Tag Archives: spicy Thai

Thai Recipe: Why Rice is Nice in Thailand and How To Cook Thai Jasmine Rice

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Rice, especially the fragrant Thai jasmine rice, is the essential staple of the Thai diet.  Unlike other countries, Thailand is not a large producer of wheat or potatoes.

Rice is the center point of the meal and Thai food is especially designed to be eaten with rice – the neutral taste of rice serves as a counterpoint to the often piquant Thai dishes.  To eat Thai food is to eat rice with other food.

Language lovers note that the Thai word for rice is a synonym for food.  A common greeting among friends in Thai is “have you eaten rice/food yet?”  I often answer in the negative in case the person greeting me has something delicious they want to share!

A row of different brands and quality levels of rice at a Thai supermarket

Rice is eaten with every meal, whether it be steamed jasmine rice (or sticky/glutinous rice in some parts of Thailand) or rice noodles or rice incorporated into desserts. Rice can be made into a homemade wine or a type of whiskey.  Many folk sayings incorporate the word for rice (the expression “rice waiting for rain” means the speaker has waited a long time for something to happen).  Rice is also used in religious ceremonies, whether as an offering to Buddhist monks on their daily alms rounds where they are offered rice and other foods by faithful followers, or rice is placed as an offering for animist spirit shrines to ask the spirits that protect the land to watch over the inhabitants.

Since rice is the foundation of Thai cooking, here is an outline on how to best prepare Thai jasmine rice.  I most often use an electronic rice cooker.  If you do not have such a machine, you can easily make Thai rice on top of the stove.

Different grades of rice available at an open air market in Chiang Mai Thailand

PREPARING THE JASMINE RICE FOR COOKING – THE HARDWARE YOU NEED

  • measuring cup for the jasmine rice
  • electric rice cooker or pot with a lid for cooking the rice
  • colander or strainer for helping rinse the starch off the rice

MAKING RICE – INGREDIENTS

  • 1.5 cups of raw dry jasmine rice (about 200 grams dry weight or enough to fill a metric measuring cup to 350 ml)
  • 2 cups / 450 ml of water for cooking the rice
  • more water for rinsing the starch off the rice

METHOD

Step 1: Prepare the rice

Thai jasmine rice must be rinsed before cooking to get ride of any excess starch on the rice – failing to rinse the rice will result in the rice being too sticky.  The cooked jasmine rice grains should be fully cooked with each rice grain separate but not sticking together.

For this recipe, the 1.5 cups of raw jasmine rice made almost four cups of cooked rice – it expands considerably when cooked.

Step 1:  Rinsing the raw rice grains:

Wash jasmine rice thoroughly to get most of the rice starch off each rice grain.  Place the amount of rice you wish to cook in the cooking pot and fill the cooking pot with water to a couple of inches (5 cm) above the water. Massage the rice grains in the water with your hand to loosen the starch and drain off the water in a colander or strainer.  Repeat this between three and five times until the water being poured out of the bowl runs clear.  The amount of starch on the rice can vary according to the brand, so use your own judgement on how many times you must rinse the rice.  Strain the rinsed rice to get rid of the water and return the rinsed rice to the cooking pot.

Cooking the rinsed rice using an electronic rice cooker:

Place the 1.5 cups of rinsed rice in your cooking pot and add the two cups of water.  Plug in the rice cooker and flip the switch to the “On” or “Cook” position – the machine does the rest.  The rice cooker will keep the rice warm and ready for eating.

Cooking the rinsed rice in a pot on the stove:

The cooking pan you use to make rice on top of the stove will influence how long the rice must cook.  I used a thin pan and the rice came to a boil rapidly. A thicker pan may absorb more of the heat and your cooking time may be longer.  As always, experiment with the equipment you have at home so you can control the outcome.

If you are preparing the rice in a cooking pot on top of the stove, bring the rice and water to a soft boil over medium heat with the cover off.  Cook for eight minutes or until the water has evaporated and the rice looks dry on top.  Again, this time will vary according to how much heat your stove produces and the thickness of the cooking pit you are using.

Reduce the heat to low, cover the cooking pot and cook for fifteen minutes. After fifteen minutes, lift off the cover of the cooking pot.  If the rice looks like it has absorbed all the water, turn off the heat under the cooking pot, remove the cooking pot from the stove with the cover on so the cooked rice starts to cool.  If the rice is still moist, cook for an additional couple of minutes, then remove from the stove to cool.

If you have excess rice after your meal, you can store the rice in the refrigerator and use it to make stirfried rice dishes or rice soup.

