Thai Cooking at Home, 2005 - 2006

[Susan in FL]

Anita, thanks for posting and sharing the link to Ofoto. Nice! It looks like a lot of good eats and fun was had by all, as well as the great experience in Thai cooking and tasting like you and Wendy described.

[JPW]

Alas, my camera was out of order last night, but dinner was-

1)Chinese sausage salad

2)Padd Thai - Bangkok style

Wife said they looked very pretty.

[Chufi]

Well, tonight was my first attempt at Thai food in a looong time.

I made Thai fish cakes (made with cod and green beans) and a sort of Pad Thai, with shrimp and baby squid. Sort of because I did not have rice noodles so used udon noodles instead . Two dipping sauces for the fishcakes: sesame lime (home made) and sweet chili (from a bottle).

Tasted and looked great.. was a lot of work though for something that looks so simple on the plate!

[snowangel]

Pad Thai here last night

I used chicken and stir-fried some shrimp on the side (when Heidi eats shrimp, it does not stay down).

I can now cross rice noodles off the list of things I have trouble with! They did just what they were supposed to do without glumping up!

[bilrus]

I attempted Drunken Noodles last night, but they ended up irredeemably salty and ended up in the garbage disposal.

Tonight I am making ground chicken Kaprow (i've got to use up my bag of Thai basil and chilies soon, before they go bad).

[prasantrin]

Chufi, one of the things I notice about most Thai restaurants is they all have the same limited repertoire of dishes, and there is so much more to Thai than what you see on their menus.  For example, I can't recall the last time I saw the dish I fixed last night on a restaurant menu.  There is far more to Thai than curry and pad thai.

Sadly, most Thai restaurants which do not cater to ex-pats cater to the general public. That means pad Thai, 4 different curries, and satay. One restaurant I used to frequent had yum pla dook foo, but it did so poorly (I think my family and a friend I introduced the dish to were the only ones who ordered it) that it was taken off the menu. The owners will still make it for me when they know I'm coming, but no more spur of the moment catfish salad for me!

Another problem with Thai restaurants outside of Thailand--a lot of them don't make very good Thai food. I've seen too many liberties taken with some of my favourite dishes--broccoli florets and carrots in curries (and I still stand by my past claim that Thai people, in general, don't particularly like carrots), ketchup in choochee...I could go on and on. How can people get to know Thai food if what they're eating could barely even pass as Thai?

[bilrus]

Sadly, most Thai restaurants which do not cater to ex-pats cater to the general public. 

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My local thai place in the exurbs of DC has started a supplemental menu of what they call traditional Thai dishes that are more likely to be made at home. Defintely stuff I don't see on typical menus. I've had a few and have liked what I've had - although I may not be adventurous enough to try some of the items.

Tonight's dinner was my take on one of the restaurant staples - chicken kaprow (chicken with basil) from the Hot Sour Salty Sweet cookbook. The book calls for chicken thighs or breasts, but I like this version, with ground chicken a little better. I double the amount of sauce-type ingredients because the ground chicken absorbs more of the sauce.

[Susan in FL]

Looks like a few of us have been hit by the Thai bug recently, looks good! Susan, congrats on the rice noodles.

.. was a lot of work though for something that looks so simple on the plate!

Ain't it the truth? But I enjoy it. However, tonight I underestimated the work that soup, spring rolls, and this duck dish would be and so instead of stressing, I just skipped the spring rolls. I'll do them tomorrow night or Friday night, hopefully.

I continued my research for Thai cooking at home when I was in Tampa last week and had dinner at a place called Jasmine Thai. Their spring rolls were fried, and I was hoping for not-fried, but they were really good anyway. The larb was a disappointment; mine is much better! The highlight was the Tom Yum soup. I can't remember the rest of the Thai words, but it had a few different seafoods in it. It was one of the best soups I've ever eaten.

