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.

Phar Kung

                This dish is one of the royal dishes in the past they even have the poem about this dish.  Also, it is one of the most famous salads in Thai restaurants.  This salad has shrimp in the main part of the dish which you can cook it by grilling or boiling it then toss it with a spicy sour dressing that is full of herbs like lemongrass and mint.

Ingredients : 1 serving

½ cup shrimp

3 tbsp. sliced lemongrass

2 tbsp. mint leaves

2 tbsp. lime juice

2 tbsp. fish sauce

1 tsp. Num Prick pow

1 tsp. simple syrup (or 2 tsp. sugar)

1 tsp. chopped fresh chili (optional)

Cooking instructions

1.       Cooked shrimp by boiling or grilling

a.       Boiling in the hot water about 1-2 minutes

b.      Grill about 1-2 minutes per side

2.       In the mixing bowl add all of the ingredients and mix it together until mixed well 

3.       Add shrimp into mixing bowl and toss it

4.       Serving with carrot or cabbage or lettuce for cooling the heat 

Labb…

                                        

Labb is a northeastern Thai food made with ground meat, herbs, spices and rice powder (in Num Tok blog).  It tastes sour and spicy almost like a salad.  We eat it with sticky rice and fresh vegetables like cabbage and Thai basil.  When I worked at a restaurant this menu was a special menu, because not too many American people (in my town) know about this, but after checking online this is one of the top ten menus  people are searching online.  It’s not hard to make Labb.  In Thailand the most popular Labb is made from ground pork or beef also you can use chicken or for vegetarians use mushrooms still making this dish taste good.  But remember you have to mince or ground the meat or mushrooms otherwise we don’t call this Labb….

Ingredients : 1 serving

1 cup ground pork (any kind of meat or mushroom)

2 tbsp. fish sauce

2 tbsp. lime juice

1 tbsp. rice powder

1 tsp. chili flack

2 tbsp. shallot or red onion

1 tbsp. chopped green onion

1 tbsp. chopped mint

3 tbsp. water

Cooking instructions

1.       In a medium sauce pot add water and turn the heat on until it boils then add ground meat.  Break the meat while it is cooking.  When the meat is cooked turn the heat off.

2.       Add all of the ingredients except green onion and mint into the cooked ground meat and toss it until mixed well then add green onion and mint at the end (to prevent over cooking the herb)

3.       Serve with sticky rice, fresh cabbage, cucumber or carrot for cooling down the heat.

Green bean salad

This dish is an inspiration by when I went back to Thailand this spring I had winged bean salad in one of the restaurants in Khanchanaburi (the picture on the top of the blog).  This salad is not too spicy (most of Thai salad is very spicy) and it has interesting ingredients in this salad like coconut milk and served with hard boiled egg that not like any kind of Thai salad.  Unfortunately it’s hard to find wing bean around my house.  (What ‘s winged bean? Winged bean is the beans with four winged edges.  The fresh young pods are similar to green beans with a chewy texture and a slightly sweet taste. )  Since I can’t find my winged I use green beans instead.  Want to know how it all came together….here is the recipe

Ingredients : 1 serving

¼ cup ground pork

4 shrimps

1 cup thin sliced green beans

1 shallot

2 tbsp. fish sauce

2 tbsp. lime juice

2 tsp. Num prick pow (details in Tom yum kung blog)

1 tbsp. sugar

1-2 tsp. choped Thai chili (optional)

1 tbsp. roasted peanut

1 tsp. fried shallot

3 tbsp. coconut milk

1 hardboiled egg

Cooking instructions

1.       In the mixing bowl put fish sauce, lime juice, sugar, num-prick pow, and chili (optional) mix well or until sugar dissolves.

2.       In the pot add water and bring it to a boil then add sliced green beans cooked about 1-2 minutes then drain it put it into cold water for keeping the green color.

3.       Add 2 tbsp. water into same pot bring it to a boil and add ground pork and shrimp stirred until it is cooked then turn the heat off

4.       Add cooked meat into the sauce in the mixing bowl(1) then add green beans and shallots tossed until mixed well then pour the salad  onto the serving plate.

5.       Top with roasted peanuts, fried shallots and coconut milk

6.       Serve with hardboiled eggs.

Now enjoy healthy green bean salad yum!!!

PS: This week I'm going to Disney World with my family, so this is my last post for this week. I'll see you next monday then!!! 

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  

Heat up your valentine with Spicy seafood Salad !!!!

               

         Almost valentine's day so let’s spice up your love with a spicy seafood salad.  Yum Ta Lay or spicy seafood salad is eastern Thai food (where my family came from),  because east Thailand is close to the ocean.  So most of eastern food has seafood for an ingredient.  It’s very easy to make and find the ingredients in America.  Amm…The more I talk the more I’m getting a craving, so let’s get started.

Ingredients

2 cup mix seafood (Shrimp, squid, mussel, crabs stick)

½ cup onion slice half moon

½ cup tomato slice in wedge or cherry tomato cut half

1 Green onion cut into 1 inch.

¼ cup Chinese celery cut into 1 inch (or celery leave)

2 tbsp. Lime

2 tbsp. fish sauce

2-3 Tsp. slice Thai chili or Jalapeno (it’s up to your hot level)

1 tsp. sugar.

3 cup. water

Cooking Instruction

1.       In the medium bowl add lime juice, fish sauce, sugar, stir until sugar dissolved. Add chili set aside.

2.       Put medium pot on high/medium heat, add 3 cup water. Wait until it boils.

3.       Add seafood into pot, stir until it is cooked about 2-4 minute (Shrimp turns pink, squid turns white) then drain it.

4.       Pour cooked seafood in to lime mixer bowl.

5.       Add onion, tomato, green onion, stir until mixed well

6.       Arrange on a serving dish, garnish with sprigs of celery and serve.

Note: This dish is very spicy.  Be careful!!!