Pad Woon Sen : stir fried mung bean noodle

In Thai we call it Pad-Woon-Sen.  This dish you can find in a lot of Thai restaurants.  This is another favorite dish of American people, because it’s not spicy and tastes good. My hubby and a lot of Americans I know love this dish.  This is a low-cab dish because Woon-Sen or mung bean noodle is made from mung bean that has protein in it not carbohydrate like normal noodle or pasta.  Mung bean noodle some people call clear noodle or glass noodle because the noodle itself is clear just like glass.  It has no taste by itself, but absorbs sauce very good.  You can find it in an Asian grocery.  Usually this dish you can add anything in it, meat or vegetable depending on what you like.

Ingredients

½ cup meat (if vegetarian use mushrooms: in the picture I use pork and shrimp)

3 hand full mung bean noodle           

2 eggs

1 stock green onion cut into 1 inch

3-4 tbsp. light soy sauce

1-2 tsp. sugar

½ cup thin slice cabbage

1/4 cup  celery

1 tsp. White pepper (optional)

1 tbsp. oil

1 tp. Mince garlic

1-2 tbsp. water

Cooking instructions

1.      Soak mung bean noodle with warm water about 5 minutes.

2.      Add 2 tbsp light soy sauce and 1 tsp. sugar in meat and marinate about 5-10 minutes.

3.      In a large pan turn the heat on medium high heat add oil and wait until oil is hot.

4.       Add garlic cook until golden brown add meat stir until meat cooked.

5.      Add egg stir it just like you make scrambled eggs when egg cooked add cabbage stir  about a couple of times

6.      Add soak mung bean noodle stir till it mixed together add light soy sauce , sugar, water (if need) keep stirring until it is mixed well

7.      At the end add green onion and celery, then turn the heat off

8.      Pour it in the serving and sprinkle it with white pepper and cilantro.

Try this dish you will love it!!!

Tom-Yum-Kung : spicy and sour shrimp soup.

Tom Yum Kung

         Another famous Thai soup that has gone international!!! Tom-yum made from 2 words in Thai.  Tom means soup and yum means sour and spicy salad, so if you hear tom-yum that means spicy and sour soup, but the most famous kind is shrimp or “Kung” but you can use any kind of meat you like (pork, chicken, fish, seafood).  Almost every Thai restaurant in America has to have it, but not too many make it tasty like the original.  Also they have 2 kinds in Thailand.  One has milk (for shrimp and fish) and another one is without milk (tastes spicier).  The key of tom yum is galangal, Lemon grass and Kaffir leaf.  If you don’t have those 3 we don’t call it tom-yum (it’s going to taste just like sour & spicy water!).  I know it is hard to find it in a grocery store.  You can find them at Thai grocery stores, but trust me it’s worth it to find in a Thai grocery store.  In GA I have found them in a frozen version.  They still almost have the same amount of freshness (but the fresh is still the best!).  Anyway If you really cannot find it, use tom yum paste or tom yum cube (but I still recommend the real thing, it tastes way better). Also the original recipe calls Num-Prik-Pow for seasoning. Num-Prick-Pow is a special Thai chili paste (Not like curry paste) and is made with dried chilis, shallots, garlic, shrimp, tamarind juice and sugar then pan fried.  The paste itself has chili oil in it (comes from pan fried) tastes sweet and is not too spicy (for Thai people).  A lot of Thai folk mix Num-Prik-Pow with rice and eat it with a hard boil egg and vegetables just like that.  You can find it in an Asian grocery store, but if it is too much trouble to find them all just leave those ingredients out of the recipe.

Tom yum kung

½ pound Shrimp (peeled and de-veined)

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

1 lemon grass (pound and cut into 1 inches)

2 pieces galangal (pound)

1 cup mushroom

1 ½  cup water or chicken broth or seafood broth

1 tbsp. fresh Thai chili (pound or chop)

1 lime juice (about 3 tbsp.)

2 tbsp. fish sauce

1 tsp. Num-Prik-Pow (special Thai chili paste)

½  cup of half & half (optional for creamier)

1  tsp.  Cilantro

Cooking Instructions:

1.      In the medium pot bring water or chicken broth or seafood broth to boil add galangal, Lemon grass, Kaffir leaf let boil about 2-3 minute for aroma from herb season the soup.

2.      Add shrimp cook about 2-3 minute or until it cooked.

3.      Add mushroom bring it to boil.

4.      Add chili and half & half at the end turn the heat off.

5.   Add lime juice, fish sauce and Num-Prik-Pow then pour soup into the bowl sprinkle with cilantro.

6.   Serve with jasmine rice.

Note: For me I love to eat tom yum soup with rice and Thai style omelet. Oh yes I can eat it all day long!! 

Curry Tart

            This dish actually is a snack in Thailand called “Ka Ree Pup”.  It has chicken potato and curry powder filling.  I believe Thai people get this recipe from western style cooking because Thai food doesn’t use fried dough and potato.  “Ka Ree pup” is very popular in one of our cities called “Sara-buri”, like when you go there you have to buy it for a souvenier (yes… in Thailand a lot of our souvenier’s are food).  In the original recipe you need a special dough that just tastes like fried pie filling with potato chicken curry stuffing.  It tastes savory and you cannot have just one!!!  For me I don’t know how to make the original dough on the outside, so I tried to make it my modern Thai Food way and I discovered 2 ways that came out pretty good.  My 1^st way is to use a frozen puff pastry and it came out very good and the second one I made a tiny little tart (recipe from better home and garden 2000 cook book) and put the stuffing back in it and it tasted good and looked cute too. So let’s get started!!!

Ingredients

Stuffing

1 cup chicken breast ground or cut into ¼ inch cube (for vegetarian use mushrooms)

2 cup cooked potato cut into ¼ inch cube

1 cup dice onion cut

1 cup dice cooked carrot (if you don’t like it leave it out)

2 tbsp. curry powder (or 1 tbsp. turmeric powder)

2 tbsp. sugar

1-2 tbsp. salt

2- tsp. ground pepper

1 tsp. oil

Cooking instructions

1.      Heat large pan on medium high heat add oil wait unit the oil hot add onion stir it till it is cooked

2.      Add chicken and 1 tsp. sugar, salt, pepper  stir it until cooked

3.      Add cooked carrot and potato then add sugar, salt, pepper and curry powder stir it until mixed well.

4.      Adjust the taste till you like turn the heat off let it cool before filling

Tart

½ cup cold butter

1 ¼  cups all-purpose flour

1 beaten egg yolk

2-3 tbsp. Ice water

Cooking instructions

1.      In a mixing bowl cut butter into flour till pieces are pea-size. Stir together egg yolk and 1 tbsp. Ice water.  Gradually stir egg yolk mixture into flour mixture.  Add remaining water, 1 tbsp. at a time. till all the dough is moistened. Gently knead the dough just till a ball forms.

2.      Divide the dough into a small size about 1 inch diameter and mole into small muffin pan use your finger to make a cup shape.

3.      Bake in 375 F about 15 minute or until golden brown.

4.      Let it cool. When it’s cool stuff with chicken curry stuffing garnish with cilantro and thin slice bell pepper.