Monthly Archives: January 2012

Thai Recipe: Northeastern Thai Style Steak with Spicy & Tangy Dipping Sauce

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Here is a pretty way to display the beautiful beef and the spicy sauce

“CRYING TIGER” BEEF STEAK WITH THAI DIPPING SAUCE

Thai Name:  เสือร้องให้

Thai Name:  Seua Rong High where Seua is “tiger” and Rong High is “crying”

INTRODUCTION

This dish is a simple way to use a spicy, salty and crunchy dipping sauce to make your steak Thai style.  We are going to grill a steak and prepare a dipping sauce that combines fish sauce for a salty flavor, lime juice to make the sauce tangy, chillie flakes for a spicy note, some fresh coriander / cilantro and spring onion plus toasted and powdered rice to give it a crunchy texture.

HOW THIS DISHES GETS ITS UNUSUAL NAME

This grilled  beef dish is often called “seua rong high” or “crying tiger”.  According to legend, it is named after the sound of the fat dripping from the steak onto the coals of the grill that sounds like a tiger’s cry. Alternatively, some food historians say the tiger in the forest outside a village is crying because he smells meat cooking and wants to be invited to dinner.  No matter what the origins of the name, this dish will have your quests crying for more.  I learned this dish in Northeastern Thailand, where eaters like their dipping sauces spicy hot.

Metric System Users:  Some Thai recipes use small quantities of ingredients that are difficult to measure if the cook doesn’t have an accurate measuring scale in the kitchen. So, we use measuring spoons to approximate the quantity of ingredients in the recipe.  Remember that 1 Imperial teaspoon is the same as the amount in a 5 ml measuring spoon and 1 Imperial tablespoon is the same amount in a 15 ml measuring spoon.  Thai cooking should be a balance between the spicy, salty, sweet and sour flavors in the ingredients.  This type of volume measuring (versus weight in grams or ounces) gives the cook in a home kitchen enough accuracy in measuring the ingredients.  Most cooks will change these traditional recipes to suit their own taste as they experiment and create Thai food at home.

 INGREDIENTS

Beef steak, 1 pound or 450 grams

Let the meat reach room temperature before you grill it – this will help the steak cook evenly. 

There is no reason to season the steak with salt or pepper – the seasoning will come from the sauce we make.

Grill the steak in a hot pan with a little cooking oil to keep it from sticking to the pan, or over hot coals, to your desired level of doneness – I prefer it rare to medium rare so the steak is juicy.  After grilling, let the steak rest for five minutes without cutting into the steak so the juices remain inside the meat – if you slice the steak just after cooking, the juices will run out of the steak and it will be too dry.

Dipping Sauce:

The dipping sauce combines lime juice and fish sauce, fresh herbs and a toasted and ground rice powder to make a salty, tangy and crunchy topping.  You can think of the toasted rice topping as like a bread crouton used in Western salads to make the salad crunchy. 

THERE IS NO “ONE SIZE FITS ALL” IN THAI COOKING

You may adjust the seasonings in the sauce to suit your own palate – adding more lime juice to make it tangier, adding more or less chillie powder according to your enthusiasm for spice or by adding a little white cane sugar to temper the heat from the chillies.  The method and technique in this recipe will produce the correct result – then you can customize the dish to suit your own palate.

INGREDIENTS FOR THE DIPPING SAUCE

  • 2 tablespoons / 30 ml equivalent measure of Thai sticky / glutinous rice (as a substitute you could use the Italian riso that is used in making risotto – try Italian arborio or carnaroli rice).  These types of rice have a high starch content and so when toasted give lots of flavor and aroma.  You can also use other types of rice in a pinch.
  • 1 tablespoon / 15 ml measuring spoon Thai chillie powder (not to be substituted with mild chillie pepper found in Western supermarkets)
  • 1 tablespoon / 15 ml measuring spoon coriander / cilantro leaf
  • 1 tablespoon / 15 ml measuring spoon chopped spring onion (scallion/green onion)
  • 3 tablespoons / 45 ml fish sauce
  • 5 tablespoons / 60 ml lime juice

SIDE VEGETABLES FOR THE PLATE

  • 1 medium cucumber, peeled and sliced into 1/4 inch / 0.75 cm slices

Step 1:   Toasting the raw rice grains requires no oil in the pan.  Place a wok or frying pan over medium heat and add the dry rice.  Stir in the pan until the rice grains are toasted to a light brown color.  Remove from the heat and place the toasted rice grains in a mortar. Grind the toasted rice grains until they are a coarse grind – I prefer the rice to have a crunchy texture, so do not grind into a fine powder.

