Asparagus and shrimp stir fried : Pad Nor Mai Farung Kub Kung

                This is one of another common type of Thai dish that is fast and very easy.  This dish is not spicy the ingredients are easy to find.  We stir fried Asparagus with any kind of meat or without meat but the most famous one is shrimp, because it tastes good and looks pretty (green and pink) so let’s get started!!!

Ingredients : 1 serving ; cooking time : 7 minute

½ lb. asparagus trim the woody end off cut into 1 inch pieces

7 shrimp

1 tsp. oyster sauce

2 tsp. soy sauce

1/2 tsp. sugar

1 globe minced garlic

1 tbsp. water

1 tbsp. oil

Cooking instructions

1.       In the hot pan add oil and garlic cook garlic until golden brown

2.       Add shrimp stir it until shrimp cooked (turn pink) then add asparagus stir it then add all of the ingredients stir it until mixed well and the asparagus is cooked.

3.       Turn the heat off, serve with steamed rice or as a side dish.

That is how easy it is!!!

Pad Prick On : chicken jalapeño Stir fried

                Ok now you will have a question why jalapenos are in Thai food??  Actually this dish in Thailand we use one kind of chili that looks like a banana pepper, but as spicy as a jalapeno and because it is easy for me to find jalapeno anyway that is why I use it instead.  This dish is one of my favorites when I was a kid, because it is not too spicy (for me) but it’s got a little kick to the taste of the dish.  It will be a little spicy, salty and a little sweet but it is very good with rice.  I hope you will like it.

 Ingredients : 1 serving

1 chicken breast cut into bite sizes

½ onion

3  jalapenos

2 tbsp. oyster sauce

1 tsp. soy sauce

1 tsp. fish sauce

1 tsp. sugar

3 tbsp. water

1 globe minced garlic

1 tbsp. oil

Cooking instructions

1.       Add a pinch of sugar and ½ tsp. of soy sauce into chicken and marinate about 5-10 minutes

2.       Meanwhile cut onion into a half-moon and jalapeno into strips.

3.       In the hot pan add oil and garlic, cook garlic until golden brown

4.       Add chicken stir it until cooked then add onion and jalapeno stir it 2 times then add all of the ingredients stir it until mixed well and the jalapeno is cooked.

5.       Turn the heat off and serve with steamed rice.

Phar nung ma now : spicy lime/lemon fish

                 I have been craving for something spicy and healthy after my cough was gone.  I haven’t gone to the Asian grocery for over a month what am I going to eat!  After I opened my refrigerator and freezer I found tilapia, lemon and cilantro.  In my pantry I have garlic and in my garden I have fresh Cajun chili….Alright I will make my version of spicy lime fish by using the lemon instead of lime and fresh Cajun chili instead of fresh Thai chili.  It came out very good, the lemon worked beautifully with the fish and fresh Cajun chili because it is not too spicy (over powering) but spicy enough to make the dish tasty. Amm.. The more I talk the more my mouth is watering let’s get started…

Ingredients

2 pieces of filet tilapia fish ( you can also use the whole fish)

3-4 globes of thin sliced garlic

2 tbsp. chopped fresh chili

2 tbsp. lime juice or lemon juice

2 tbsp. fish sauce

3 tbsp. water

2 tbsp. chopped cilantro

3 tbsp. chicken stock

 Some salt

Cooking instructions:

1.       Place the fish In the baking dish and season it with a little bit of salt then add water and cook it

a.       Microwave Instructions:  at high heat for ½ pound of fish for 2-4 minutes, 1 pound of fish 3-5 minutes.

b.      Steaming instructions : steam it in a steamer about 5 minutes per ½ pound of fish

c.       Oven instruction  : Cover with foil, bake at 400 ^o F until the fish cooked

