Massaman Curry

Massaman curry

               

                This is one of the most famous Thai currys for a lot of western people.  They know Thailand as this dish.  Massaman curry is not a very spicy kind of Thai curry.  I believe this curry was transformed by Indian cooking.  The curry paste itself has a lot of spice in it.  It’s not that hard to make a paste just a lot of ingredients are needed, if you want the easy way use ready to make Massaman paste it’s OK with me, but homemade paste are always better right!!! Here are the recipes for paste and curry.

Note: This Massaman paste can be used in the peanut dipping sauce recipe in Satay too.

Massaman Paste : make 6 tbsp.

Ingredients for Massaman paste

3 Dried red chilli soak in the water until soft

1 tsp. salt

1 tsp. toasted chopped Galangal
1 tbsp. Toasted chopped Lemon grass

2 Toasted garlic

3 Toasted shallot (if small 5)

1 tbsp. toasted grounded Coriander seed

1 tsp. Cumin

1 tbsp. grounded pepper

2 clove

1 tsp. shrimp paste.

Shrimp paste

1 tsp. cinnamon

1 tsp. turmeric

1 tbsp. vegetable oil

Instructions

In the blender add all ingredients and blend it until it becomes paste for about 4-5 minutes.

Massaman paste

Massaman Curry : 2 servings 

½ pound chicken

1 onion cut

1 carrot cut

1 potato

3 tbsp. Massaman curry paste

1 ½ tsp. sugar

1 tbsp. fish sauce

1 tbsp. tamarind juice (if you don’t have it use vinegar)

1 can 14 oz coconut milk

Ingredients for Massaman curry

Cooking instructions

1.       Put coconut milk into refrigerator about an hour in order to separate the cream of it, after an hour use the spoon and scoop the creamy top of coconut milk, take about 4 tbsp. Reserve the rest.

2.       Preheat the pot in medium low heat then add coconut cream and Massaman curry paste, stir constantly until it becomes oily (Call Ka-ti Tak mun) about 4-5 minutes

add coconut cream and paste

cooked paste and coconut cream until it becomes oily

1.       Add chicken stir until chicken cooked then add coconut milk, potato, onion, carrot, sugar, fish sauce and tamarind juice.

2.       Let it cook about 5-7 minutes or until potato cooked.

3.       Serve with steamed rice.

Fried banana

Actually this fried banana is not traditional recipe. Because the original one we use is a different kind of banana called Kruy Num Wa. Kruy Num Wa which is one of the famous kinds of banana that have a unique texture of the fruit itself that is very soft and sweet when it is ripened.  Also pack it with a vitamin that is very good for you, but when it cooked the texture becomes firmer but still having a sweet taste.  In Thailand we eat it, feed the new born baby and cooked with it like fried banana.  Fried banana in Thailand we use Kruy Num Wa that is almost ripe cut into quarters then dipped into batter that has coconut milk, shredded coconut, flour, sesame seeds, sugar, salt then deep fried it.

Unfortunately I did not see this kind of banana much.  Since this kind of banana is hard to find, most of Thai restaurants use regular bananas and wrap it with spring roll skin and deep fry it in order to harden the texture of the soft banana after cooked, but for this recipe I use a wonton wrap.  I got the idea from my friend when she made it for her party one time and I liked it, but I put my twist on the recipe by putting coconut cream cheese mixture into it and it came out great for one of my Thai cooking class recipes and everyone love it!!!

 Ingredients

20 pieces wonton skin

2 bananas

3 OZ cream cheese

3 tsp. sugar

¼ cup shredded coconut

2 tbsp. water

1 tsp. sugar powder

Oil for deep fried

Ice cream (optional)

Cooking Instructions

1.       Into mixing bowl mix cream cheese and sugar together then add shredded coconut, mix well

2.       Cut banana into cross-wise about ½ inches thick (one banana make 10 pieces).

3.       Place banana into the middle of wonton skin put about ½ tsp. of cream cheese mixture on the top

4.       Fold the edge of the wanton skin into the middle use water as a glue and make it the same way for all 4 corners

5.       Preheat oil 350 F then add banana wrap to be fried about 1-2 minutes per side

6.       Serve with sugar powder or ice cream.

Beef and mushroom oyster sauce.