Tonight's dinner:

Clear-Broth Soup with Ground Pork ["meatballs"], Garlic, and Spinach

Crispy Kaffir Lime Duck on Noodles

[Susan in FL]

Bill, I like your modifications on the Chicken with Basil. Often I find I want dishes from HSSS more liquidy than the recipes are written. I like ground meat in a lot of them, as well. Looks good!

[snowangel]

Bill, I like your modifications on the Chicken with Basil.  Often I find I want dishes from HSSS more liquidy than the recipes are written.  I like ground meat in a lot of them, as well.  Looks good!

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First off, Susan, your flower garnishes are killing me. We are March in MN. It is brown, with patches of white (snow). There isn't much color if the cardinals or blue jays aren't around. Sigh.

As I mentioned in the Braising with Molly thread (about Beef Rendang), Diana and Paul are bugged if what I fix to serve with rice (always Thai) doesn't have lots of juice. I think that's a farang thing. I grew up knowing that rice was the main thing. A vehicle for the other stuff. Sometimes it has a lot of sauce (as in a coconut curry) sometimes not (as in many stir-fryes or "dry" curries). In some of those tiny northern Villages in Thailand in the late 70's, lunch was some veg, some stirfried meat fat on rice. Plus condiments. These dishes weren't long on juice, but way long on flavour.

[Susan in FL]

I'm loving these flowers too, Susan. This year our winter garden has been much more successful than summer gardens. We are enjoying homegrown little pear shaped yellow tomatoes now! Hopefully we will have some red ones soon.

Interesting about the juiciness thing. I imagine I enjoy more "juice" than you were accustomed to in Thailand, but I also do not want to compromise the flavors. It's the flavors of Thai food that have hooked me.

What does "a farang thing" mean?

I made the spring rolls aka summer rolls aka roll-ups aka salad rolls, etc. etc. etc. tonight for an appetizer. Mostly I followed the True Thai recipe, but I improvised a bit also. The rice paper wrappers... dipping those buggers in the hot water and doing the wrapping can be tricky! I was just beginning to get on to it, when I finished this batch. I made plum sauce last night, but I like the plum sauce my favorite Thai restaurant serves with theirs better. The recipe I made was called Thai style, and I think that what the restaurant serves is Vietnamese style (thinner). As always, comments and advice welcome.

[snowangel]

What does "a farang thing" mean?

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To a Thai, in Thailand, a foreigner is a farang. A side note. Growing up in Thailand during the height of the Vietnam war, we lived there, but not as military. Almost all of the American's were military (my dad worked for a private foundation at a Thai university as an ag economist, creating a department). Since we didn't have access to the PX (post exchange; the place where one could use US$ and buy stuff like Skippy and Fritoes), and ate exclusively Thai food, we were less "farang" than most of our friends. We were also not on the two year tour of duty schedule, so we actually learned to speak the language and appreciate eating all of the bounty.

Anyway, I digress. Your summer rolls look wonderful. Back to your comment about them. You mentioned the restaurants being thinner. Meaning the circumferance of the rolls or the rice papers? And, if you think your restaurant's plum sauce is better, ask if you can buy some or ask them how they make it.

This food is so interesting. After I made my last pad thai, I recalled that we had a cook that used tamarind and nam pla for the sauce, and one that used a combo of rice vinegar, tamarind and nam pla. Both were authentic, I think!

I'm thinking kao soy for my next Thai expedition (after I take care of my lamb curry duties; the lamb is thawing as we speak; time to do something besides braise and cook Thai).

And, tonight, I will go to bed dreaming not only of flowers, but tomatoes, you lucky devil you! We won't see anything local until late July, if we are lucky!

[Susan in FL]

A quick good morning to everyone before I leave for work...

Thanks for the info, Susan. About thinner, I meant that the plum sauce at that restaurant is thinner than the "Thai style" plum sauce I made. Maybe it's a farang thing, LOL! Good suggestion about asking them how it's made or buying some.

Have a great day and weekend, all.