-  Whole fish 20-30 minutes

-   Filet fish 4-6 minutes per ½ inch thick

2.       Meanwhile add the rest of the ingredients except cilantro into mixing bowl and mix well

3.       Place the fish onto a serving plate then pour sauce over the fish

4.        Garnish with cilantro serving with steamed rice

Khaw mun Gai

This dish is one of my favorite street foods.  Khaw mun Gai is a twin of Singapore chicken and rice.  The dish will come with boiled chicken, rice cooked in chicken stock, chicken soup, cucumber and special sauce.  In Thailand you can find this dish almost anywhere on the street which I call a comfort food to me.  Since I moved here I don’t really see Khaw mun Kai much, so I tried to make it myself. Fortunately my friend and sister in law “Benz” knows how to make it.  She told me the recipe and I made it for the first time when I was staying with my host parents.  I brought it to them to test the results…. they love it!!  Since then this dish became my favorite menu to cook for my friends and family.  My hubby and my little one love it.  Amm… since I cook this dish I never see anyone who doesn’t like this dish that is how good it is, so you should try it!!!

Note:  The recipe sounds complicated, but I will separate it to 3 easy steps to follow

1. Chicken and soup

2. Rice

3. Sauce 

Ingredients : serves 6 ; cooking time 2hrs 30 min

Step 1. Soup and chicken

4 quarts of water

4 -5 lb. whole chicken

1 branch cilantro

1 head garlic cut into a half

1 tsp. salt

6 tsp. soy sauce

Cooking instructions

1.       In a large pot (about 6 quarts) add water and turn the heat on to high heat and bring it to a boil

2.       Meanwhile add the garlic and cilantro into herb bag and close

Note: herb bag is the bag I sew it myself by using a thin white cloth made into a bag to keep the herbs together in the stock.

3.       When the water is boiling add chicken, salt, herb bag and soy sauce into it, bring it to a boil again then lower the heat into medium heat.  Let it cooked for 1 hr.

4.       After 1 hr. skim the fat, part of the stock is reserved for cooking the rice with the stock.

Rice

6 cups chicken stock with fat part

3 cups jasmine rice

3 gloves of garlic

Note: in the original recipe use 1 cup of sticky rice and 2 cups of jasmine rice it will take a longer time to cook it (about 1 hr.)will make the rice a little bit stickier.

Cooking instructions

1.       Bring the stock to a boil then add rice and garlic stir 1 time then turn the heat to low and let it simmer about 30- 45 minutes

   Sauce

¼ cup Soy bean paste

¼ cup chicken stock

3 tbsp. sugar

3 tbsp. fine mince ginger

3 tbsp. fine mince garlic

2 tbsp. lime juice

1 tbsp. chop chili (optional)

Cooking instructions

1.       in the blender add all of the ingredients  into it then blend it about  1-3 pause

2.       serving with rice chicken and soup with cucumber.

Bitter melon omelet

                To be continued from last blog I made bitter melon soup to cheer me up and I have some of the bitter melon left over.  So this menu popped up in my head bitter melon omelet.  My mom names this dish “Emerald egg” because after you cook it the omelet becomes bright green like an emerald (very pretty).  Usually In Thailand we eat this omelet with all kinds of spicy dipping sauce or you can serve with siracha sauce and rice is good also.  This dish has a little secret, it is to have you squeeze all of the bitter out of the bitter melon with salt before mixing with egg, that will help make this dish not too bitter even my little girl can eat it!!!

                 

Ingredients

1 bitter melon sliced really thin

1 tbsp. salt

3 eggs

4 tbsp. Vegetable oil for fried

Cooking instructions

1.       In the mixing bowl add thin sliced bitter melon and salt squeeze it until you get the juice out of the bitter melon then pour the juice out, repeat about 2 times 

2.       Meanwhile heat the oil at medium high heat until the oil is hot

3.       Add eggs into the bitter melon then beat until mixed well

4.       Add the egg mixture into hot oil fry about 2-3 minutes per side or until the omelet becomes golden brown on each side.

5.       Take it off from the pan serving with steamed rice and spicy dipping sauce or siracha sauce.

Stuffing bitter melon Soup

            After feeling sick for the whole week that’s why I couldn’t put up my blog. so I will make something to cheer myself up.  One of my favorite foods is bitter melon soup.

