Kai Look Keay:fried egg with tamarind sauce

                Actually the name of this dish in Thai means “son in law’s egg”.  Somebody told me that story came from a son in law who wanted to impress his father or mother in law by making this dish for them and they liked it.  

                This dish is not too hard to make, because if the men in Thailand can do it should very easy (in the past the men in Thailand did not cook!!!).  Anyway  this dish will start with a hard boil egg  then deep fried and served with tamarind sauce (just like sauce in Pad-Thai) then topped with fried shallots, fried dried chili and cilantro.  But if you make it from a fried egg in order to cut out the hard boil egg process.  They will call this dish “Kai Look Sa Pay” meaning daughter in law’s egg the taste will came out almost the same, because it uses the same sauce.  Now it is up to you which way you will pick to make it!!!

Ingredients

3 eggs

1/2 cup of tamarind juice

¾  cup of palm sugar (or brown sugar)

¼ cup of fish sauce (or soy sauce, but I highly recommend fish sauce)

2 shallots sliced  (about 3 tbsp)

3-4 dried chili (optional)

1 tbsp. vegetable oil

2 tbsp. cilantro

Cooking instructions

1.       Cook the egg, I have 2 ways for your choice

a.       Boil the egg then peel it and deep fry until the skin is golden brown.

b.       Or just fry the egg sunny side up or upside down in ½ cup of oil (almost deep fried).

Set on serving plate

2.       Heat up the small sauce pan and add vegetable oil.  When it’s hot add shallots, stir until golden set a side.  Then fry chili and set aside.

3.       In the same pot take the oil off.  Add Tamarind juice, brown or palm sugar, fish sauce then keep boiling until it gets thick about 4-5 minutes.

4.       Pour the sauce over the top of the egg, then top with fried shallots, fried chili and cilantro serve with steamed rice…..Yummy

Kai yad sai- Stuffing egg

                Last weekend I went to my friend’s house, she gave me a lot of garden vegetables from her neighbor she told me that I could use it for my cooking blog (Thanks P-lek).  So I got a lot of tomatoes and long beans.  Now it is time to cook them.  Tomatoes of course you know them but what about long beans?  

Long bean is one kind of beans that the pod is very long (around 2 feet long) and it tastes sweet like young green beans (it means you can use green beans instead of long beans).  Since I got those 2 vegetables it reminds me of one menu that my mom always cooked for me when I was kid called : Kai yad sai or stuffing egg.  This dish was the dish that inspired me into cooking, because I saw how my mom made it and came out so amazing.  That moment I knew myself I wanted to learn how to cook!!!

                For this dish it is actually easy to make and eat specially for the kid, because it hides out all the vegetable that they don’t like) and covers it up with a cool looking egg warp and when they tasted it Amm… so yummy!!!

Ingredients: 4 serving

4 eggs

½ lb ground pork

1 cup long bean or green bean cut into thin slices

1 cup dice tomato

1 cup dice onion

1 tsp. chop garlic

3 tbsp. ketchup

1 tbsp. soy sauce or 1 tsp. salt

¼ tsp. pepper

1 tsp. vegetable oil

1tbsp. water

Cooking instructions

1.       Preheat the pan in medium heat then add garlic cook it until golden

2.       Add ground pork cooked it through then add onion stir it until onion cooked

3.       Add tomato, long bean or green bean then add ketchup, soy sauce, water and pepper stir it until cooked then turn the heat off and set aside

4.       Preheat nonstick pan at medium low heat, meanwhile beat up 1 egg when the  pan is hot add the egg then turn the pan around to make the egg coat the pan (like making crepes) letting the egg cook : the rim of the egg will came off from the pan then turn the heat off

5.       Add stuffing into the egg fold the egg then put the serving plate cover the folded egg. Turn the plate now you got yourself amazing stuffing egg!!!

Pha luy sown: fish in the garden (fried fish with herb sauce)

I know this dish has a funny name.  That is because this dish uses the fried fish and is topped with a kind of vegetable and herb that makes it like the fish that gets caught in the garden!!!   This dish is very healthy because it has fish and herb that is good for you.

This time I made this fish, because my friend invited me to her house and of course when Thai people get together we always remember to think about food!!!  She told me that she got a whole red snapper (her husband went  fishing and caught it himself) we decided to make this dish, since she got her fish then I brought my garden….

