Thai Inspired Menu

[patricia]

Hello all chefs! As a beginning personal chef, I have been asked to cook some Thai. I've never cooked it (shhh, don't tell) and only eaten it a few times. The client wants protein, starch, veg. No casseroles, stews, dishes where these are all combined. They are moderate to high moderate heat.

For this cook date, they have already requested fish, so beef, pork, chicken.

So far, I have found a recipe for snow peas with shitake mushrooms. Sounds wonderful for the veg, but I could use your help with the protein, starch.

Thank you for any help you might provide.

Forgot to add they don't eat white rice.

Edited October 31, 2012 by patricia (log)

[C. sapidus]

. . . Forgot to add they don't eat white rice.

Quoth David Thompson in Thai Food:

“. . . no matter how refined, delicate or complex dishes may be, they are merely accompaniments to the rice. Without rice a meal would be incomprehensible . . .”

“To the Thai, rice is the meal.”

That said, you might try some of the Thai street foods for your clients – sate, crying tiger, BBQ chicken, fish cakes, or prawn cakes. For the starch, you could try noodle dishes such as pad Thai or pad sii eew.

Really, though, Thai food belongs with jasmine rice (or sticky rice for some regional dishes). Any chance of your clients making an exception on the rice front?

[GeneMachine]

I second that. A Thai menu in the strict sense without rice probably doesn't exist. Street food is the way.

Doesn't Thompson have a separate volume out by now on the topic of street food alone?

[heidih]

So they eat brown rice or other colors of rice? There are so many readily available colored rices today. Have you asked them about their favorite "Thai" dishes?

[patricia]

So they eat brown rice or other colors of rice? There are so many readily available colored rices today. Have you asked them about their favorite "Thai" dishes?

Thank you for all of the responses. Yes, they do eat brown rice.

[Ader1]

How about glutinous rice? Eat with Papaya Salad.

Thai style barbecued chicken.

And how about a Pad Thai noodle dish? But the noodles would be rice noodles.

Oh yes and how about the fried battered banana? Could eat it with ice-cream.

Edited November 1, 2012 by Ader1 (log)

[liuzhou]

It sounds to me like they want Thai - so long as it isn't really Thai. Just make whatever you feel like and introduce it as Thai. It doesn't seem like they would know the difference.

Edited November 1, 2012 by liuzhou (log)

[Ader1]

It sounds to me like they want Thai - so long as it isn't really Thai. Just make whatever you feel like and introduce it as Thai. It doesn't seem like they would know the difference.

LOL! Yest stick some chillies, sugar, fish sauce, lime on whatever....

[patricia]

Thanks for all the help, I could use even more. They do want Thai, I'm sure when they are at a Thai restaurant, they just order noodle dishes.

[heidih]

Thanks for all the help, I could use even more. They do want Thai, I'm sure when they are at a Thai restaurant, they just order noodle dishes.

Which are generally rice noodles..... You also stated "For this cook date, they have already requested fish, so beef, pork, chicken." Does this mean you are only looking for a fish dish or??? Also if you describe the vegetable dish prep it would give us an idea of what you consider "Thai"

[patricia]

Thanks for all the help, I could use even more. They do want Thai, I'm sure when they are at a Thai restaurant, they just order noodle dishes.

Which are generally rice noodles..... You also stated "For this cook date, they have already requested fish, so beef, pork, chicken." Does this mean you are only looking for a fish dish or??? Also if you describe the vegetable dish prep it would give us an idea of what you consider "Thai"

Poorly written. I should have said that they already have requested a fish dish. So the Thai should be beef, pork, or chicken.

I don't know Thai, that's why I'm here. I googled this recipe after looking a a menu.

Thai Snow Peas

1 1/4 cups (4 oz) Snow Peas

3/4 cup Sliced shitake mushrooms

1/4 cup Shredded ginger

2 teaspoons Kikkoman soy sauce

Oyster sauce (optional, add if you want more flavor

1 teaspoon Sesame oil

1/2 tablespoon Thai light soy sauce

1/2 teaspoon Sugar

2 tablespoons Vegetable oil

1 cup Shitake water

[SylviaLovegren]

Jasmine rice as an accompaniment -- I prefer white but you could do brown. Also a pork larb is easy and delicious. Vegetarian or shrimp Thai dumplings with hot dipping sauce (most freezer sections have the dumplings and TJ has a great Thai style dipping sauce, so easy!). A very easy dish is chicken (or pork, beef, shrimp, what you will) with mint or Thai basil -- nice and spicy and a quick stir fry. Prik King -- meat sauteed with red curry paste and green beans -- is another classic that is delicious. Pork or chicken are the most common.