[Chufi]

I wanted to make sticky rice, but all the recipes I looked at intimidated me with their mention of special cookers and bamboo steamers. Then, when I was at my Asian market, I saw these:

I asked the owner how to cook them and he said "just put in boiling water until it looks done". He also said that it was less stickier than the loose variety of sticky rice he sold, but was still sticky rice. So I bought it and I have to say I was pleased with the result. Very, very easy (which is a big plus for some-one with rice-fear, like me), and a good sticky consistency.

Anyway.. tadaa.. I am very happy to announce that yet another Egulleter is under the spell of Larb! I made larb! With beef, laos, mint & coriander. It was great. Next time I'll play around with the flavors a bit.. I think I would like it a bit more sour and a bit spicier. Can't wait to try it with other meats. Sri Owen gives a larb recipe for duck in her Rice book, that sounds lovely.

So tonights dinner:

Tom Ka Khai

Larb on little gem lettuce with sticky rice!

[tammylc]

I'm planning to make Thai Beef Salad this weekend. In looking at recipes, it seems that there are as many ways to make it as there are cooks - anyone want to share your favorite recipe so I can figure out the similarities and differences?

Thanks.

[RyuShihan]

My mom is thai so we cook thai food all of the time at my house. As for the beef salad comment basically we grill some beef, mid rare, cut up some thin red onions romain lettuce. We mix the three together then add fish sauce, like you would add salt to a dish, limes to kill the fishy smell and give it the sour taste and some dried smoked hot peppers.

Course you could also use tomatoes, I like them but my mom doesn't.

Also the great thing about Thai food, is alot of people don't realise Thailand is divided into 4 distinct cooking regions each with there own styles of cooking. My mom was from the Northern region near Chang Mai and they are known for their real spicy style, but my half-sister lived near Bangkok and they eat more sweet style foods like the Pad-Thai. The central region is sweater because thats where Royalty lived and sweats and royalty went hand and hand,

I have a question, why is it when I walk into most thai restaurants the Pad Thai is always brown...Normally its kinda red. Are they just using sweet soy sauce instead of making a tamarind based sauce?

[ellencho]

I have a question, why is it when I walk into most thai restaurants the Pad Thai is always brown...Normally its kinda red. Are they just using sweet soy sauce instead of making a tamarind based sauce?

When I make PT at home, it is brown, and I do use a tamarind-based sauce - should it be red? Because my tamarinds come in a big block and they're quite brown. What ingredient would turn the noodles red? The only time I've ever had a red PT is from a Chinese market that makes ready-to-go foods and when I brought it home, I realized they added ketchup, yuck.

[bilrus]

I have a question, why is it when I walk into most thai restaurants the Pad Thai is always brown...Normally its kinda red. Are they just using sweet soy sauce instead of making a tamarind based sauce?

When I make PT at home, it is brown, and I do use a tamarind-based sauce - should it be red? Because my tamarinds come in a big block and they're quite brown. What ingredient would turn the noodles red? The only time I've ever had a red PT is from a Chinese market that makes ready-to-go foods and when I brought it home, I realized they added ketchup, yuck.

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I've been told that ketchup is a farily common ingredient in restaurant Pad Thais.

[snowangel]

I also asked about this once, and that particular place put paprika on their noodles after soaking. Must have been weak or old paprika because there was no evidence of it in taste, just color.

[snowangel]

Tammy, I further thought about the beef salad. Basically, I do something not dissimilar to larb -- equal parts of fish sauce and lime juice, scallions and I like cucumbers in it (but not tomatoes, which is not uncommon). I don't usually use garlic, but do add quite a bit of minced cilantro. I also add those Thai crused hot peppers or bird chilis, but you may want to put that on the side.

It looks pretty on a nice bed of romaine. What else are you planning to serve at this meal? (you can reply by link to your cooking for 40 thead, if you'd like to avoid double posting!).

[RyuShihan]

yeah the sauce I make, we use parika, not for the flavor but for the color. Try it once it will give the plate a prettier presentation. I learned it from a Thai Chef who used to cook with the Budhist Monks.