Ingredients

1 whole fish or 2 filet fish

2 tbsp. corn starch

Salt-pepper for seasoning fish

Oil for deep fried the fish

Sauce

1 diced lime (with peel)

 ¼ cup diced ginger

¼ cup sliced lemon grass

¼ cup roasted peanut

¼ cup mint leave

2 tbsp. chop fresh chili (optional)

4 tbsp. lime juice

4 tbsp. fish sauce

2 tbsp. simple syrup

2 tbsp. water

1 tbsp. Num Prick Paw paste (if you don’t have it use dry chili for seasoning)

Cooking instructions

1.       Seasoning the fish with salt and pepper then coat with corn starch.  Deep fry it in 350 degee hot oil about 10 minutes on each side (for the whole fish) or until it is cooked then put it on the serving plate.

2.       Meanwhile in the mixing bowl add lime juice, fish sauce, simple syrup, Num Prick paw  paste and water mix well.

3.       When serving add all of the ingredients except mint leaves into mixing bowl toss it 2-3 times then pour on the fish then sprinkle it with mint leave.

Salted Chinese plum drink

                Salted Chinese plum is a one of the ingredients that I already use in one of our dishes called steamed fish with salted Chinese plum sauce.  It tastes salted and sour and it most use it in Thai-Chinese cuisine.  

Salted Chinese plum

                In Thailand we can also use it to make a drink too.  For this drink I don’t know who invented this drink, but the thing I know is this drink is so good.  The taste of salted, sour and sweet of the drink will make you never have enough of it.  This drink can have it hot or cold.  My great-grand mother loves to drink the hot kind she says it will help you when you get sore throat, but for me I like it as a cold drink it is so refreshing.  Today I will make it the cold way, but I will make it 2 ways one is the original and another is with soda for my experiment and we will see how it goes!!!

Note : Today I used ginger ale, but you can also use lemon lime soda or sparkling water for the soda recipe.

Ingredients: 2 servings

2 salted Chinese plums with 2 tsp. of juice from the jar

¼ cup simple syrup  (one part of sugar one part of water bring it to a boil and let it cool)

Pinch of salt

2 tsp. lemon juice

½ cup water (for original recipe)

½ cup soda (for soda recipe)

2 cups ice

Mixing instructions

1.       Add plum and juice in to a cup and mash it until plum breaks down

2.       Add salt, lemon juice, simple syrup, stir till mixed well

3.       Serving instructions:  Add  ½ of mixture into a glass full with ice then

a.       original recipe : add ½ cup water stir it well until ready to serve  

b.      soda recipe : add ½ cup soda stir it well until ready to serve

Now I already try both of them and I can make the decision which one is better, so I’ll let you try it and let me know which one you like the most!!!!

PS: You can try to add sprite into it also!!!

Fried fermented country style ribs : Nhame Kaduuk moo tod

                Nhame is a way to preserve the meat in Thailand.  We use the meat fermented with rice, salt and garlic.  The most popular meat to use in this process is pork and fish.  Usually we use ground meat to make Nhame and some people love to eat it raw, but around 10 years ago the restaurants in Thailand invented this menu (I don’t know who they are but they are a genius.)  They use soft bone rib to make Nhame then fried it.  It became popular ever since.  It tastes just like salami which is a little sour and garlicky usually served with diced fresh ginger and chopped or whole fresh chili.

I was craving for this dish for about a week already and this time I just had an urge to make it. Why’s that?  Because I’ve never made fermented pork before in my life.  I was nervous that it would come out like spoiled pork that stinks all over my house.  This dish became one of my experimental dishes.  It came out pretty good so I made it again after I finished eating the first one that’s how good it was.  After I made this dish a couple of times I found out that actually it was very easy to make this dish. You just need to know the technique of making it!!! What is it?  The technique is to massage the pork with rice, salt and garlic in order to allow the entire ingredients to get into all the pieces of the pork for the perfect fermentation process.  You will get a perfect result!!!