[HungryC]

A basic Thai cookbook would be a big help. I was thinking chicken larb, as it is bracing, salary, and an easy dish to prepare. How about a simple veggie curry? Try a massamun curry made with potatoes and carrots...buy the curry paste already prepared and its another easy dish. The potatoes will provide some starch so you can skip the rice if necessary.

[ScottyBoy]

Which are generally rice noodles.....

Haha first thing I thought too.

I would look into making some legit curry pastes, then you can do all kinds of stuff. But generally it's like, if the client wants brown rice then they get brown rice, not you fault. Blasphemy I think but hey, they have to live with it.

[Tri2Cook]

But generally it's like, if the client wants brown rice then they get brown rice, not you fault.

Exactly.

I would agree with much of what has been said if the question didn't start with "as a beginning personal chef". A personal chef who tells the clients what they won't do because it's not authentic is in the fastlane to no longer being a personal chef. It's fine to offer advice and guidance but at the end of the discussion, what the client pays you to do is what you do. We can trot out examples of dictatorial chefs who tell the customer what they will or won't do and get away with it but I'm willing to bet almost anything that every one of them put in a lot of years of doing whatever the customer wanted before they got to that point in their success. Customer wants brown rice with their waterfall beef, customer gets brown rice with their waterfall beef... without a side of "that's wrong".

[Ader1]

A basic Thai cookbook would be a big help. I was thinking chicken larb, as it is bracing, salary, and an easy dish to prepare. How about a simple veggie curry? Try a massamun curry made with potatoes and carrots...buy the curry paste already prepared and its another easy dish. The potatoes will provide some starch so you can skip the rice if necessary.

Again larb is a dish which includes rice. And usually white rice.

[patricia]

But generally it's like, if the client wants brown rice then they get brown rice, not you fault.

Exactly.

I would agree with much of what has been said if the question didn't start with "as a beginning personal chef". A personal chef who tells the clients what they won't do because it's not authentic is in the fastlane to no longer being a personal chef. It's fine to offer advice and guidance but at the end of the discussion, what the client pays you to do is what you do. We can trot out examples of dictatorial chefs who tell the customer what they will or won't do and get away with it but I'm willing to bet almost anything that every one of them put in a lot of years of doing whatever the customer wanted before they got to that point in their success. Customer wants brown rice with their waterfall beef, customer gets brown rice with their waterfall beef... without a side of "that's wrong".

I agree. That's what makes the service "personal". This has been a learning experience. I was supposed to have a proposed menu to her yesterday, instead I emailed her that I would send it the following morning because of a missing ingredient. I went to my local asian store and wasn't able to find mung bean noodles. I had decided on Pan Woon Sen. She called last night and said don't worry about the Thai. Didn't want me to stress. What a sweetheart.

So a lesson in communication. I will relace the dish, and after the cook date discuss her request for Thai. I will print a menu and we'll look over it together.

Thank you all so much for your help. I have written down your suggestions and will use them in the future. There are many asian stores to explore.

[KennethT]

I realize you don't have the problem anymore, but an Asian store with no mung bean noodles??? Maybe they have them under a different name "cellophane noodles". They turn translucent when cooked.

[Dejah]

Chicken, pork, or beef satay...with a peanut dip...that's what many people will think Thai food is all about. Easy to prepare ahead:-)

[patricia]

I realize you don't have the problem anymore, but an Asian store with no mung bean noodles??? Maybe they have them under a different name "cellophane noodles". They turn translucent when cooked.

I will have the problem in the future. They had "bean threads". and when I asked I was told that they were not mung bean noodles, nor did they have any. The store was very crowded, rhe clerks too busy to help was the feeling I got.

[SylviaLovegren]

Again larb is a dish which includes rice. And usually white rice.

It does? It can have toasted rice as an ingredient -- a small, optional ingredient -- and is often served with rice, but doesn't require rice as far as I've known it.

[HungryC]

Again larb is a dish which includes rice. And usually white rice.

It does? It can have toasted rice as an ingredient -- a small, optional ingredient -- and is often served with rice, but doesn't require rice as far as I've known it.

I haven't ever had a larb with rice....other than the scant amount of ground, toasted rice used as a seasoning. Many less authentic restaurant versions of the dish omit the toasted ground rice completely.