anyone tried a vegetarian sort of haw mok? Maybe steaming something is a good way to manage time... will have to sit with Thai Food this weekend to see.

I haven't cooked Thai in ages, but am always so inspired when I come back to this thread. I am going to have a gang over for khao soi in two weeks. This is not a Thai cooking question, but can any of you think of what might work as a pre-khao soi cocktail? I wouldn't want it to clash.

Interesting – I don’t think that I have seen kraphrao leaves here. Do you know if they are exported, or what other names they might be called?

Report from vacation cooking: Sai oua: Basically followed the recipe in HSSS. Since I froze the sausage for grilling later, flavor may have suffered. It was denser and drier than I expected -- maybe overhandled the pork or cooked way too long on the grill. Also less intense in flavor, but nicely balanced flavor. Next time, I'll try Thompson's recipe, or up the spice. Definitely NOT spicy enough. Sai krok issan: I've made this a few times, and each time has been different. Unfortunately, I am terrible at remembering--even in the short term--which recipe I used. This time, I used one that is floating around the web a lot: 1 pound minced pork 1/4 cup minced garlic 1/2 cup steamed sticky rice 1 teaspoon black pepper 1 teaspoon salt 1/4 cup lime juice 2 tablespoons fish sauce I added some slivered wild lime leaves and coriander root, and used more sticky rice than is called for. Froze, grilled. This was much juicier than my sai oua, and a big hit with the crowd. Nicely sour. It was very crumbly on the grill, probably because of too much rice. Still, I think the recipes I've made before--probably either HSSS or Thompson--were a little better. Neua Nam tok: Biggest success. Had no recipe, just did it with larb seasoning (lime, fish, sugar, collected meat juices, chiles), substituting red onion instead of shallot since that's what I had, and usign plenty of roasted rice powder. Served over some arugula because I had it around. Very rare meat, great use of a grill. Gai yang: Did this two nights using the marinade proportions in HSSS. Good the first time--slightly too salty-- and fantastic the second, for no obvious reason. In addition to the ordinary nam jeen, I made a sweet and sour sauce (cooking garlic, sugar, vinegar, adding crushed roasted red chiles) from a Saveur article on Issan about two or three summers ago. I've made it before and it worked well, but this time I kept overcooking it and it was way too sticky and honey like, though very tasty. Served with an excellent cucumber salad one night and a failed green-bean half-way som tam dish (I just wasn't paying attention), and the next time with slivered cabbage/coleslaw and what a recipe book would call "Asian dressing" -- lots of ginger, some garlic, lime, rice vinegar, fish sauce, honey, sesame oil. Worked nicely, fine for all those people who, unlike me, don't feel sad and lonely if they have gai yang with no som tam. Never made a shrimp dish since the vegetarian was a no-show.

I agree, those salads look great! I'll definitely be doing nam tok later in the week. For now, I am trying very hard to fight my tendencies to cook too many dishes for a crowd, resulting in me being harried and snappy (to say it nicely) in the last 15 minutes pulling it all together... Good feedback on the shrimp, thanks. I'll stick with the nam jeen idea. As a som tam stand-in, I was thinking more veggie -- tart, crunchy -- than protein so wasn't going down the yum route. The fruit idea is intriguing--I have heard of using green apple type things -- maybe some Thai eggplant would work too in the mix. Well, maybe not. I hadn't heard of the idea of pineapple for it. Mmmm, I just now remembered a som tam with khanom jeen that I had up in Na Haeo, and how I thought how perfect it would be in the summer here... oh well, another time. Thanks for the advice. I'll report back!

I'll be on vacation and thus have access to a bbq this weekend, so am grilling gai yang and sai krok and sai oua Friday night (made both of these out of HSSS this weekend and froze them--will post results). Two questions: 1. One guest doesn't eat land creatures, so I'd like to throw something fishy on the grill for her but I don't want to make a whole other dish. Would the gai yang marinade (coriander root, garlic, pepper, fish sauce) work with shrimp? I assume so but can't quite picture it. 2. Any favorite som tam stand-ins? I'll have no access to green papaya or mango, and folks haven't seemed to love my sup nor mai before. I am thinking Thai-inspired, not actual Thai -- a cabbage salad done like som tam? Cucumbers (doesn't seem quite right)?

I just made this cucumber salad for the first time, and loved it. Totally simple, but the depth from the Sichuan peppercorns and roasted chilies is great. Used a bird chili since I didn't have jalapenos. This will be a summer staple.

