Mushrooms!

Sauteed Mushrooms
with Shrimp and White Pepper

I tried this dish with plain old button mushrooms and it turned out great. I say that everything is easy. This is both quick and easy, and contains no hard-to-find ingredients. In the picture below are the ingredients: shrimp, button mushrooms, sliced shallots, onion, ground white pepper, and garlic.


In a wok, I heated 2 tablespoons of oil and then stir-fried 2 tablespoons of garlic for 30 seconds. Next, I added 2 tablespoons of sliced shallot and stir-fried for about another minute. I then added 1/2 pound of shrimp and cooked for 1-2 minutes until it was no longer translucent.

Next come the mushrooms - a whole pound of them - and the onion. I cooked for another minute. I then added 2 tablespoons of fish sauce, 3 tablespoons of water, and 1/2 teaspoon of freshly ground white pepper.

The sauce was very good and unlike any of the Thai foods I have eaten before. I ate the dish with my leftover Chang Mai noodles, but it would be great with simple jasmine rice.

The above recipe is adapted from Real Thai by Nacie McDermott.

Getting to Five a Day

Thai Green Curry with Chicken
and Many Vegetables

There is a small list of things I usually order when I go to a Thai restaurant. The rotation includes pad see ew, some sort of basil and chili stir fry with chicken or shrimp or vegetables, and more rarely, pad thai, spring rolls, or chicken satay. If I order a curry, it is almost always Panang curry. Until yesterday, I had never had green curry!

For this green curry, I followed a recipe in Real Thai, but cut the meat by 1/3 and nearly doubled the vegetables.

Below is a plate of some of the vegetables. Clockwise, there are grape tomatoes, green beans, kaffir lime leaf, Chinese eggplant, and Thai basil. I also added strips of bell pepper and 1 red chee fah chili at the end.


I set the ingredients out on the stove. This made it easier to get everything into the pot.

Here is the finished curry:

The recipe is easy to follow and results in a flavorful, vegetable-rich dish. I think I'll be making more of this curry as the farmer's market starts to have summer squash, green beans, and other vegetables. I ate the green curry for dinner two days in a row and I think it tasted even better the second day. After the eggplant has sat in the curry for awhile, it gets very soft and really absorbs the flavors. Another upside of this curry, at least for some, is that it is not overly spicy.

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Recipes Adapted from Real Thai by Nancie McDermott.

Green Curry with Chicken and Vegetables

2 chicken thighs cut into bit-sized strips
1/2 cup coconut cream
1/4 cup green curry paste (see below)
3 cups coconut milk
1 1/2 cups diced eggplant
about 20 green beans, cut into bite-sized pieces
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1/2 cup basil leaves
3 red chee fah chilies or 9 long, thin red pepper strips
1 cup cherry or grape tomatoes, cut in half
12 fresh kaffir lime leaves

Warm the coconut cream over medium heat until it boils gently. Adjust the heat to maintain a gentle boil and cook 6 to 9 minutes, stirring occasionally. When you see tiny pools of oil glistening on the surface, add the curry paste and stir to dissolve into the coconut cream. Cook for 1 to 2 more minutes, until the curry paste has a pleasing aroma.

Add the chicken and stir to coat the pieces so they are all coated, about 1 to 2 minutes. Cook for about 2 minutes more. Increase the heat and add the coconut milk, eggplant, green beans, fish sauce, and sugar. Stir well and then add 6 of the lime leaves. Adjust the heat to maintain a gentle boil and cook 8 to 10 minutes.

When the chicken and vegetables are about done, add the tomatoes. After about one minute, remove from the heat and add the basil leaves, peppers, and remaining 6 lime leaves.

You can serve the curry over rice or noodles.

Green Curry Paste

1 tablespoon coriander
1 teaspoon cumin
5 peppercorns, freshly ground
3 stalks of lemongrass, edible parts minced
1/4 cup cilantro roots or leaves and stems
1 tablespoon ginger
1 teaspoon fresh lime peel
3 tablespoons chopped garlic
2 tablespoons coarsely chopped garlic
1/2 cup fresh kii noo chilies (Thai chilies)
1 teaspoon shrimp paste

The traditional way to make the curry paste is to use a a mortar and pestle to pound the ingredients together. This results in a moist fragrant paste. As with the red curry a made two weeks ago, I threw everything into the food processor. The recipe makes quite a bit, so I froze the extra in an ice tray to use later.

Skimping on Condiments.

Kao Soi
Chiang Mai Noodles with Curry Sauce

This is a mild curried dish from Northern Thailand that uses fresh egg noodles. It is typically served with lime, shallots, a bit of fried noodles, green onion, pickled cabbage, and chili oil. As you will see, I really skimped on the condiments, but it still turned out well if only because of the great noodles. I think I could eat them bare. Here is the package of the fresh noodles, which I bought from a Chinese grocery store in Chinatown:


First I made the curry in the dutch oven, which works great for saucy things. I boiled coconut cream, then dissolved a tablespoon of my red curry paste from the freezer and turmeric and continued the boil. Then the a pound of chicken goes in (I used thighs). After about two minutes, I added coconut milk, fish sauce, regular soy and dark sweet soy.