Ingredients

1 lb country style ribs cut into ¼ inch cube

½ tbsp. salt

1 cup cooked rice

1 head garlic (about 6-8 glove)

Vegetable Oil to deep fried

Cooking instructions

1.       Pound garlic until it becomes little pieces with tenderizer

2.       In the mixing bowl add country style ribs, salt and garlic then massage them together about 5 minutes.

3.       Then add rice into the mixer, keep massaging another 10-30 minutes.

4.       Put the mixture into a Ziplock bag and a plastic container (in case Ziplock bag leaking).  Leave it outside the refrigerator for 3-4 days.

5.       After 3-4 days open the bag of the pork fermented.  It will have a smell that is kind of sour and garlicky like salami and the color of the meat and the liquid that is fermented will be cloudy white not green or blue, if your pork becomes green or blue and has a stinky smell not sour smell it means you didn’t massage enough so the meat became spoiled meat Do not eat it!!!

 The pork fermented after 3 days

6.       Preheat the oil in medium heat.  Then use thongs to grab the fermented pork let all of the liquid drip off slowly and add it into the hot oil fried about 5-7 minutes until golden brown.

7.       Serve with ginger, fresh chili, fried lemongrass and kaffir lime leave (optional)

BBQ pork on stick!!!

            On the very pretty day make me think about a picnic amm… what should I pack to the picnic.  Something that is easy to take and can eat in room temperature. “Khaw neaw-Moo ping” what is that?? Khaw neaw is a sticky rice that I have already told you how to make it in a rice blog, but what about Moo Ping??  Moo ping is a Thai style pork BBQ that is on a stick (but not satay).  In Thailand we have a lot of our street foods on a stick.  The reason why??  I think it’s because it makes it easy to carry and eat.  We have meat balls on a stick, squid on a stick, hot dogs on a stick etc., but this pork on a stick is very popular in Thailand especially for breakfast because it fills you up and keeps you running all morning!!!  But for me I like to make it as a lunch or dinner (my hubby cannot take too many heavy foods for breakfast).

Moo ping tastes kind of salty and sweet with the right combination of garlic and pepper flavor.  For some venders they serve with Num Jim Moo ping.  It is a sour, salty and a little bit of a sweet and spicy sauce that has the ingredients  like Num-Jim-Jew (in my Tiger cry blog), but you need to use tamarind juice only not lime juice and it tastes a little bit sweeter(recipe follows).  And don’t forget about the sticky rice too.  Now let’s make it!!

Ingredients

1 pound pork chop sliced into ¼ inch thick

4 tbsp. oyster sauce

3 tbsp. sugar

3 tbsp. soy sauce

1 tbsp. ground pepper

2 tbsp. find chop garlic or 3 tbsp. garlic powder

3 tbsp. oil

25 sticks sit in the water for skew

Cooking Instructions

1.      In ziplock bag pour all ingredients into the bag except pork, mix well.

2.      Then add pork, massage pork and let the pork marinate about 1 hour.

3.      Skew pork on to stick

4.      Grill it on 350 F heat about 2-3 minutes each side or until it’s cooked

5.      Serve with sticky rice and Num Jim moo ping

Num jim moo ping

3 tbsp.  Tamarind juice

3 tsp. fish sauce or soy sauce

1 tsp. sugar

½  tsp. dry chili

1 tbsp. rice powder

1 tsp. slice green onion

Cooking Instructions

1.       In the sauce pan add tamarind juice, fish sauce and sugar into it then turn the heat in medium. Stir it until sugar dissolves and the sauce boil.

2.      Pour sauce into serving bowl add rice powder dry chili and sliced green onion.

slow roasted spare ribs : Kaduuk Moo Aob (my mom’s recipe)

Another day I watched the cooking channel and saw the menu from Alex’s at home.  She made Chinese style ribs(I can’t remember the name of it) that made me think about another of my mom’s famous recipes the “slow roasted rib”.  When my mom had a catering business this was one of the dishes that people request all of the time.  She never told anyone the recipe except me and I already asked her permission for public which was OK.