            A lot of people asked me where did I get oyster sauce, and the following question was can I use oyster sauce in anothe dish?  I will answer them both. 1^st I bought my oyster sauce at a Thai grocery store, but one of our readers tells me that you can find it next to where there are soy sauce in a regular grocery store.  The second answer is you can use the oyster sauce in almost all of stir fried recipes and that’s why today I cook this dish.

            Beef and mushroom oyster sauce or Nuea Pad Num Mon Hoi. In thai “Nuea” means beef ,”Pad” means stir fried(in my basic Thai cooking blog) and ”Num-Mon Hoi” means oyster sauce. Yes in the name it’s doesn’t have mushroom but for me I like to put mushroom to balance nutrition in dish.  Actually this dish is Chinese Thai food so don’t worry this one is not spicy!! Now are you ready for the recipe….

Ingredients

½ pound thin slice sirloin steak

1 cup of mushroom

1/3  cup onion

¼ cup green onion

¼ cup of oyster sauce

1 tbsp. garlic

1-2 tbsp. soy sauce

1-2 tsp. sugar

1-2 tbsp. water

1 tbsp. vegetable oil

Cooking instructions

1.      In the wok or large pan heat up vegetable in to medium high heat.

2.      Add Garlic cook until golden brown

3.      Add beef stir till meat cooked then mushrooms and onion stir it

4.      Add soy sauce, sugar and oyster sauce to season then add water.

5.      At the end add green onion then turn the heat off.

6.      Serve with steamed rice

Now you get yourself a Thai fast food full with nutrition…dig in!!

Black Sticky rice pudding with Taro :Khow neaw dum peack puek

For this dessert it is made from black sticky rice.  This rice is one kind of sticky rice that is just like sticky rice but it has a dark purple mostly black color and packed with fiber and antioxidants.  We cook this rice with sugar, coconut cream (If you use coconut you can put it into a refrigerator for an hour then take the top creamy part off of it and use this top part only) and taro.  

Taro is a root vegetable that is edible and the one kind that we use in Thailand has a fragrance by itself that makes this dessert more exotic.  You can find it in Asian grocery stores some times, but this time I found a different kind of taro that doesn’t have the fragrance like I wanted.  Since I already bought them and I wanted to have this black sticky rice so bad ….I made it anyway, but if you cannot find it just leave it out it ok!!! 

 Ingredients: serve for 2

½ cup Black sticky rice

½ cup taro (cut into small cube)

3 ½ cups of water for cooking the rice

 3 tsp. cornstarch

1 ½   cup coconut cream

1/3 cup Sugar

1 tsp. salt

Cooking instructions

1.       Into pot boil the water then add black sticky rice, cook it until rice softens about 30 minute.

2.       Meanwhile cook taro by boiling it in water about 15 minutes or by cooking it (use the fork poke it thru easily) and drain, set aside

3.       Mix 2 tsp. cornstarch with 1 tbsp. water till mixed well, add to the rice then add sugar, ½ cup of coconut milk and cooked taro, keep stirring about 5 minutes. (Taste it, add more sugar if needed) Turn the heat off

4.        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

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

Tip : don’t add sugar before the rice is cooked it will make the rice not cook!!!

Todd Mun Plah – Thai Fish cake

                Thai fish cakes are different from American fish cakes.  We eat it as a snack, appetizer and with rice as an entrée.  Thai fish cakes use just crunched fish and knead with curry paste until you get the right texture.  So our Thai fish cakes have an elastic texture, but in a good way not crumbling like American fish cakes.  We also serve it with a dipping sauce that is made from cucumber and chicken dipping sauce (recipe in grill chicken blog) to make the dish complete.