Step 2:  In a serving bowl, mix the fish sauce, lime juice, spring onion, coriander / cilantro and chillie powder together and stir.  Sprinkle the toasted and ground rice on top of the sauce.

Step 3:  Slice the steak into small strips (about 2 inches / 5 cm long and 1/2 inch / 1.5 cm wide) and place on the side of a plate in an artful pattern as seen in the photo above. 

Step 4: Array the cucumber slices on the other side of the plate and place the small bowl of sauce in the middle of the plate.

Eat your creation by dipping the beef slices into the sauce and eat the cucumber slices to cool your mouth. 

This dish is customarily served with steamed Thai sticky rice or you can serve Thai jasmine rice on the side.

Thai Recipe: Massaman Curry with Chicken, Potatoes & Onion

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The Spoon Says Eat Me! Massaman with Chicken, Onions, Potatoes and Coconut Milk

The Spoon Says Eat Me! Massaman with Chicken, Onions, Potatoes and Coconut Milk

 

This traditional Southern Thai dish is easy to make.  Once you have mastered the technique, you can customize the dish for your own preference for spicy, salty, sweet and sour/tangy flavors.     

 A video on how to make this dish can be seen on www.YouTube.com under the cheftummycooks page.

Thai Name:  Kaeng Massaman Kai (literally “Muslim style Chilli Paste with Chicken”)

INTRODUCTION

 A short history and language lesson: This dish is commonly called “Massaman curry” where Massaman notes the Indian or Persian origins of the dish made by people of the Muslim faith.  But there is no curry leaf or curry powder in the Massaman chilli paste itself.  The name “curry” comes from the word “kari” in Tamil language in India, where it means “sauce”. This Indian word became incorporated into the English language to mean food cooked in a flavorful paste of fresh and dried ingredients.  In Thai cooking these pastes are called “kaeng” where fresh and dried ingredients are pounded into a paste; but not all Thai pastes contain the curry leaf or curry powder. That is why I call the Thai pastes “pounded chilli pastes” instead of the common word “curry”.   

  • This sweet and spicy southernThailand dish shows it’s Indian and Persian origins with the use of fresh ingredients such as potatoes, onions, plus a paste made from dried chillies and dried spices such as coriander seed, cloves, cinnamon as well as other dried spices, plus pounded shallots, garlic, galangal and other fresh ingredients in the paste.  Many of theThailand’s Muslims live in Southern Thailandand this dish is widely cooked in the South with chicken or beef.
  • If you like the taste of curry powder, you can add curry powder at the end of the cooking process to help give this perfumed dish its characteristic Southern Thai taste. 
  • To allow the rich flavor of the spices to marry with the chicken and potato, this dish can be cooked ahead of time and served reheated the next day.
  • Metric System Users:  Some Thai recipes use small quantities of ingredients that are difficult to measure if the cook doesn’t have an accurate measuring scale in the kitchen. So, we use measuring spoons to approximate the quantity  of ingredients in the recipe.  Remember that 1 Imperial teaspoon is the same as the amount in a 5 ml measuring spoon and 1 Imperial tablespoon is the same amount in a 15 ml measuring spoon.  Thai cooking should be a balance between the spicy, salty, sweet and sour flavors in the ingredients.  This type of volume (versus weight in grams or ounces) measuring gives the cook in a home kitchen enough accuracy in measuring the ingredients.  Most cooks will change these traditional recipes to suit their own taste as they experiment and create Thai food at home.

 INGREDIENTS

  • 2 tablespoons / 30 ml vegetable oil (soybean oil, canola oil or palm oil all work well)
  • 1 cup potato (enough to fill a 250 ml measuring cup), peeled and cut into 1 inch / 2.5 cm pieces, cooked until nearly soft in a pan of water, about ten minutes, then drain off the water
  • 1/2 cup onion (enough to fill a 125 ml measuring cup), cut into 1 inch / 2.5 cm pieces
  • 1 – 2 tablespoons / 15 ml – 30 ml Massaman chilli paste, to taste
  • 2 tablespoons / 30 ml tamarind juice (see Tummy Tip below)
  • 1 tablespoon / 5 ml palm sugar (you can substitute cane/castor sugar)
  • 2.5 cups / 625 ml coconut milk
  • 1 tablespoon / 15 ml fish sauce
  • 2 tablespoons (enough to fill 30 ml in a measuring spoon) cashew nuts or peanuts, unsalted and dry roasted over low heat in a dry pan until fragrant, about one minute (optional)
  • 1 tablespoon / 15 ml curry powder (optional)
  • 1 tablespoon (enough to fill a 15 ml measuring spoon) coriander/cilantro leaves