The original recipe needed to use bite size cuts of spare ribs slowly cooked with garlic, galangal, cilantro root and all of the sauces to make a dish, but today when I went to the grocery store I found obstruction that tried to challenge me not to make a dish.  First I couldn’t find cilantro root and I kind of expected that so I used the stem instead.  Then I went to the meat section.  I couldn’t find the ribs that were cut like I needed them, so I asked the butcher to cut it but he said “he couldn’t cut it for me, because by the law they cannot use the saw that cuts beef to cut the pork!!!”  I didn’t know that before…but it is good to know though.  Ended up I bought the rack of ribs anyway, because nothing could stop me from making this dish!!!!   I tell you all these stories because that is all about modern Thai cooking like I said before that my blog it is all about applying things to make a Thai dish without trouble.

Note : you can also use country style ribs .

Ingredients

1 rack of ribs (about 3 Lbs)

1 head of garlic

1 tbsp. galangal chop

2 tbsp. cilantro stem chop

3 tbsp. rice vinegar

2 tbsp. sweet black soy sauce

3 tbsp. brown sugar

4 tbsp. soy sauce

¼ cup water

1 tbsp. vegetable oil

Cooking instructions

1.       In a ziplock bag add garlic, galangal, cilantro stem then use tenderizer and pound it until it becomes paste

Note : You can also use a blender, but my mom used a mortar and pastel .

2.       Preheat the pot to medium heat then add oil and paste #1.  Then stir it until it becomes golden brown then add ribs and all of the ingredients at the same time and bring it to a boil then turn the heat to low and cover with the lid.  Let it cook about 2 hours.

3.       After 2 hours let the lid open about 5 minutes to make the sauce concentrate and trim the fat from the top of the sauce off.

4.       Put the meat and sauce in the serving plate garnish with cilantro and a thin slice of red peppers (optional) serving with rice, noodle or eat just it like that!!!

Note:  if you don’t have galangal use ginger instead you will find the new dish that surprises you.

Rice pudding with corn

                Today I got beautiful fresh corn that’s in season from my supermarket.   I decided to make another Thai dessert called Khaw Neaw Pake Khaw pod which means sticky rice pudding with corn.  This is a very easy dessert that you can make from your home.  This dish is one dessert that you can find from street food venders in Thailand.  The combination between the sweetness of sugar and a bite of sweet corn and the saltiness from coconut cream topping that makes this dish interesting!!!

Ingredients : 4 servings

¼ cup uncooked sticky rice

1 ¾ cup water

6 tbsp. sugar

1 fresh corn about ½  cup

 1 tsp. corn starch

¾ cup coconut milk

½ tsp. salt

Cooking instructions

1.       Add water and sticky rice into a pot and cook in medium heat about 15 minutes then stir occasionally or until the rice is cooked.

2.       Add corn and sugar and stir it until mixed well then turn the heat off.

3.       In another sauce pan add coconut cream, 1 tsp. cornstarch and salt.  Stir it until mixed well. Turn the heat on and bring it to a boil then turn the heat off.

4.       Serve it by putting the sticky rice into a bowl first, then top with 3 tsp. coconut cream mixture. You can serve hot or at room temperature.

 

Grilled eggplant Salad : Yum Ma kher Pow

 

                When I was kid I didn’t really like eggplant in my food too much, but this menu changed my mind.  It uses grilled eggplant then it is topped with dressing that has ground pork and pounded dried shrimp on the top, but I tried to make it easy to find ingredients so I used cooked shrimp instead and it came out tasting very good, so you got to try this.

Ingredients

2 Japanese or Chinese eggplant

¼ cup ground pork

4 shrimp (peeled and devined)

2 tbsp. lime juice

2 tbsp. fish sauce

1 tsp. sugar or 2 tsp. simple syrup

1-3 tsp. finely chopped chili

2 tbp. Slice shallot

2 tbsp. mint

1 hard boil egg

Cooking instructions

1.       Grill eggplant until it becomes soft, that lets it cool down and then you can peel the skin off and cut it into 1 inch pieces.

2.       In a pot add 4 tbsp. water bring it to a boil then add ground pork and stir it until it cooked, then add shrimp and continue stirring until shrimp is cooked.  Turn the heat off and retain the stock for dressing

3.       In the mixing bowl add lime juice, fish sauce and sugar stir it until sugar dissolves then add chili,  shallot, cooked pork and shrimp with stock and then toss everything together well.

4.       Arrange eggplants on the serving plate then pour the dressing on the top of the eggplant and garnish with mint and serve with a hard boil egg.