No, don't give up (gee, what a surprise response on this thread!). This may sound "duh," but jumping right into recipes can be intimidating. I'd first read just the text and explanatory sections, so you feel like you have some basic knowledge. It will make the recipes seem simpler. Then, as said, you need to do a leisurely shopping trip to an Asian market and really dig for stuff. I recognize it can be hard, though, especially with recognizing herbs--I didn't know how to find a lot of stuff until after I took a vacation in Thailand where I just poked around markets. If you don't live near one, there are great online resources. Start with soups--your basic tom kha gai can be very easy and rewarding--and salads (aka "yum" or similar names). The chicken and basil stirfry is also easy and good, or the other basic stir fries. You'll soon find the basics are simple--it's perfecting the balance that takes practice. But what fun practice...

I never found raad nah to be particularly salty, so if it feels overloaded with salt, you should adjust the recipe. I can't remember if I've tried Thompson's version exactly, but every version I've made has about that same amount of dao jiao (the soy bean sauce) in it. I've usually had a mixture of fish sauce, sweet soy and dao jiao. I'd suggest cutting back some of the soy sauce rather than cutting down on the dao jiao, or replacing some of the soy with fish sauce if your soy is really salty. Or just use less sauce the next time, since maybe your ingredients are particularly salty. Made chicken laap and sticky rice last night, but my laap was kind of flat for some reason. Not enough chili powder or maybe not enough shallots. Oh well.

Came home achy with a flu, and when that happens, I need this tom jeud (clear soup) with tofu, greens, rice vermicelli and pork/garlic meatballs: <http://gorgeoustown.typepad.com/lex_culinaria/2006/01/clear_soup_with.html> I added khunchai (aka chinese celery) and generous amounts of ground black pepper, and used regular cabbage sliced very thin. It's extremely quick and easy, and feels fresh, clean and healthy, especially since I try to eat garlic when sick.

I used about 2 tablespoons each oyster sauce and light soy sauce, and then about 2 teaspoons sweet soy sauce (maybe more), some sugar and a lot of ground pepper. Next time I'd use just a little bit of oyster so that the soy flavor comes through better. The light soy sauce was the Dragonfly "thin soy sauce" on this page if it works: <http://www.templeofthai.com/food/sauces/thinsoy-5133231037.php>. I've also used For the dark soy sauce, I used the sweet dark soy sauce, Healthy Boy brand with the green label: <http://www.templeofthai.com/food/sauces/blacksweetsoy-5132222035.php>. There is also the not-as-sweet see ew dam with the yellow label: <http://www.templeofthai.com/food/sauces/blackthicksoy-5132222175.php>. This is what I thought I should use, though the guy in my Thai store said I should use the sweet one.

Made the pork and slaw recipe the other night after reading the comments here. It was very easy, tasty and healthy. Only changes: I would have sliced my pork a little bit thicker, and I found the sugar in the marinade really scorched on the pan. I also agree the sauces are skimpy, so you might want to increase their numbers by 50%. I served it over soba noodles that I happened to have in the pantry, and thought they worked very well and in some ways made the whole thing complete.

Actually, yes. I just let my subscription lapse because I decided that something had changed there, as I was finding far fewer useful articles and recipes. A few years ago, there were recipes that became staples; now it seems fussier and less useful, and the articles seem over-written. It's still better than many food magazines, but I am very choosy about whether to buy an issue now.

Yes, as Austin said, jaew is a generic term, as is bong -- I am somewhat sure it means "pickled" (dong in Thai), although jaew bong in Luang Prabang is not actually pickled. Jaew bong is the food that first led me to chowhound about 7 years ago -- I got some raised eyebrows suggesting I was making up the term (it does inspire stoner-like adjectives). This is my favorite ad in the world for insta-jaew-bong at home: http://plara.velocall.com/pd991892606.htm. But on the Lao/Thai debate, I have had virtually identical jaews in Thailand near Laos, most notably in the nortwestern part of Loei province, where I swear the jaew tasted exactly like I had first tried in Luang Prabang. And the laap I got in the northern parts of Nan province (Thailand) was very different than elsewhere in Thailand--far darker in its spicing, and less herb-like--and probably is quite different than you'd find in southern Laos. I also associate the use of dill and certain aromatics more profoundly with Lao cooking than with central/northern/southern thai, and with a more bitter quality also found in northen Thai food, but others disagree with me on this bitterness point, and I don't have enough data to say. Also, someone asked how kai, the river grass, is served. Cooked in sheets with sesame sprinkled on top seems the most common way. In Nan, I also ate it in a a powder into which you'd dip your sticky rice, or made into a dip. I don't like most seaweed, but I think this stuff is very tasty and I am told quite nutritious.