METHOD STEP BY STEP

Making the Massaman

  • We cook the potatoes in advance to make them soft; if you put large chunks of raw potato in with the uncooked chicken, the chicken will be over cooked by the time the potatoes are soft enough to eat.  So take the skin off the potato as is suggested in the Ingredients section above and cut into pieces.  Cook in a pan of boiling water until you can pierce the potato with a fork. Don’t over cook the potatoes – fork tender (al dente as the Italians say) is enough to make them softer, but still retain their shape and a little bite or resistance to the teeth when they later cook with the chicken and coconut milk.
  • Place a wok or saucepan on the stove over low-medium heat and let it warm for 30 seconds.  Put the vegetable oil in the heated pan.  After the oil has heated about 10 seconds, add the Massaman chilli paste.  Stir fry the paste in the oil until fragrant, about 30 seconds.  If your pan has gotten too hot where the paste starts to burn, lift it off the stove so the chilli paste doesn’t burn and make the whole dish bitter instead of fragrant. 
  • Add the chicken pieces and the onion pieces to the wok.  Stirfry the chicken, onions and Massaman chilli paste, turning the chicken pieces so they are coated with the curry paste.  Stir fry about 1 -2 minutes until the chicken is coated well with the curry paste and the outside of the chicken has cooked.  This will help seal in the juice inside the chicken pieces so the pieces remain tender.
  • Add the potatoes and the coconut milk to the wok. Continue cooking over the low heat for 5 minutes, occasionally stirring the chicken, potatoes and onions. Even though the cooking pan is over low heat, the coconut milk will start to boil lightly.  We cook this dish over low heat so the chicken remains tender and doesn’t get dried out and tough.  After five minutes, cut into the chicken pieces to see if they are cooked through; the chicken should be a uniform color all the way through.  Depending on the heat under your cooking pan and the thickness of the pan you may have to cook the chicken pieces longer than five minutes.  After you are satisfied that the pieces of chicken are fully cooked, turn off the heat under the pan.
  • You can customize the dish for your own preference for adding a tangier taste with the tamarind juice, a saltier taste with the fish sauce and a sweeter taste with palm sugar.  Remember it is easier to add than subtract these flavors, so add a little and taste the dish.  Add these ingredients to your own taste. Now taste the dish to see if it pleases your own preference. You can adjust the dish by adding small portions of the tamarind juice, fish sauce or palm sugar until you achieve the balance your prefer. Every cooks’ palate is different so you must rely on your own tongue and preference to customize the dish to your own taste. 
  • The Massaman should be a balance between spicy from the chilli paste, sweet from coconut milk and palm sugar, sour/tangy from the tamarind water and salty from the fish sauce.
  • Once you are satisfied you have achieved this balanced flavor, place the Massaman in a serving bowl.
  • Sprinkle the curry powder on top of the cooked Massaman, if you like that taste.
  • Sprinkle the toasted nuts on top of the Massaman, if using.
  • Add the coriander leaf to the top of the serving bowl to add a little green color.

 

Here is the glory of Massaman topped with peanuts and a little coriander

TUMMY TIP:  Tamarind seedpods are sold in specialty Thai and Asian ingredient stores.  The seeds pods are covered with a tangy date like pulp.   In a bowl, for each ¼ cup (enough to fill about 60 ml) of tamaring seeds and pulp, add ½ cup / 120 ml of warm water.  Soak for 10 minutes and stir occasionally to separate the tamarind pulp from the seeds.  Strain the tamarind liquid from the seeds by pressing the pulp and seeds with a spoon through a strainer.  This strained tamarind water stays fresh for only about a day, so make it as you need it.  You can freeze the tamarind water, but it will lose some the flavor and aroma as it sits in the freezer.

Tummy Thai Travel Tales: Flying Spinach Team Tryouts in Phitsanulok Thailand

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Catching the elusive flying spinach takes the correct gear

In the last post, I shared a recipe for stirfried Thai spinach.  Here is an exerpt from the Thai travel and food book I wrote about learning to catch the airborne version of Thai spinach.  Even with the correct gear, it is harder than it looks.

Incoming! – Flying Vegetables Fly By My Head In Phitsanulok

The phak bung stirfried vegetable winged past my ear and was expertly caught by the adept waiter to my rear. Perhaps I should tell you why vegetables were being hurled at me.  But first, let’s discuss why vegetables can fly.