Today I decide to make this dish, because one of my friends asked me in the facebook how to make Todd Mun Plah or Thai fish cake…. So I called my mom and asked her about how to make it because I have never made it before.  This recipe came from my great-grand mother.  She used to sell this food in Thailand when she was alive and her recipe is the most famous in town!!!  For me it seemed very hard the first time I saw her make it when I was a kid, but after my mom told me the recipe it does not seem too hard it just needs a little bit of technique to make it have the right texture.  Actually this recipe needs white ocean fish the best fish for this is grey fish but I can’t find it around my house, so this time I used salmon (very easy to find in the supermarket) the taste will be a little bit of a fishy taste rather then made with white mild fish.  I have to put more Thai basil in to balance the fishiness taste.  Here’s the recipe!!!

Ingredients

1 lb fish (white mild ocean fish is the best)

4 tbsp. curry paste

1 ½ cup green bean chopped

½ cup Thai basil leaves finely chopped

1 egg

4 tbsp. sugar

1 tbsp. fish sauce

1 tsp. salt dissolved into 1 tbsp. ice cold water

2 cups of vegetable oil for deep fry

1 cup ice for cooling the mixture during mixing

Cooking instructions

1.       Cut fish into small pieces then put it in a blender. Blend it until smooth

2.       In the extra-large bowl  pour 1 cup of ice and  a ½ cup of water then put the mixing bowl inside

3.       Remove the fish into a mixing bowl pour ice cold salted water into fish and knead it about 2 minutes.

4.       Add egg into it and continue kneading another 1-2 minute

5.       Add red curry paste continue kneading until curry paste mixed well with mixture then add sugar and fish sauce knead until mixed well

6.       Add green beans and Thai basil then mix it until mixed well.

Note : at this point if you want to test the taste of it just take ¼ tbsp. of mixture and microware it, if you don’t like the taste add more sugar or fish sauce if needed.

7.       Heat up vegetable oil in the pan about 350 degree or test by using a bamboo stick dip into hot oil, if you see a bubble air come out from stick it means the oil is ready to be fried.

8.       Use one table spoon scoop the mixture from a mixing bowl then another table spoon, scoop mixture out from that spoon into oil.

9.       Fried it about 2 minutes per side or until it cooked (the color will change to darker and it will come up to the surface then you can turn it.)  

10.    Serve with cucumber dipping sauce

Cucumber dipping sauce

1 cucumber

¼ cup grill chicken dipping sauce

1.       Cut cucumber into quarter slice it into small pieces (like picture) put it into bowl.

2.       Pour grill chicken sauce over cucumber then let it sit about 2 minutes.

Now how to eat it.  You have to dip the fish cake into cucumber sauce and eat it with the same bite to bring all of the flavor come together the best!!!

Tom Soup Gai- chicken soup (my mother recipe)

                Everyone has their favorite childhood recipes and this dish is the one for me.  This soup is one of our favorite dishes for the whole family evens my little one she can eat it and never get bored with it.  I have to say I don’t really know where this dish came from, so I gave this credit to my mom. This soup is very easy to make and easy to find ingredients for in America.  It has ingredients just like you make homemade chicken stock, but adding tomato in it.  Trust me you will love it too..  Let’s get cooking

Ingredients

1 Lb. of chicken (with bone)

1 Lb. tomato

1 Lb. onion

4 stalks of celery

2 potatoes

Salt and pepper

3 tbsp. fish sauce (if you don’t have it don’t worry)

2 quarts of water

Cooking instructions

1.       Cut everything into the same size about 1 inch.

2.       Bring water to a boil then add chicken and 1 tsp. salt into soup, let’s cook.

3.       When water is boiling again.  Put onions and tomatoes into it and cook about 30 minutes or until the onions and tomatoes soften, then season with salt/fish sauce and pepper.