After 10 mines it was done. I should have added lime juice to the curry, but instead garnished with a lime. I sprinkled some shallots on top too.

My verdict: make this again, maybe with shrimp, and if I am going to skimp on condiments, at least make the chili oil.

The recipe above is found in:
Real Thai by Nancie McDermott.

Pan-Asian with Mixed Results

Tonight was a mix and match night with some Indian, Malaysian, and Thai. I wanted to try to make chicken satay with peanut sauce, but wasn't sure what to eat with it. I went with Creamy Spinach with Mung Dal (yellow lentils) and coconut rice.

Coconut Rice

First the coconut rice: an utter failure. It was way too rich to eat with anything and it was kind of thick and soupy. If it was sweetened, I could have made mango and sticky rice. Sadly, this one went into the trash. I did not even take a picture.

Creamy Spinach with Mung Dal

This wasn't the failure that the coconut rice was, but that is not saying much. Basically, this was just lentils with spinach, onion, cayenne, turmeric, chilies, yogurt to make it creamy, and ginger - lots and lots of ginger.

Everything going into the pot looked really pretty.


But once cooked down, it was just gingery, soupy, and creamy. There wasn't much depth of flavor. It was very unsatisfying on all accounts. I won't be making this again.

Chicken Satay
with Spicy Peanut Sauce

Luckily, tonight was not a wash. The chicken satay and the spicy peanut sauce were both amazing. This is the second time I have made chicken satay with a peanut sauce, but this time I used a new recipe for both the satay and the sauce.

The Satay

For the marinade, I used the food processor to grind coriander, lemongrass, shallots, garlic, ginger, turmeric, brown sugar, and peanut oil into a paste.


After marinating the chicken thighs for two hours in the paste, I skewered them and put them on a foil-covered pan. I neglected to follow the directions. The ends of the skewers should have been propped up against the side of the tray. Once the chicken was on the tray, I basted it with peanut oil using the crushed end of a lemongrass stock.


I put the skewers in the oven on the highest heat, next to the heat source. My oven does not have a fancy broiler as it is ancient. Here is a picture of me turning on my oven (yes, I have to light it with a match each and every time):


After about six minutes on each side, my apartment was smoky with smoldering bamboo skewers. I soaked the skewers first, so luckily no fire.

Spicy Peanut Sauce

The spicy peanut sauce I made is a Thai adaptation of what was originally an Indonesian sauce. This sauce is just amazing and really easy to make. You boil coconut milk, add red curry paste, peanut butter, stock or water, brown sugar, lime, and fish sauce. The red curry paste I used is from the same batch I made earlier in the week for the country curry. I froze the paste in tablespoon-sized balls using an ice cube tray and now have a ready store in my freezer door.

So, even though the rice and the creamy spinach with lentils were failures, tonight was a good night. This particular satay peanut sauce combination is a winner. I will be making this again.


Chicken Satay Recipe found in:
Cradle of Flavor by James Oseland.

Spicy Peanut Sauce recipe found in:
Real Thai by Nancie McDermott.

Noodles and Cukes.

Rice Noodles Stir-Fried
with Fresh Chilies and Basil

This is a great noodle dish. It is similar to pad see ew, but has a spicy kick.

It is made with fresh flat noodles. The ones I bought are made in Philadelphia's Chinatown. They come in sheets in a package like this.

To prepare the noodles for stir-frying, you must cut the sheets into the size of noodle you would like and then pull apart the individual noodles.

Since I would be stir-frying, I got all my ingredients ready beforehand so that I could set them up by the stove. This is important, since stir-frying goes quickly.

I heated canola oil in the wok and, once hot, added garlic, then chilies, and finally thinly slice chicken. I browned that, then added a sugar mixture and, after a minute more, fish and soy sauce.


Next the noodles go in and finally, the basil and then the tomatoes.

Cucumber Salad

We had this pretty cucumber salad on the side. It was very easy to make. You bring sugar, vinegar (white or rice), and water, in equal parts, to a boil. Once the sugar is dissolved, you let this rest until it comes to room temperature. When you are ready to eat, mix in Thai chili pepper and a bit of cilantro, pour over sliced cucumbers, and garnish with pieces of roasted peanuts.

The recipes above are found in:
Real Thai by Nancie McDermott.

You Don't Need Sriracha Sauce with This One.

Red Curry Paste &
Country-Style Curry (Baeng Bah)


Red Curry Paste

A lot of people think that curry is a spice, but it is actually just a mixture of spices. Country-style curry and a lot of the other Thai dishes use red curry paste for flavoring, so that is what I made first. I used a recipe from Real Thai (McDermott) and cheated by using a food processor instead of a mortar and pestle.

The curry paste contained dried red chilies (note to self: do not touch any part of face after touching chilis - painful!), peppercorns, coriander seed, cumin, lemongrass, cilantro, ginger (or galangal), lime peel, garlic, shallot, shrimp paste, and salt.