He also did something else I found interesting, when we made curreis like masaman, he would use salt instead of fish sauce , which I learned from my mom to use fish sauce for just about everything. When I asked him why he said masaman shouldn't taste fishy at all. He actaully used salt for all of his curries except like a shrimp pineapple red, panang curry blend or if he wanted to add some sort of fish.

I agree with him for the most part but I like some curries like a plain red curry with fish sauce its so hot anyways you won't really notice any fish taste. In that case I think it adds a little different depth in flavor.

Edited March 17, 2005 by RyuShihan (log)

[Chris Amirault]

Over in the fried chicken cook-off, we're starting to debate the next dish. A few people (including me) have suggested pad thai. If you're interested, why don't you click on the link above and post your enthusiasm! You can also check out the other cook-offs by searching on "cook-off," if you'd like.

[WHS]

What does "a farang thing" mean?

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To a Thai, in Thailand, a foreigner is a farang. A side note. Growing up in Thailand during the height of the Vietnam war, we lived there, but not as military. Almost all of the American's were military (my dad worked for a private foundation at a Thai university as an ag economist, creating a department). Since we didn't have access to the PX (post exchange; the place where one could use US$ and buy stuff like Skippy and Fritoes), and ate exclusively Thai food, we were less "farang" than most of our friends. We were also not on the two year tour of duty schedule, so we actually learned to speak the language and appreciate eating all of the bounty.

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Snowangel, are you sure your father wasn't "deep-cover" CIA? I've been reading a book called "CIA Wives", given to me by a former Bangkok classmate who never knew his dad was a spy...here's a quote: "The daughters of the embassy officers has petticoats. I didn't because father was under cover, which meant we lived on the local economy. These girls had lots and lots of petticoats and they wore them all at once. And they had lunch boxes. With characters on them and cake inside. the kind of cake we never had. And cake that I couldn't have taken to school anyway, because it would have been mashed into a pulp in my plain old brown bag."

Anyway, I just got back from Bangkok--and went out immediately and bought every ingredient I could find to reproduce the flavors. I think I went a little overboard when I added 10 chilis to my beef salad!

[Hector]

This isn't entirely Thai, but anyway!

What's wrong with home made curry pastes? I've always make them in a pestle and mortar or with a blender if I ain't got time, and they're really really good! It depends what I have at home, and what sort of curry you wanna make for what kinds of ingridient but this is the ingridients I use, and make variations on.

Always fry the curry paste in vegetable oil before adding liquid or meat to the pot.

the basics:

Buah Kelahs = lots of minced malaysian shallotts

some fresh garlic

loads of fresh chilies (red, green, blue, yellow, doesn't matter what colour)

(use dried chilies as a substitute, or ground ones if you really doesn't have any choice)

a big bit of fresh peeled root ginger.

fresh tumeric or ground dried, depending on availbility (leave out if you don't want any yellow colour)

additions:

coriander, whole seeds preferably

cumin (for "moslem" meat dishes like lamb curry)

Blacan paste = paste made of shrimp that needs frying

either within the paste, or before on it's own.

fennel seeds = indian addition to fish dishes.

a nice big piece of galangal root.

some teaspoons of gula melaka = palmsugar

a single big fresh kaffir lime leave = gives lots of flavour if added directly to the paste.

ground mehdi (fenugreek seeds)

some star anisseeds (for birds or meat stews)

some fresh cardamoms ( for meat curries)

Any more suggestions?

[snowangel]

Homemade curry paste is wonderful! Just not always practial on a weeknight. The one thing I was not particularly fond of in curry paste was the star anise.

One of my favorite memories was going to the market and getting curry paste. Little old ladies, huge mortars and pestals, pounding away. Big bowls of their product, heaped high.

Yes, I'm sure my dad was not undercover CIA. Believe me, I knew many undercover CIA's back then, as well as many Air America pilots who kept up well supplied in high school.