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!!!

Ground pork rice soup

                A lot of people asked me what do I feed my baby?  Did you feed her Thai food?  Is that too spicy for the baby?  Ok, I have my 21 mouth old girl and I want her to get used to Thai food.  So I cooked a lot of Thai food for her that is not spicy (not every Thai foods are spicy right!!)  Thai omelet, fried rice, chicken soup and one of her favorite recipes is rice soup.  This food is not just for the baby, but is one of my favorite especially when I’m sick.

                In Thailand we eat rice soup as a breakfast or for some people they like it as a midnight snack.  For me this is more like comfort food.   Actually we have 2 different kinds of rice soup, one is called “Khaw Tom Kui” it is a rice that boils in water at least 1 hour making it really thick and with a soft consistency.   We eat with all kinds of side dishes called “Kap Khaw”  Ex. fried Chinese sausage , salty eggs,  pickles ect.(I will talk about that sometime) For another kind of rice soup that I made today is called “Khaw tom Kraeng” and it is very easy to make, you just need to make soup and add any kind of meat like shrimp, chicken, seafood or fish, but today I have a ground pork in my refrigerator and it is easy to eat for my baby too and top with some green onions , celery leaves and fried garlic so let’s get started!!!

Ingredients; 1 serving

1 ½ cup chicken stock (sometime I use 1 1/2 cup water and 1 chicken cube)

½ cup ground pork

½ cup cooked rice

1-2 tsp. fish sauce

1 tsp. green onion

1 tsp. celery leave

1 tsp. fried garlic (optional)

 Cooking instructions

1.       In the pot add chicken soup boil then make it in to a ball ground pork and add into the pot then add fish sauce.

2.       Let it boil until pork is cooked then turn the heat off

3.       In the serving bowl add rice then add green onions, celery leaves then add pork soup on the top then top with fried garlic. Now it is ready to serve!!!

PS: in Thailand we serve sugar, fish sauce, chili powder, vinegar on the side to let the folks adjust the rice soup to their own tastes.

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.

Chicken coconut soup.

Tom-Soup: Chicken coconut soup.

                Tum kha Gai or Chicken coconut soup is the food from central Thailand that a lot of Americans like.  Actually it means chicken with galangal soup, because the main ingredient is young galangal and chicken.  In Thai we eat with rice and serve at the same time with any food not like in America it is served as an appetizer.  When I first came here (USA) I ordered it in one of the Thai restaurants and it tasted totally different from what I have in Thailand.  I was kind of disappointed.  The original was my mom’s recipe chicken coconut soup which makes it rich and tasty (little bit sour and spicy), but in America (some restaurants) make it too watery and it does not taste good at all (for my opinion).  I find out later that some restaurants just want to make it light so they serve as a soup not for food like the traditional recipe.  So this recipe it will be the original one, but if you think it’s too rich and tasty for you just add more chicken broth.

Note: If you cannot find young galangal don’t worry just use the one you can find and make thin sliced, but if it’s too old and cannot make thin sliced just pound it.

Ingredients

1/2 pound chicken

1 cup mushroom

1 can (14 oz) coconut milk

½ cup chicken broth or water

3 Kaffir leaves (Tear it about 4 pieces per one leaf)

1 lemon grass (pounded and cut into 1 inches)

4-6 pieces young galangal (slice)

2-11 Thai Chilies (it’s up to you)

2 tbsp. cilantros

2-3 tbsp. fish sauce

2-3 tbsp. lime juice

1 tsp. sugar

Cooking Instructions

1.       In medium pot add coconut milk and chicken broth or water, bring it to a boil at medium heat.

2.       Add galangal, Kaffir lime leaves,  lemon grass, stir and keep at a boil for about 8-10 minutes

3.       Add chicken, stir 2-3 times till chicken cooked then add sugar

4.       Add mushroom bring it to a boil then turn the heat off

5.       For seasoning add chili and lime juice then stir it till mixed well at last garnish with cilantro.

6.       Serve with steamed rice (for me plus Thai omelet)

Now dig in!!