Thai Recipe: Stirfried Pork with Basil Leaf and Garlic

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STIRFRIED PORK WITH SPICY HOLY BASIL, CHILLIE AND GARLIC

Thai Name:  Phad Bai Grapow Muu Sap (literally: Stirfried Spicy Holy Basil with Minced Pork)

Minced Pork with Holy Basil & Chillie and Cucumber Garnish

You can see a video on how to make this dish on www.YouTube.com under the cheftummycooks page.  It features a discussion of the cooking technique and the unique Thai ingredients that give this dish its flavor and aroma.

INTRODUCTION

This is a favorite “anytime of the day” dish that gives a spicy punch. The original recipe calls for a paste made from spicy Thai bird’s eye chillies and tiny Thai garlic.  A unique type of basil known as”holy basil” or bai grapow is added at the end of the cooking process to give flavor, aroma and color. 

The key technique is to add the spicy basil at the end of the cooking process to retain its flavor, aroma and color. I learned the recipe from Mister Diim at the Sailomjoy Restaurant in Chiang Mai.  I ate it over 45 times ( I was attending Thai language school near the restaurant and this dish helped fortify me for my daily inquisition by the stern Professor Malee at the language )!

A NOTE ABOUT INGREDIENTS

Thai food depends unique ingredients used to give this type of traditional dish a spicy and aromatic note – in this case it is the Thai bird’s eye chillies, the tiny Thai garlic and the holy basil.  If these are not available in your area, you can use other types of spicy chillies, the larger Western garlic and sweet basil – the dish still tastes great.

Holy Basil has great flavor and aroma - notice the serrated edges & matte / dull color

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 (especially since most home cooks do not own a digital scale with the precision to measure small gram units).  Most cooks will change these traditional recipes to suit their own taste as they experiment and create Thai food at home.

 INGREDIENTS

Ingredients Setup for the dish using the Holy Basil
  • 1.5 cups / 400 grams minced pork.  I recommend a mixture of 20% fat with 80% meat – the fat helps convey the flavor of the pork.  Some butchers or stores call this ratio for fat to meat “20% lean”. 
  • 2 tablespoons / 30 ml garlic, roughly chopped or pounded in a mortar
  • 1 tablespoon chillie / 15 ml (preferably the small but potent bird’s eye chillie), stem removed and pounded in a mortar - I used three medium bird’s eye chillies
  • 1 cup holy basil leaves (these have a serrated edge and a matte finish so look different than the sweet basil used in Western cooking that has a smooth leaf edge and shiny leaf)  
  • 2 tablespoons  / 30 ml water or chicken stock
  • 1 tablespoon / 15 ml fish sauce
  • 2 tablespoon / 30 ml oyster sauce
  • 2 tablespoons / 30 ml cooking oil
  • 1 teaspoon / 5 ml of white cane sugar (optional if the chillie heat is excessive to your taste, the addition of sugar will lessen the spice)

A Note to the Chef About Garlic

Most Thai chefs prefer to use the small garlic cloves called “Thai garlic” since the tiny, gossamer peel imparts a lovely aroma to the dish. If you do not have access to these small garlic cloves, the larger “Chinese” or “European” garlic can be used.  Either way, addition of some of the peel from the garlic is preferred to impart aroma.  You can alert your guests that the inclusion of the peel in the cooked dish is traditional; your guests can pick out the peel or deftly move the peel to the side of their plate if they don’t want to chomp on it.

Tiny Thai garlic on the left and larger Western garlic on the right

Thai chefs will pound the small “Thai” garlic and chillies in a mortar until they are roughly ground together, then scrape out the mixture and add it to the hot oil in the wok. 

EQUIPMENT

  • measuring cup for the pork and basil leaves
  • measuring spoons for the oyster sauce, water / chicken stock and fish sauce
  • mortar & pestle for pounding the chillies and garlic
  • spoon for scaping the inside of the mortar
  • wok
  • ladle for stirfrying
  • serving bowl
  • spoon and fork for eating