The recipe made about a cup of curry paste which should last for many dishes as most calling for the paste use only 2 - 3 tablespoons. It lasts for a month in the fridge, but I think I might try to parcel it out and freeze it.

Baeng Bah
(Country-Style Curry)

This is easy to make once you have curry paste on hand and it is lighter than other curries because it does not use coconut milk as a base. You have to saute the paste in vegetable oil for a few minutes, then add the chicken pieces (I used a mix of breast and leg meat, but next time will only use dark meat as it turned out much better). After a few more minutes, you add water and bring to a boil. Next go in the sugar, fish sauce, and vegetables.

For vegetables, I used Thai eggplant, on the left, and green beans. Thai eggplant is officially my new favorite eggplant. It is so pretty and its skin is tender when cooked.


After the vegetables are just about cooked, in go the basil and peppers (chi fah chilies, as in the picture below, or just a regular red pepper) . At the last moment, I tasted and because of the immense heat decided against the chi fah chilies and went for the bell pepper. The chi fahchilies actually aren't all that spicy --not like the little dried chilis that went into the curry paste-- but I was becoming concerned that I might make the dish inedible if I added anymore spice at all.


The finished curry was light, flavorful, and really spicy--borderline too spicy--but I am looking forward to eating it for lunch today with rice.


The recipes above are found in:
Real Thai by Nancie McDermott.

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Link of the day: A great article about Sriracha from the NY Times.

"The lure of Asian authenticity is part of the appeal. Some American consumers believe sriracha (properly pronounced SIR-rotch-ah) to be a Thai sauce. Others think it is Vietnamese. The truth is that sriracha, as manufactured by Huy Fong Foods, may be best understood as an American sauce, a polyglot purée with roots in different places and peoples."

Something Cool for the Start of Summer

Lemongrass Chicken over Rice Vermicelli with Herbs

For my first foray into cooking this summer, I chose a dish with which I am more familiar.

I initially wanted to make the dish with pork. Plans changed when I waited until six to go looking for pork tenderloin. I found that Di Bruno Brothers was closed due to a power outage and Rittenhouse Square Market did not carry the cut. I didn't want to walk to a third store as it was getting late, so I bought my veggies and went home.

This dish has three parts:

RICE NOODLES WITH HERBS

I cooked the rice vermicelli noodles first, following the directions on the package, then fluffed them and set them out to dry a bit.


I then went to work on the vegetables. I used my hand-held julienner to cut a cucumber and carrot into strips, washed my bean sprouts, and washed and set out basil and mint. I used regular basil, because my produce store didn't have Thai basil. The best part of this process: the leftover center of the cucumber. Love those seeds...




I then put the peanuts in a bag and smacked them around. I think my neighbors probably hate me now, but I CRUSHED those peanuts.

I set it out for assembly on the table:

THE CHICKEN

The chicken was super easy. I cut it into little pieces, marinated in oyster sauce, fish sauce, and finely chopped lemongrass, and then stirfried it with vegetable oil, garlic, and red onion. The actual cooking time was about five minutes and the chicken was very moist and tasty. This chicken is definitely going into the rotation. It'd be great over rice.

THE DIPPING SAUCE (NUOC CHAM)

This sauce is the ubiquitous Vietnamese sauce that you can dump over everything. I mixed together fish sauce, warm water, sugar, 3 thai chili peppers and a fresh squeezed lime. I forgot the garlic! Oops....still tasted great.

We assembled all of the above and then ate! Yummy!

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The recipes above are found in:
Pleasures of the Vietnamese Table by Mai Pham.

Nuoc cham (the dipping sauce)

3 Thai bird chilies
1 clove garlic
3 tablespoons sugar
2/3 cup warm water
1 1/2 tablespoons lime juice
5 tablespoons fish sauce

Cut chilies into ring, remove 1/3 of the chilies for garnish. Mix the remaining chilies, garlic and sugar with a mortar and pestle or chop them together. In a bowl, combine with water, lime, and fish sauce until sugar is dissolved. Add the rest of the chilies and carrots. Let sit 10 minutes before serving.

Rice Noodles with Fresh Herbs

2/3 lb. dried rice vermicelli (bun)
2 cups shredded lettuce
1 1/2 cups bean sprouts
1/2 cucumber in matchsticks
1/3 cup mint
1/3 cup basil

Cook the noodles, drain, fluff, and let sit for 30 minutes. Mix the other ingredients together in individual bowls for serving.

Lemongrass Beef
(I substituted chicken and it turned out well)

2/3 lb. beef sirloin or other meat
2 tablespoons minced lemongrass
2 tablespoons oyster sauce
1 tablespoon fish sauce
3 tablspoons vegetable oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 red onion

Marinate the meat with the lemongrass, oyster sauce and fish sauce for 20 minutes. Heat oil in large skillet, add garlic. When fragrant (about 20 seconds), add red onion. After about 1 minute, add the meat and stir until the meat is cooked and the onion is soft.