Pad Thai

Pad Thai - This Pad Thai recipe is how you actually find it in Bangkok and comes from testing hundreds of different variations from food carts all over the city. Pad Thai is the ultimate street food. While "street food" may sound bad, food cart cooks are in such a competitive situation, with such limited space, ingredients and tools they need to specialize in a dish or two just to stay in business. The best of these cooks have cooked the same dish day-after-day, year-after-year, constantly perfecting it.

Great Pad Thai is dry and light bodied, with a fresh, complex, balanced flavor. I've never actually seen the red, oily pad thai in Thailand that is common in many western Thai restaurants.

The ingredients listed below can be somewhat intimidating but many are optional. If you would like to make authentic Pad Thai, just like in Thailand, use all the ingredients.

Pad Thai is another perfect vegetarian dish, just omit shrimp and substitute soy sauce for fish sauce. Add more tofu if you like.

Ingredients

1/2 package Thai rice noodles, medium thickness

2 medium eggs

4 teaspoons fish sauce

2 tablespoons tamarind

3 cloves garlic, minced

1 shallot, minced

1 cup bean sprouts

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

1/4 pound shrimp, whole

1 chicken breast, sliced

2 tablespoons palm sugar

2 or 3 stalks scallion, sliced at an angle

2 tablespoons crushed peanuts

juice from 1/2 lime

Starting with a bit of oil, he stir-fries the dried shrimp, shallot and tofu before tossing in a handful of rice stick noodles. He then adds a generous amount of water from the teapot, and cooks it all together over fairly high heat. During the cooking process he adds fish sauce, tamarind sauce and palm sugar. The next ingredient, which is one of the "signatures" that defines his Pad Thai as unique from others, is the addition of sriracha sauce (see picture). A tad bit more water and fish sauce is added, before the Pad Thai is moved off to one side of the wok to make room for the egg. He doesn't add fresh shrimp, chicken or any other meat to the Pad Thai.

After the egg is added, a generous serving of bean sprouts are added, and he folds it all together & serves it to-go wrapped up in a large piece of paper with plastic coating on one side. Crushed peanuts and spring onion are served separately.

enjoy cooking Thai food.

Gaeng Keow Waan Gai (Green Chicken Curry)

Ingredients

2 cups (500ml) coconut milk

2 tablespoon oil
1 onion, chopped
2 tablespoon green curry paste
1 pound (500g) chicken thigh fillets, cut into strips
4 kaffir lime leaves
1 tablespoon fish sauce
1 tablespoon lime juice
1 teaspoon lime rind, finely grated
1 tablespoon soft brown sugar

Method

In a small pan, bring coconut milk to the boil, and cover over high heat for about 10 minutes or until bubles of oil begin to crack the surface of the milk.

Heat oil in a wok. Add onion and curry paste and cook over medium heat for 3 minutes, or until fragrant. Add chicken and stir fry for another 5 minutes. Pour in coconut milk, lime leaves and ¼ cup of water and bring to boil, stirring occasionally.

Reduce heat, simmer curry for 10 minutes or until chicken is tender.

Stir in fish sauce, lime juice, lime rind and brown sugar.

Serve immediately with steamed white rice on the side.

Note:
If you want to add vegetables to this curry, stir in 100g snake or green beans with coconut milk, lime leaves and water.

Tom Yum Kung-food of Thailand

Thai dishes around the world is the one called tom yum kung. In English, it is sometimes called Hot and Sour Shrimp Soup or Lemongrass and Shrimp Soup.

Ingredients

1/2 lb. medium sized shrimp, shells removed and butterflied

3 stalks fresh lemon grass-bruised and slit and cut in half

3 cups water, shrimp or fish stock

fish sauce (nam plah)

4-6 slices fresh galanga (kah)

4-6 fresh kaffir lime leaves (bai magrood)

1 cube Knorr Tom Yum Soup base

2 tsp jarred Tom Yum Soup Base

1 small red onion cut into 1" pieces

1 cup fresh small white mushrooms, cut in half

1 can whole straw mushrooms, drained

2 small tomatoes, cut in quarters

Finishing Soup

2 green onions, cut in thin slices

cilantro sprigs for garnish

Juice of 1-2 limes, to desired sourness

Fish Sauce for desired saltiness

To make stock

Add 6 cups of water to a stock pot, add empty shrimp shells, lemongrass, and kaffir lime leaves. To prepare lemongrass-remove outer hard leaves, cut off the top third and the bottom root, small several times with the back of a clever to release the fragrant oils, cut in half then slit each half down lengthwise. Add the sliced galangal and kaffir lime leaves.

Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to low and simmer for 20-25 minutes to make a nice stock. Strain out the shrimp shells and lemon grass.

Add the Knorr cubes and Tom Yum paste, stir until disolved, taste and adjust flavours. Simmer a couple of minutes. Add the onion and mushrooms. Bring to a simmer, add the onions. Simmer for a couple of minutes. Add in the tomato wedges and shrimps. After 30-35 seconds, turn off heat, add lime juice to the desired sourness and fish sauce to attain the proper saltiness.

Do not let the prawns or shrimps overcook.

Serve immediately. Garnish with green onions and cilantro sprigs. Offer guests fish sauce, chopped chiles and lime wedges to adjust to their taste.

Credit : bellaonline.com