COOKING METHOD: STEP BY STEP

  • Smash the chillies and the garlic in a mortar to make a rough paste.  The goal is to have the spice in the seeds of the chillie evenly dispersed in the final dish.  As you pound, you can use a spoon to scrape the bits of chillie and garlic into the center and continue to pound until you get a rough paste.
  • If you do not have a mortar, you could chop the chillies and garlic and mix together before cooking.  In the video I made posted on www.Youtube.com, I did not have a mortar in the kitchen where I was filming.  So, I put the chillies and garlic in a bag and whacked them with a hammer.  The result is the same – when we face obstacles in the kitchen we must adapt and overcome. 
  • Turn on the heat under a wok to medium high and let the pan heat for about 30 seconds.
  • Add the vegetable oil and swirl in the wok to coat the inside.  Let the oil warm up about 30 seconds.
  • Add the smashed garlic and chillie to the hot wok and stirfry for 30 seconds until the garlic starts to brown slightly.
  • Add the pork and mix the pork and garlic & chillie in the pan to evenly distribute the garlic and chillie through the pork.  Continue stirfrying, making sure to frequently flip the pork so it all comes in contact with the hot wok surface. Cook the pork until it turns from pink to a uniform white color.  Depending on your stove and the thickness of your wok, this may take 3 to 5 minutes. 
  • When the pork is nearly cooked, add the oyster sauce, fish sauce and water/chicken stock and stirfry until well mixed and the pork is cooked all the way through. 
  • Turn off the heat under the pan, dump in the holy basil leaves and stir well to combine. Adding the basil leaf at the end will wilt the leaves and help them retain their color, flavor and aroma.
  • Once you are satisfied that the pork is cooked, taste to determine if the mixture is a balance of spicy from the chillies and holy basil, sweet from the oyster sauce and salty from the fish sauce and oyster sauce. You can add a little sugar to temper the chillie heat, to your taste.

Variation:  One traditional presentation is to add a fried egg on the side. 

Variation:  Some chefs use a prepared, bottled Mushroom sauce instead oyster sauce to impart a savory flavor.

The dish is served with steamed jasmine rice. 

Serves two persons as part of a multi-dish Thai meal

Thai Recipe: Northern Thai Pork & Tomato Dipping Sauce – Naam Prik Ong

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Northern Thai Pork & Tomato Dipping Sauce ready to eat

This Northern Thai style pork and tomato dipping sauce is a popular dish that is served with fresh sliced vegetables such as cucumbers, green beans and cabbage.  It is often served with steamed sticky rice but can also be served on a sliced baguette “bruschetta” style or even on pasta as a sort of distant Thai culinary cousin to Bolognese sauce - sort of “East Meets West” for dinner.  I learned this recipe in Chiang Mai from my buddy “Chef Jeep” when I should have been doing my Thai language school homework.

I recorded an instructional video on www.youtube.com under the cheftummycooks page for one version of this recipe – please take a look.

The Thai name is “Naam Phrik Ong” or น้ำพริกอ่อง

Ingredients for the dish including vegetables to help you eat it

INGREDIENTS FOR THE DIPPING SAUCE

  • Pork, minced, 14 ounces / 400 grams or about 2 cups
  • Tomato, 3 to 4 large, seeds removed and the tomato flesh chopped into small pieces, about 12 ounces / 350 grams or 2 packed cups
  • Garlic, minced, about 5 cloves, or about 2 tablespoons / enough to fill a 30 ml measuring spoon
  • Shallot or red onion, minced, about 2 tablespoons  / enough to fill a 30 ml measuring spoon
  • Vegetable oil, 3 tablespoons / 45 ml
  • Red chillie paste, 1 tablespoon or enough to fill a 15 ml measuring spoon
  • Water, 4 tablespoons / 60 ml
  • Fish sauce, 2 tablespoons / 30 ml
  • White cane sugar, 1 teaspoon / enough to fill a 5 ml measuring spoon
  • Coriander, one sprig to add as a garnish (optional but it adds a little color contrast to the red tomatoes)

INGREDIENTS FOR THE SIDE VEGETABLES

  • one large cucumber, skin removed and cut into diagonal slices (a diagonal slice helps give more surface area for scooping up the food).
  • green beans, broken into 3 inch / 8 cm pieces

You can slice cucumbers, green beans, cabbage or lettuce to scoop the dipping sauce into your mouth.  The vegetables help cool the spice from the red chillie paste, as does serving this dish with sticky rice.  This dish is also served with sticky rice and pork cracklings. 

As you can see from the final dish display photo in this recipe and the ingredients photo, I took the skin off a cucumber and used a fun Thai serrated cutter to make a cucumber slice for using as vessel for eating the finished dish.  I also used some fresh green beans – you could try lettuce leaves or cabbage as well.

METHOD

Step 1:  Heat the vegetable oil in a wok or saucepan over low to medium heat and swirl the oil in the pan to coat the inside of the pan.  Add the minced garlic and shallots and saute until the shallots and garlic are softened, about 1 minute.

Step 2:  Add the red chillie paste and saute it with the shallots and garlic until the aroma is released, about 15 seconds.  Don’t let the chillie paste or shallots and garlic burn – you can always turn down the heat or just remove the cooking pan from the heat if the pan gets too hot.  Since every stove and pan are different, be watchful to not let the ingredients get too hot.