4.       Then add potatoes and celery into pot and cook about 10 minutes or until it has cooked.

5.       Serve with rice or some time I serve with corn bread.

Gai sabb- spicy fried chicken salad.

           Today I just finished organizing my house.  I didn’t have to much time to cook and I wanted something spicy, so my menu today is made from ready to eat fried chicken from Wal-Mart but spice it up with this recipe “Gai Sabb” a very easy fix meal for my spicy craving.

            This recipe actually came from one of the KFC menus in Thailand.  They just developed it for their fried chicken for Thai peoples taste buds. First time I tried this dish was around 6-7 years ago and I like it.  They still have this dish on the menu. That probably means they got it right!!! So you try it and let me know what you think.

Ingredients

1 Fried chicken breast cut into bite size

½ cup slice half moon onion

1 lime juice

2 tbsp. soy sauce or fish sauce

2 tbsp. water

1 tsp. sugar

1 tbsp. chop mint

1 tsp. green onion

2 tsp. rice powder (see how to make it in Num tok blog)

1 tsp. dried Thai chili flack or cunjan chili (up to your hot level)  

Cooking  instructions

1.  In mixing bowl mix sugar, water, lime juice and soy sauce/fish sauce until sugar dissolves.

2.  Add fried chicken, onion, chili flack, rice powder, mint, green onion.  Toss them all until mixed well.

3.  Serve with rice and fresh vegetable like carrot or cabbage  

Tiger cry!!!

            Tiger cry or “Suer Rong Hai” is the name of this dish. Now you wander what kind of food I am talking about?  Actually it is marinated grilled steak.  This dish is from northeastern (E-sann) Thailand, but why is the name of it so funny.  I heard from my friend that because this grilled steak taste was so good it made a tiger cry, because he wanted to eat it.  That’s what he said, I don’t know how true it is maybe he wanted to joke with me so he made up this story who knows (If you have another theory please let me know)!!!  But one thing I know this dish tastes really good.  For the original recipe actually I have to tell you I don’t really know it, because different restaurants have their own recipe, but the main ingredient of rice powder(grounded toasted rice: recipe in Num Tok)  is always the same.  So one day I wanted to have Tiger cry so bad.  I made it my own recipe and it came out awesome.  Even my hubby loves it, so today I’ll share it with you.  Try it and please let me know what you think about this recipe.

Ingredients

1-2 pound top sirloin

2 tbsp. rice powder

2 tbsp. lime juice

2 tbsp. soy sauce or fish sauce

2 tsp. sugar

2 tbsp. vegetable oil

1 tsp. chili powder (optional you can also use Cajun pepper or chili flack to make it less spicy)

2 tbsp. thin slice green onion.

Cooking instructions

1.      In a ziplock bag mix all ingredients together except steak and mix well.

mixing the marinate

2.      Add steak, massage the meat and let it marinate  1 hour - 12 hours

Marinate steak

3.    At the grill preheat the grill till 375 F grill cook the meat 5 minutes per side for medium rare.  Or for the original cook well done about 7-8 minutes per side.

 Note : usually Thai folk eat our meat well done

4.      Take the stake out of the heat let it sit about 5 minutes for the juice of meat not run when you cut.





5.      Slice stake into bite size serve with Num jim jew (recipe follows)

Num Jim Jew

            Num Jim Jew is Thai E-sann dipping sauce is very common dipping sauce always served with northeastern style grilled food and also very easy too.  In the original recipe use tamarind  for sour component, but if you don’t have it use lime juice and add a dash of sugar to balance the taste.

Ingredients

2 tbsp. tamarind juice or lime juice

2 tbsp. fish sauce

2 tsp. rice powder

1-2 tap. Chili powder

¼ tsp. sugar (if need)

1 tsp. thin slice green onion (garnish)

Cooking instructions

 Very easy mix everything together and it is done!!!

Tiger cry with Dipping sauce