My earnest attempt to make the flying spinach catching team in Phitsanulok

Phak bung is a hardy green hollow-stemmed vegetable with slender and tender leaves that grows widely inThailand, especially by bodies of still water. It is gathered for cooking as a quick vegetable stirfry, stays crisp after cooking and is packed with vitamin A, calcium, and iron (but not so much iron compared to spinach that you feel like you have chewed on aluminum foil when it is eaten). Names for this common vegetable include the more glamorous and attractive name of morning glory (in the way a Hollywood starlet might change her name to something more alluring), but it is also called water convolvulus or swamp cabbage.

The green is combined in a wok with hot cooking oil, mashed garlic, crushed chillies, and black bean sauce or yellow bean sauce and is quickly stirfried. As cooking oil drips over the edge of the wok, spectacular flames can erupt, giving the dish a smoky flavor. Some chefs tilt the edge of the wok to induce the conflagration, adding to the taste and spectacle of the dish. This flaming version is called phak bung fai daeng or literally “red fire flaming water spinach.”

To further make the stirfry an exciting eating experience, some Thai chefs have invented a new variation―phak bung lawy faa or “sky floating water spinach” where the chef flings the cooked greens through the air in a practiced arc and an agile waiter catches them on a plate. The aeration is thought to give the stirfry an added flavor.

We had heard that tryouts for the flying vegetable caching team were held every night in Phitsanulok, so we motored to the night market and parked by a riverside restaurant. At the side of the restaurant near the open-air cooking station was an aged, rusted, brick red delivery van with a set of steps leading to a platform on top.

I figured having vegetables flung at me was a logical continuation of the ‘Fun with Food” theme of the trip which had already included dodging durians, wrestling with dancing shrimp in Chiang Mai, and later chasing chickens in Isaan.

I resolutely stepped up to the chef and asked to participate in the sport. To get in the swing of things, those trying out for the phak bung catching team could don a Nutty Tourist ensemble of a red rubber apron, which I accessorized with a red hula skirt and a headband into which a waiter stuck two long eggplants as Viking horns. I declined the rubber flesh-colored fake breasts, feeling this added bit of equipment might constrict my catching arm. I climbed the steps to the top of the van and did a few light stretching exercises.

The chef set a large blackened wok over a high gas flame and added vegetable oil. After the oil had begun to smoke slightly in the pan, handfuls of the green vegetable were tossed into the wok with sliced chillies, mashed garlic cloves and black bean sauce and quickly stirfried. The chef tilted the edge of the wok so some of the oil caught fire in a spectacular supernova flare-up, like dragon’s breath. The chef drained off most of the liquid from the wok so just the greens nestled with the garlic and chillies remained. This made a cleaner missile to hurl towards me.

Four motorcycle taxi men thumped on bongos and chanted a song about phak bung to encourage my successful catch. One of them even showed his commitment to the theme music by putting down his bottle of Chang beer. Of course, it was empty.

The chef gave me a rookie oversized vegetable catching platter the size of a truck hubcap, while an encouraging waiter stood by with a plate the size of a teacup saucer. The chef stood fifteen feet away on the ground beneath the van. As I preened for Kitty’s camera, the flying vegetable hurtled past my head and the waiter leapt up to catch it like a major leaguer leaping up to snatch a line drive in the World Series.

How I managed to miss catching the hurled vegetables three times is a matter of debate. I blamed the light from the restaurant in my eyes and the flashbulbs from Kitty’s camera (One of her many nicknames earned during the trip was “Snaps” due her diligence in documenting our trek with hundreds of photos.)

My sports failure echoed my brief and unremarkable career in Pee Wee baseball where I managed to have the ball land anywhere but in my glove. Then I got eyeglasses and the world changed from Impressionist to Realist so I could see beyond my nose, but I had already become interested in cooking and never returned to sports unless compelled by the school.

 But I looked great in my phak bung catching gear and have been shopping for my own red hula skirt, size XXXXL.

 Here is what the dish looks like.

The delicious Thai water spinach from Phitsanulok

I’ve since tried my hand at slinging phak bung in the yard in front of my bungalow. I can’t tell if the aeration process substantially adds to the flavor or not, but the neighborhood kids like trying to catch the sky-floating vegetable and the local birds are well fed.

 If you are in Phitsanulok, you can practice your phak bung catching skills at the Savik restaurant near the night market on the banks of the River Nan.