            Bitter melon?  What is that?  Ok this is not easy to find ingredients for like I usually say in every blog, but if you get to know it you might want to try it!!!  The bitter melon looks almost like cucumber, but it has the ugly bumps all over it.  For Thai cuisine we have 2 kinds one is smaller called” Ma-ra-ke-nok” we eat it with spicy dipping sauce.  For me this kind is not my favorite(too bitter), but the kind I will cook today we know as Chinese better melon which is bigger and the color is lighter too.  They both are good for you. 

Chinese bitter melon

In Thailand they always say “sweet taste is like a wind, bitter is a medicine”.  After I searched about the benefits of it I came out a lot more knowledgable than I was before.  Bitter Melons are rich in iron.  They have twice the beta carotene of broccoli, twice the calcium of spinach, twice the potassium of bananas, and contain Vitamins A, C, B1 to B3, Phosphorus and good dietary fiber.  Bitter Melon – it can be a very powerful anti-diabetic!”; from The national bitter melon council.   According to this article bitter melon also has a lot more benefits in it.  That should be enough reason to make it, also I want to share the techniques that make this better melon taste less bitter so I will give you today the stuffing soup recipe and I have more recipes for bitter melon that some of the Thai folks don’t know!!!

Note: Technique to pick good Chinese bitter melon, pick the one that has a lighter color it will taste less bitter.

Ingredients

 2 Chinese bitter melons

½ lb ground pork

½ cup mung bean noodle, soften in the water about 5 minutes (optional)

1 glove minced garlic (optional)

5 tbsp. Soy sauce

Paper

Cooking instructions

1.      In the pot add 6 cups of water, bring it to a boil in medium high heat.

2.      Meanwhile cut bitter melon into 2 inch pieces (picture) then take the insides of the melon out.  Set aside.

3.      Mix ground pork and 2 tbsp. soy sauce, garlic, pepper and mung bean noodle till mixed well.

4.      Stuff the pork mixture into the bitter melon

5.      Add bitter melon stuffing into boiling water, add remaining soy sauce a: Don’t stir or cover it let it cook for about 1 hour.(Don’t touch them at all)

6.      Serve with rice now you will get bitter melon soup that is not too bitter, but good for you!!!

Pad Khing

                 If you go to Thai Restaurants sometimes they have 2 menus that almost are the same name they are “Pad Khing” and another one is “ Pad prik khing”.  They both are totally different.  When I was the server I had to explain it a lot of times about this dish and now I will tell you again just in case you never knew about it.  Actually this name is confusing for Thai people too because “Khing” means ginger, but one of them it does not have anything to do with ginger at all and that dish is “ Pad Prik Khing” is a stir fried green bean with red curry paste and meat, but  the one I will cook today is “Pad Khing” .

Pad Khing is stirred fried chicken or pork with ginger mushrooms.  For this dish it is very healthy.  Because ginger is one of the good herb that will help with digestion, removing toxins from the body, cleansing the bowels and kidneys.  So this dish I would recommend for breast feeding moms to eat it in order to pass through the goodness of ginger to the baby for helping the baby’s  digestion.  (I  had  a lot of this dish when I was breast feeding).  Now do you want to know the recipe.  Here it is.

Ingredients : 2 serving

1 chicken breast (about 5-6 oz) cut into bite size

½ cup julienned cut ginger

½  cup sliced half-moon onion

½ cup mushrooms

1 tbsp. green onion cut into 1 inch.

1 tsp. chopped garlic

1 tbsp. soy bean paste

1 tsp. soy sauce

1 tsp. sugar

1 tbsp. vegetable oil

1 tbsp. water

Cooking instructions

1.       Preheat the pan in medium high heat  add vegetable oil and garlic then cook it until golden brown.

2.       Then add chicken stir it until chicken is cooked then add mushrooms, onions, gingers, soy bean paste, soy sauce, sugar and water.  Keep stirring until it is cooked and mixed well.

3.       Add green onions at the end and stir it till mixed well then turn the heat off.

4.       Pour it into serving plate serve with steamed rice.