Sunday's pad see ew went better than before, but still needs some work. I had to use a few substitutions since I didn't quite plan right: used broccoli rabe instead of Chinese broccoli (good substitute), and had to use thinner rice noodles, like you'd use for pad thai, since I was mistaken in my belief that my pantry held wide noodles. It was also the first dish made on my new stove, and I was using a tiny burner that made it hard to heat up the wok. I tried to keep the wok less crowded to prevent noodles from sticking, so after stir frying half the garlic and the meat (some marinated chicken) and rabe, I took them out and stir fried the noodles in batches, with some sauce, then added it all back together. It definitely worked better, but they got mushy, probably because I cooked them too long. After mixing the whole thing, added the eggs. Served with some fish sauce w/ chilies and sugared vinegar sauce with chilies. Very tasty flavor and the perfect weekend brunch dish for me, but it still does not have that wok-charred taste I associate with good pad see ew. Next time: a different burner and less smushing of the noodles, and maybe letting them sit and sizzle a moment to get some charredness off of the wok.

Bruce, how did you do the gai yang in the wok? I can't grill outside (no outdoor access in my apartment) and have a lousy broiler, so I have only made gai yang when at the beach or when I have access to a grill. Non-grilling is never the same, but if you found it worked well anyway, I'll give it a try. I agree the HSSS peppercorn-coriander root marinade is excellent--I like that it is very tasty, but not with any particularly overpowering flavor. Once I had to use all cilantro stems because the coriander roots I had frozen went putrid in the thawing, and in some ways it was actually better. I've used it with a sweet-sour dipping sauce from an issue of Saveur -- I may try to find it, since it was great. Also, experts: Last month, I froze a good amount of Nittaya red curry paste without cooking it first. I was lazy. Will it still be any good? Off to get the greens for pad see ew. Will report back.

Nope, haven't tried that but I will. My thinking is that maybe my wok is just not as hot as it should be when I do this, and the noodles sort of "bake" together for a few seconds. Don't know. I'll see what happens this weekend.

Jumping in here -- I just found this thread (don't spend a lot of time on this site), and am completely thrilled. I was wondering if my Thai cooking phase might fade, but you all have me completely invigorated. I get recipes from a mix of sources -- plenty from HSSS -- for example, gai pad gaprow is a weeknight staple -- and sometimes from David Thompson, and others from recipes from my Chiang Mai cooking class, especially for my curry pastes. This weekend, I am craving a basic pad see ew, and I was wondering if anyone could solve my stir-fried noodle problem. I can't seem to make any rice noodle stir-fry (usually raad na, which in HSSS is that "favorite noodles with gravy" or something like that, or pad see ew) without the noodles glomming together into one big whole cake. This is true no matter how quickly I stir them, or whether or not they were coated with soy sauce or something beforehand. Maybe I'm not using enough oil (which is too bad, because it already seems like plenty)? Wok not hot enough? Can freshness of the noodles (these are dry noodles soaked) matter? And is there any way to get that fantastic smoky-wok flavor I associate with a great fried noodle dish at home? Just wondering if any one else has had the same problem, and how they solve it. Please keep posting about your luck with recipes--I'll do the same (kitchen all upside down from a very modest renovation, and I've been away in Africa for a month, so it may take a while before I get ambitious)--but do know that others are reading and learning. And Austin--love the blog, can't wait to read more.

Thanks for the welcome! Know a little, still hoping to learn a lot. At Sripraphai, things definitely vary, but I really like the jungle curry (sometimes the flavors are more muddled, but when it's good it's great); any salad or anything involving grilled meat, especially the beef salad and moo manao (pork with garlic and lime, i think it's called on the menu); bamboo shoot salad; khao soi; often the panang; and when I'm just there by myself and want soemthing basic, the meat stirfried with basil over rice. I recently had tom kha gai, which I rarely order because I like everything else more, and it was awesome, and when I am sick I really need their tom yum. I have NOT done very well with some of the stir-fries, most recently the frog with basil and chilis or the pad ped phet yang (roast duck and red curry stir fry -- different from the roast duck curry), or with the pad see-ew (I would kill for a nicely wok-charred, smoky pad see-ew, but can't find it anywhere). I also think the much famed watercress salad with seafood is often terrifically unbalanced, and the flavors and textures don't work; I know many disagree. Recently a friend who does not like heat ordered the massaman curry, which I don't usually order. It was full and luscious, and would work well for someone avoiding heat.

I was asking in specific reference to what is listed as "sour curry with omelette and shrimp" on the menu. It has a flavor completely distinct from the other curries I've tried (green, red, massaman, etc). ← It gets its pleasant sourness from tamarind (which you won't find in the other curries), and its funkiness from cha-om, the sort of fetid green in the omelette, and I think from some of the fermented fish. Yet there is a definite sweetness underlying these flavors, and just enough pleasant heat as a followup to take your mind off the pungency. I find it varies a lot there, and sometimes is more balanced than others.