Thai Recipe: Spinach Thai Style- Stirfried Spinach with Chillies, Garlic, Oyster Sauce & Fermented Soybean Sauce

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Many years ago, while living in The Great White North of America, the young Chef Tummy would outwait the ten months of winter by watching a cartoon titled “Popeye” where the hero would gain strength to save his beloved gal pal “Olive Oil” from evildoers by eating spinach.  Wanting to imitate Popeye’s manly muscles, Chef Tummy asked his good Mother to prepare spinach, but the result was often gritty on the teeth from all the iron in the vegetable.  As Chef Tummy’s epicurian adventures later found him a frequent guest in steakhouses, creamed spinach was a way to include nutrition in the diet if the spinach dish had the appropriate handful of butter added to lend flavor. 

Popeye Never Had Spinach Like This

Only after moving to Thailand in 2004 did Chef Tummy discover a new way to prepare spinach that made the old and tired recipes new and alive.  This Thai recipe combines the soft, leafy leaves of the native spinach with garlic, chillies, oyster sauce and fermented soybean sauce to make it a spicy and savoury delight.

Asian Water Spinach

Asian spinach has many names, among them morning glory, water spinach, water hyacynth, water cabbage, the contortionist sounding water convuvulos, or phak bung in Thai.  No matter what you call it, this quick strifry recipe makes a lovely vegetable side dish at any meal.

If the cook cannot find this light delicacy in their local market, baby spinach is an excellent substitute.

YOUTUBE USERS:  A video showing how to make this Thai dish can be seen on www.youtube.com under the cheftummycooks page – there are other Thai cooking videos and Thai travel videos on the same page for your enjoyment.

INGREDIENTS

  • 4 cups Phak Bung water spinach (you can substitute baby spinach or other light leafy green vegetable)
  • 2 cloves large garlic, smashed flat with a cleaver and roughly chopped (Thai chefs often include the peel in the dish because it adds flavor and aroma to the dish)
  • 3-6 small red Thai chillies – if you want a mild chilli flavor, just trim the stem off the chillies with a knife.  If you want more chilli heat, smash the chillies and then cut the chillies lengthwise.  Using red chillies helps your guests identify the chillies and eat or avoid them, according to their own taste.
  • 3 tablespoons / 45 ml chicken stock or water
  • 1 tablespoon / 15 ml yellow bean sauce (I prefer the Thai Healthy Boy brand)
  • 1 tablespoon / 15 ml oyster sauce (I prefer the Thai Mae Krua brand)
  • 1.5 tablespoons vegetable oil / 25 ml measure

PREPARATION OF ASIAN SPINACH

  • Thai phak bung water spinach comes in bunches with the roots still intact. Much like asparagus, there will be a place about four inches from the base of the roots where the phak bung snaps off easily.  Discard the lower quarter of the base stalk as it is too tough to eat when cooked in a stirfry method.  You can pluck the remaining leaves and hollow stems into two-inch lengths (5 cm) and place them in the bowl.  

METHOD

Here is a suggestion on how to segregate the ingredients before the rapid cooking begins

If substituting baby spinach, rinse the greens.  You don’t need to dry them as the water on the leaves helps the cooking process.

  • Place the plucked spinach leaves in a bowl.  Since things of the same size tend to cook at the same speed, I recommend you tear the spinach into 2 inch / 5 cm pieces.
  • In a small bowl, place the chillies and the smashed garlic. Reserve this bowl.
  • In a small cup, place the water, yellow bean sauce and oyster sauce and mix together with a spoon so the oyster sauce and yellow bean sauce are evenly distributed in the water.  Reserve this bowl.
  • Turn on the stovetop burner to medium.  Place the wok on the lit burner.  Let the wok heat up for 30 seconds or so.  Pour in the cooking oil and swirl the oil in the pan, carefully not slopping the hot oil on you.  Let the oil heat for fifteen seconds.   Add the garlic and chillies and stirfry until the garlic begins to lightly brown, about 30 seconds.
  • Dump the entire contents of the bowl containing the greens into the wok. Add the water, oyster sauce, and yellow bean paste into the hot wok.  Hold the wok handle in one hand and stir the greens rapidly for about 30 to 40 seconds with a long handled spoon, turning and flipping the greens so they become coated with the oil, water, oyster sauce and yellow bean sauce. Once the greens have wilted down to half their original volume and are shiny with the oil and other sauces, you can pour the contents of the wok into a serving bowl.  Serve warm.   Serves two persons as part of a multi-dish Thai meal.