Back to cooking!!! Steamed Fish with salted Chinese plum.

Steamed Fish with Salted Chinese plum

Thai food culture comes from southern Chinese that moved and lived in Thailand a long time ago bringing culture of Chinese foods like soy products and a lot of Chinese cooking techniques to Thailand with them.  Also Indians came with the Buddhist religion bringing curry and coconut milk.  Thai people developed all of those techniques and ingredients together becoming Thai food that become famous all around the world. 

Why do I talk about this story?  Because this dish is a basically from China so you can also find it in some original Chinese restaurants too(not the take out ones).  We call “Pra-Nung-Bouy” this dish is light and delicate.  We steam the fish with the sauce until it is cooked and top with herbs for aroma.  In Thailand I usually use whole fish to make this dish, but in America I made this dish with filet fish.  I use filet fish for 2 reasons 1^st it’s easier to find and 2^nd when I use the whole fish it’s scare American folks (like my husband and his dad).  But if you’re not scared and want to make the dish like the original one I recommended using whole fish, because it is a lot tastier.  Let’s get started (I’m getting hungry)

Ingredients

1 Cleaned whole fish or 2 pieces of filet (Any king of white and mild fish Ex. Tilapia, Grouper, Founder)

2 tbsp. soy sauce

2-3 salted Chinese plum with liquid



salted Chinese plum with liquid



1 tsp. sugar

¼ cup. water

¼ cup green onion cut into 1 inch.

¼ cup ginger

Cooking instructions

1.      In a bowl brake down Chinese plum with liquid add soy sauce, sugar, water and mix well

2.      Lay fish in a baking bowl (picture) top with plum sauce.

3.      Cover with foil, bake at 400 ^o F  until the fish cooked

a.      Whole fish 20-30 minute

b.      Filet fish 4-6 minute per ½ inch thick

 Note: If the fish seem dry add more water

4.      When the fish done add green onion and ginger cover and bake about 1-2 minute.

Microwave Instruction:  Just do everything as above microwave it at high heat for ½ pound of fish for 2-4 minutes, 1 pound of fish 3-5 minutes.

9 Thai good luck dessert

3 Thai good luck dessert

            This blog actually continues from the Kho Kret blog that I wrote last time about all Thai dessert.  My mom told me all of the desserts I bought were called good luck dessert. Good luck desserts are desserts that Thai people believe will bring good luck for you, so when Thai folk have ceremonies they always use good luck desserts to celebrate.  Usually the  name of the good luck dessert means gold or wealthy.  Start with

1.“ Tong Yip” is made from egg yolk and flour then cooked in flower syrup ( flower syrup is made from water that sits in flowers over night and then makes syrup) by making  the shape like a little pan cake then using fingers to pick it up and put it into a small cup it makes it look like a flower( it’s hard to make).  Also it tastes really sweet. 

Tong Yod

2. “ Tong Yod” is  made from egg yolk and flour then cooked in flower syrup just like “Tong Yip” but they have a special technique to drop the batter to make it look like a drop of water and it tastes the same as “Tong Yip”.

Foy Tong

3. “Foy Tong” is made from egg yolk then poured into a banana leaf cone (or a can that has a small hole) and let it drip like a string into flower syrup.  It comes out like golden strings that taste so good.  The meaning is rich.

Kanom Chan

4. “ Kanom Chan” is made from rice flour, tropical flour, coconut milk, sugar, poured onto a mold and then steam until it is cooked.  This process is repeated 9 times forming 9 layers for good luck. (in Thai nine or “Kao” mean forward).   

Tong Ake

5. “Tong Ake” is made from flour egg yolk sugar and coconut milk.  This dessert takes a lot of time and experience to make it.  It tastes sweet and soft.

Mea Kha Noon

6. “Mea Kha Noon” is made from mung bean cooked with coconut milk and stir it to thicken into a ball, then dip into egg yolk and cook it in syrup.

Ja Mong Kud

7. “Ja Mong Kud” this dessert is very difficult to make because it has a shell part just like a tart shell and decorated with watermelon seed candy then put Tong Ake (dessert number 5.) into a shell and top with real gold.  That’s how they make it (don’t worry I’m not making it)

8. “Kanoom Touy Fu” This is a dessert almost like sponge cake but uses rice flour and is steamed instead of baked.   

Sa Nhae Chan

9. "Sa Nhae Chan"   This dessert almost is made like “Tong Ake” but put some of Thai palm( call Luk Chan) powder mix into it and make a shape like a Thai plum.

100 years old market

100 years old market

        

       This trip I went to an Old fashion market called “Ta Lad Ban Mai” in the Chachangsol Province. This market had been a Market for over 100 years and the community has renovated it to look just like it was a 100 years ago to show the new generation of people how people in the past shopped for foods.  In this market have a lot of things that are hard to find in the present for sale like flower and old fashion toys.  But for me the most interesting is all of the kinds of food, drink and snack. 

Kha Nhom Kui Chai

      

       Starting with  “ Kha Nhom Kui Chai” or chive dumpling.  Actually this snack came from China (Just like I told you before Thai people have had a lot of influences from China).  It is made from the Chinese chive for the filling and skin or shell is made from rice flour, sticky rice flour and water then cooked until forming a ball and then made into a shell and put the filling inside.  Then stream it in a streamer until cooked.  Eat it is served with sweet soy sauce and chili vinegar.  Caution: this snack has a very strong smell and don’t eat it in a closed in area or dating!!! 

     

     Next I saw a tiny quail egg that was cooked in a special pan (it’s a big pan with a lot of little holes to cook things separately usually we use this pan to make another kind of snack called Ka-Nom-Krok ).  It’s called Ka Nom Krok-Kainokkata.  This dish actually is for the kids to play with cooking in the past (but we use a real fire and real food) so it is very easy just to coat the oil into the pan and crack egg into each hole, it will be cooked and come out tasting like a fried egg, but the tiny size of quail egg made it looked more appetitizing. 

Rice in lotus leave

     

       I still walked around and saw one vender selling rice steamed in a lotus leave. This dish actually came from the Chinese also, but for this vender the owner “Kru Rin” told me that she got the special recipe from her mother so she invited me to see how she made it.  For her recipe she used fried with dried shrimp, taro, pea, carrot then she had all kinds of difference toppings and it came with Egg yoke of salty egg, shitake mushroom, sweet Thai/Chinese style sausage, ginkgo. You can pick special meat for toppings like shrimp, BBQ pork, country style rib, pork with garlic sauce, est. It taste really good because one dish combine between salty sweet and Umami taste perfectly.