Step 3:  Add the minced pork to the cooking pan and stir it well with the chillie paste, shallots and garlic.  Add the water and fish sauce to help disperse the other ingredients and keep pressing and flipping the ingredients in the pan so they cook evenly for about a minute. 

Step 4:  Add the tomatoes and sugar and continue stirring until the pork cooks through and the tomatoes become soft.  Depending on the thickness of your pan and the heat on your stove, this will take five to seven minutes. 

Step 5: Give the dish a taste;  if it is too spicy, you can add more sugar to reduce the spice in the dish.

Step 6:  Once you are satisfied that the pork is fully cooked, remove from the heat and place into a bowl for serving.  Add some coriander leaves as a garnish if you like.

You can also place on the table a bowl with the cucumber slices and other vegetables.  Thai cooks often add some ice to the bowl with the vegetables to keep them crisp and cool.

THAI COOKING TOOLS

Inexpensive Thai kitchen tools for slicing vegetables

These inexpensive kitchen tools can give your dishes a Thai touch.  Thai cooking supply stores offer a number of cooking tools for making decorative shapes and designs for Thai food.  The photo shows a blue peeler that makes cute serrated edges when peeling a cucumber and the red handled cutter makes ridged slices – a fun thing to bring home from a trip to Thailand.  These items are also available for home delivery from the various Thai food import firms.

EAST MEETS WEST FOR DINNER

East meets West for dinner - the Thai dipping sauce on pasta

This dish vaguely resembles Italian Bolognese sauce in that meat is cooked with tomatoes.  True Bolognese sauce uses veal or pork with tomatoes or tomato paste and is served on pasta.  So I decided to boil some pasta until it was al dente and it tasted pretty good, although much more spicy than the traditional Italian Bolognese!

Thai Recipe: Stirfried Shrimp with Thai “Pesto” – Coriander, Peppercorns and Garlic Paste

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Thai Shrimp in Coriander, Garlic & Peppercorns "Pesto"

Thai Name:  Kung Gratiem Phrik Thai Sot

INTRODUCTION

The chillie has become an icon of Thai cooking but the fruit is not native to Thailand.  Food historians chart the journey of the chillie from the Americas to Asia by Portuguese or Spanish explorers in the 1600′s.

Before the arrival of the chillie, Thais were living on rice, fish, vegetables and fruit – a nutricious but somewhat bland diet.  So, they invented a paste to enliven their food.  One such paste is a combination of peppercorns, coriander and garlic pounded in a mortar.  This resembles a Thai version of the traditional Italian “pesto” paste, except Thai cooks don’t use cheese in their cooking, but I like the way it sounds anyways.

Despite the rise in popularity and availability of chillies, this paste is still used but is not often seen in Thai restaurants outside of Thailand. 

For this recipe, I substituted dried white peppercorns instead of the fresh green peppercorns that are commonly available in Thailand.  Both white and green peppercorns give the paste a spicy taste; since fresh green peppercorns are sometimes not available, the white peppercorns are a great substitute.  Green peppercorns that are preserved in brine make this dish sour; black peppercorns make the paste look like it has little ants in it, so the white peppercorns are preferred if you cannot find fresh green peppercorns.

INGREDIENTS

  • vegetable oil, 2 tablespoons / 30 ml
  • peppercorns, white dried peppercorns, 20 corns, approximately 1/2 teaspoon
  • garlic, 1 tablespoon / enough to fill a 15 ml measuring spoon
  • coriander / cilantro. 1 cup loosely packed (see note below on coriander / cilantro)
  • fish sauce, 1 tablespoon / 15 ml
  • shrimp, ten (see note on shrimp preparation below)

CORIANDER OR CILANTRO – A ROSE BY ANY OTHER NAME

Coriander and cilantro are the same plant – just a different name but I include both as the name can vary depending on the country where it is sold.  The highest concentration of flavor in the plant is in the root and stems, not the leaves. 

In Thailand, the plant is sold with the roots on, while in other countries the roots are trimmed off.  If you can get coriander with the roots on, you are blessed.  Rinse off any dirt, and scrape off the outer brown layer and the small tendrils – then you will have concentrated coriander flavor for the paste.  If coriander is sold without the roots, you can use the lower stem to give flavor to the dish.

SHRIMP PREPARATION

  • shrimp, ten medium in size, head and scales removed, inner veins removed and the spiky thorn removed from the the tail.  You can retain the tail of the shrimp in case your guests want to eat the shrimp with their hands.  Alternatively, you can remove the tail and serve the pesto covered shimp using a toothpick or on a bed of steamed jasmine rice.

    Remove the head, shell, guts and the thorn from the tail as shown above

PASTE PREPARATION

  1. Place the peppercorns in the bottom of a mortar.  Use the pestle to firmly crush the peppercorns until they are partly cracked – if you pound with too much vigor, the peppercorns will fly out of the mortar and tears will fall like rain from your eyes.
  2. Add the garlic and press into the bottom of the mortar – again, start with pressing into the garlic with the pestle so the garlic gets crushed and doesn’t leap out of the mortar.  Once the garlic is crushed, then begin to pound so the garlic and peppercorns become a uniform paste – this takes about a minute.
  3. Add the coriander / cilantro leaves, stems and roots to the mortar and slowly press the pestle into the mortar to crush the contents.  Once you are satisfied that the coriander will not escape, begin the process of pounding the stiff coriander into the peppercorn and garlic.  You want to achieve a smooth paste, so keep pounding the coriander and pause occasionally to scrape the sides of the mortar with a spoon.  The result you want is a smooth paste, so keep pounding until the coriander stems and leaves blend into the peppercorns and garlic. The result is a vibrant green paste. 
  4. Heat a wok over medium heat for 30 seconds.  Add the vegetable oil and swirl it in the wok.  Add the paste and mix it with the oil so the paste breaks apart.  We want the paste to evenly coat the shrimp. 
  5. Add the shrimp to the wok and mix in with the paste and oil.  Turn the shrimp often in the paste in paste and oil, making sure each part of the shrimp touches the hot pan.
  6. The shrimp should cook until they are a uniform white/pink color.  You can check that the shrimp are done by artfully cutting into the center of a shrimp to check the color.
  7. Once the shrimp are cooked, turn off the heat in the pan and add the fish sauce.  Mix the shrimp and fish sauce and then arrange the shrimp on a serving plate. 

Thai Recipe: Steamed Fish with Lime & Coriander Sauce

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STEAMED FISH WITH LIME & CORIANDER SAUCE 

Using a Whole Fish

Thai Name:  Plaa Neung Manao (literally “Fish Steamed Lime”)  ปลานึ่งมะนาว

Steamed Whole Fish with Lime & Coriander Sauce

 INTRODUCTION

This steamed fish dish is a snap to make and is served all over Thailand using ocean and freshwater fish. 

For this recipe I used a whole red snapper – it looks great as a presentation piece for when you have a dinner party.  The head and bones in the fish also impart a deeper flavor that you lose when using fish fillets.  Using either a whole fish or fish fillets makes for a delicious dish. 

The Thai name for the dish highlights the use of lime to brighten the flavor of the fish, plus fish sauce for a salty and savoury taste, chillies and garlic for spice and sugar to temper and balance out the spice.

 INGREDIENTS

  • 1 whole fish with head and tail intact.  The best choice is a firm fleshed white fish such as red snapper, sea bass, sea perch or whatever fish you can get with the body intact that will fit in your stove top steamer.  
  • If you are buying fish whole from the market, look for clear eyes, red gills and a briny smell – signs of recent habitation in the water and a fresher taste.  Scrape off the scales from the fish body. Cut open the fish along the belly and remove the internal organs.  Rinse the fish well in running water.  Score the flesh of the fish several times along the body at even intervals on each side so the steam penetrates the flesh.  You can see an example of this preparation in the photos below.
  • 1 stalk lemongrass – we trim off the outer layers, bash the lemongrass to release the flavor and stick it in the mouth of the fish to perfume the fish – it also looks really cool.  We will retain the outer layers of the lemongrass to serve as a base so the fish doesn’t stick to the steamer – it makes it easier to remove when placing the fish on the serving plate.

SAUCE INGREDIENTS

  • 3 garlic cloves, minced, about 1 tablespoon (15 ml measuring spoon)
  • 6 small Thai chillies, minced, about 1 tablespoon (15 ml measuring spoon)
  • 3 tablespoons lime juice (45 ml)
  • 2 tablespoons fish sauce (30 ml)
  • 1 teaspoon white cane sugar (5 ml)

SET ASIDE THIS GARNISH

  • coriander / cilantro leaves, about enough to fill 1/2 cup or a small handful

FLAVORING THE FISH

  • lemongrass, 1 stalk about nine inches / 23 cm long, the tough outer skin removed (but do not throw away these outer layers).  Bash the lemongrass to release the flavors inside and reserve for putting inside the fish to flavor it.  We will use the lemongrass outer skin as a base to place on the steamer basket so the fish does not stick to the surface.

EQUIPMENT

  • steamer – I use a stainless steel steamer because it is easier to clean versus a bamboo steamer
  • knife for cutting lemongrass and other ingredients
  • cutting board
  • measuring spoons
  • bowl for combining sauce ingredients
  • spoon for stirring sauce ingredients
  • spatula for lifting cooked fish from the steamer to the serving plate
  • serving plate

Put water in the bottom, the fish in the middle, slap on the top and you are ready to cook

 

METHOD

  1. Mix the sauce ingredients in a small bowl. 
  2. Reserve the coriander / cilantro leaves as a garnish to toss over the cooked fish.

Note to the chef:  You may adjust the contents of the sauce to suit your own palate.  If your preference is for less incendiary sauces, you can lessen the number of chillies, use chillies lower in spice or add more sugar.  If you tone down the chillie heat in the sauce, you can adjust the other ingredients accordingly so they are in balance by adding less of each.  The prevailing flavors should be sour/tangy and spicy.  

Fish cleaned, scored along the body and ready for the lemongrass

 COOKING METHOD STEP BY STEP

Whole Fish Method 

  • Prepare the fish as detailed above.
  • Cut off the root and upper third off of 1 stalk of lemongrass so it is about nine inches / 23 cm long.  Peel the outer couple of layers to get rid of the woody covering and retain these layers.  Bash the trimmed lemongrass stalk with a cleaver or knife blade.  This releases the essential oils inside the lemongrass.  Place the trimmed lemongrass inside the fish to give it a perfumed and lemony flavor.  Depending on the size of your lemongrass stalk, you may have to fold it so it remains inside the fish cavity.  

    Fish with lemongrass in the mouth - ready to steam

  • Your steamer has a bottom part for putting in the water for steaming, a middle part for placing the fish or other food and a top.  Place the outer layers of the lemongrass evenly across the bottom of the steaming basket and place the cleaned fish on top of these lemongrass stalks. 
  • Place your steamer pot atop the stove and add enough water so the water level is about an inch below where the steamer basket rests.  This will keep boiling water from leaping up and overcooking the bottom of the fish.  Turn the heat under the cooking pot to medium high.   Once the water boils, place the fish on steaming basket inside the steaming pot.  Add the cover and steam for 10  minutes or until done.  The thickness of the fish body will determine when the fish is fully cooked so this time may vary – fortunately, steaming is a very forgiving way to cook so don’t worry about checking the fish every ten seconds. 
  • You can check that the fish is fully cooked by poking a knife through the fish; if it remains opaque in the center by the fish skeleton and spine, steam for a few more minutes until the fish is a uniform color all the way through.  I like to check to see if the fish is completely cooked by cutting along the spine of the fish and looking at the fish meat next to the bones – if it is an even white color, the fish is cooked.  You can see in the photo below I inspected the fish along the spine and lifted up a flap of the fish to make sure it was not in the sushi stage. 
  • In the example pictured in this recipe, I also kept the small flipper near the fish head on the fish – when this flipper becomes loose, it also shows the fish is cooked thoroughly. 

    I lifted up part of the fish by the spine to make sure it was cooked through

When the fish is cooked to your liking, remove the fish from the steamer and place on a serving dish.  Spoon the sauce over the fish.  Scatter the coriander leaf / cilantro leaf on top as a garnish.

Serve warm with steamed jasmine rice.

Serves two persons as part of a multi-dish Thai meal.

Thai Recipe: Thai Omelet of Joy – Crispy Goodness and Easy to Make

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Thai omelet with coriander garnish and The Sauce of Life on the side

How often has this happened to you – you get home from work and there is nothing to eat.  Will you suffer the indignity of instant noodles, again?  Order food for delivery and moan with hunger until it arrives? 

I teach cooking classes and sometimes have time to eat and sometimes I don’t.  So I arrived home the other day and opened the refrigerator to find two eggs, some cooked cold rice, a lime and lots of air.  Did I despair?  No.

I made a Thai omelet – it took only five minutes and I ate it with the rice and the blessed naam bplaa prik Sauce of Life (recipe in this blog).  All was well with the world,  A smile returned to my face.  I thought happy thoughts.  I showered and went to bed satisfied.  Life was good.

This traditional Thai omelet is crispy on the sides and light in the middle.  It is not the soft all over European style omelet.  The loads of oil and high heat make the omelet have more texture and the accompanying sauce make is a simple meal to eat with rice, or as a side dish as part of a multi-course Thai meal.

INGREDIENTS

  • 2 eggs
  • fish sauce, 1 teaspoon / 5 ml
  • lime juice, 1 teaspoon / 5 ml
  • rice flour, 1 tablespoon / 15 ml (corn starch or potato starch work as well)
  • vegetable oil, 3/4 cup / 200 ml (do not use olive oil – it smokes and burns easily and tastes nasty when heated over high heat)
  • steamed Thai jasmine rice on a plate ready to serve as a canvas for the omelet
  • sauce:  see the recipe in this blog for the quintessential Thai Sauce of Life made of fish sauce, lime juice, finely chopped chillies and sugar to pour over the cooked omelet
  • coriander leaf for garnish (optional but it makes the dish look pretty)

All the ingredients you need for a quick and delicious Thai style omelet

 EQUIPMENT

  • wok or 10 inch saucepan
  • ladle or slotted spoon (helps the oil drain off the cooked omelet)
  • mixing bowl – I used one nine inches across and three inches deep so I could really whisk the corn flour into solution with the eggs without it slopping over the sides (use a bowl approximately 23 cm wide and 8 cm deep)
  • whisk (helps get the rice flour evenly mixed into the eggs)
  • measuring cup for the oil
  • measuring spoons for the fish sauce, lime juice and rice flour
  • plate for the rice
  • spoon to eat the food
  • an apron in case any oil splatters on you

METHOD

  1. Place your cooked rice on a plate.
  2. Crack two fresh eggs into the mixing bowl. Crack the eggs on flat surface and then break into the bowl – if there are any contaminants on the outside of the egg, this trick lessens the chance they will mix in with the egg white and yolk. 
  3. Add the fish sauce and lime juice.
  4. Whisk the eggs, fish sauce and lime juice until they are well mixed.
  5. Sprinkle the rice flour over the liquid contents in the bowl and whisk with vigor until the dry rice flour is absorbed – keep on doing this to eliminate any lumps of dried rice flour as these lumps will taste dry and chalky on your tongue.
  6. Heat the wok over high heat for 1 minute.
  7. Add the oil and let the oil heat until it is smoking.  The oil must be very hot so the omelet puffs up, so be patient.  In my wok it took two minutes for the oil to heat until it was smoking – your stove and wok may produce a different result, so seeing the smoke is a better measure than time.
  8. Once the oil is smoking, pour the egg mixture into the hot oil in the center of the wok.  It will immediately start to sizzle. 
  9. Wait 25 seconds as the omelet cooks in the oil.
  10. Deftly flip the omelet with a spatula or slotted spoon and wait another 25 seconds. 
  11. Remove the omelet from the oil and give it a shake to help any excess oil drip back into the wok or saucepan.
  12. Place the cooked omelet on top of the jasmine rice and serve with some spoons of the Sauce of Life (fish sauce mixed with lime juice, finely chopped chillies and sugar – the recipe for this is in this Blog).

Note:  You can drain and strain the excess oil out of the wok and reserve for use in frying something else.

Thai Recipe: The Sauce of Life – Thai Fish Sauce, Chillie, Lime Juice and Sugar Sauce You Cannot Live Without

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The Sauce of Life - Fish Sauce, Fresh Chillies, Lime Juice and Sugar

A recent visitor to Thailand felt victory and acceptance at a local eatery when he ordered a traditional Thai omelet and asked the server for น้ำปลาพริก or “naam bplaa prik” sauce that makes life worth living and is a common condiment on Thai restaurants.  Here, “naam bplaa” means fish sauce and “prik” is chillies. While a Western restaurant might have salt and pepper shakers on the table so diners can add some flavor to their food, Thais use a version of this fish sauce and chillie combination to offer the chance to customize food.   

The restaurant makes this sauce fresh everyday and had not yet placed it on the table.  So the cook took the 30 seconds it takes to combine the ingredients and gave it to the eater with a smile and the welcome “gin gaeng” or colloquial Thai for “You know how to eat our food” – a complimentary phrase that all real Thai foodies crave.

In its simplest form, the sauce is fish sauce combined with finely chopped Thai bird’s eye chillies. 

There are other variations on this simple sauce, too. So what is this important and life sustaining sauce?  It is a simple combination of salty fish sauce, tangy lime juice, fiery finely chopped chillies and sweet white sugar – the fantastic four flavors that a diner can add to a dish to give it the balance and power it might need.  

My cooking mentor and employer “Mister Aow” has his own version.  As his time is limited, when we have the occasion to dine together, I make sure this sauce is on the table according to his formula.   My epicurean sister Susan visited me in Thailand and ate with Mister Aow and I.  After she discovered the simple beauty of this sauce, she now makes it at home in America.  I’m told she sends it to my nephew who is away from home studying at university.  I hope he appreciates his mothers love, and this sauce!

Some of the many brands of Thai fish sauce

There are a dozen brands of Thai fish sauce for sale in Thailand – the most popular brands exported are TIPAROS and SQUID BRAND.  I use the TIPAROS brand – high quality and has 4.5% sugar added that helps temper the salty flavor. 

TUMMY TIP:  When buying fish sauce, I recommend you purchase it in 60 ml bottles or 300 ml bottles.  Fish sauce can go stale and lose its flavor and aroma over time.  One sign that fish sauce has gone stale is the color of the fish sauce changes from a tea color to the color of black coffee.  So, buy smaller quantities and use the bottle, the replace rather than trying to economize and buy a large 1 liter bottle and have the chance that it goes stale before your next Thai cooking adventure in your home kitchen. 

The bottle on the left has gone stale but the one on the right is prime

I like to use this sauce to enliven omelets or add a kick to other dishes such as steamed fish or just on top of steamed jasmine rice.

INGREDIENTS

  • Fish sauce – 2 tablespoons / 30 ml
  • Lime juice – 2 tablespoons / 30 ml
  • Chillies – use Thai bird’s eye chillies, stems removed and finely chopped, 2 teaspoons / enough to fill a 10 ml measuring spoon
  • White sugar - 1 teaspoon / enough to fill a 5 ml measuring spoon

EQUIPMENT

  • measuring spoons
  • cutting board to cut the chillies
  • bowl for serving the sauce
  • spoon for stirring the sauce so the sugar goes into solution with the fish sauce and lime juice – you can use the same spoon for serving the sauce

METHOD

  1. Cut off the stem of the Thai bird’s eye chillies and slice the chillies finely into rings.
  2. Add the chillies to the serving bowl.
  3. Measure in the lime juice and fish sauce.
  4. Add the sugar and stir until it is dissolved.
  5. Taste and adjust for your own palate – if it is too spicy, add more sugar.

This Sauce of Life makes a plain omelet come alive and generally makes life worth living.

If you have sauce left over, you can store it in an airtight glass container in the refrigerator for a day or so, but it tastes best when freshly made.

A typical tabletop jar of the Sauce of Life - I hope there is enough for the next diner

Thai Recipe: Chicken, Coconut & Galangal Soup or Tom Khaa Kai or Tom Khaa Gai – ต้มข่าไก่

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Silky spicy goodness in a bowl - Thai Tom Khaa Gai soup

 
I don’t wear a watch in the kitchen anymore.  I used to focus on time when I cooked Western food – timing when meat was put in the oven or how long a cake had been baked.  Then I moved to Thailand and learned another way of cooking.  I was taught to use my eyes, ears, and nose to know when the next step in the cooking process should occur.   This traditional coconut milk, chicken and galangal soup is an example of how the cook must use their senses to know when the base coconut milk has been flavored by the galangal. lemongrass, lime leaves and chillies. So open your eyes, ready your nose and make this soup – it is delicious.
 
 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.
 

CHICKEN IN COCONUT MILK WITH GALANGAL

 Thai Name: Tom Khaa Gai  or Tom Khaa Kai (literally means “Boiled Galangal Chicken”)

This traditional Thai chicken and coconut milk soup uses aromatic vegetables like galangal, lemongrass and lime leaves to make a perfumed and delicious soup. In this recipe, the cook must use his or her eyes and nose to help determine when it is time to move to the next step of cooking.  

The galangal gives a spicy taste to the soup – it is a cousin of ginger but has a sharper taste.  Here is a photo of galangal so you know what to look for at the market.

Galangal with the stalks still intact

 A Common Question about Galangal and Ginger

Galangal and ginger are from the same family – the galangal pictured above is sometimes called “lesser ginger” by botanists.  But these roots do not have the same flavor and ginger makes a weak substitute for galangal in this particular dish.  Galangal has a sharper flavor that is meant to complement the soft flavor of the chicken breast and the tangy lemongrass and lime leaves.  Galangal is available in dried forms and you would have to adjust the recipe to get the true impact of the galangal flavor if using the dried or powered form. 

Here is photo of galangal and ginger side by side for reference.  You can see the galangal on the left side is denser than ginger.

Galangal and Ginger side by side

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 

  • 3 cups coconut milk / 750 ml.
  • ½ cup water / 125 ml (or substitute a hearty chicken stock).
  • 1 cup chicken breast / 300 grams, skin removed and cut into bite sized pieces.
  • 15 coins of galangal from a 1.5 inch / 4 cm piece, skin trimmed off (each coin about 1/8 inch /  0.5 cm in width).
  • 7 stalks lemongrass, bottom stem removed and top half trimmed so they are approximately four inches long / 10 cm, the tough outer layer removed, then the soft inner stalk bashed with a cleaver or knife so the flavor in the lemongrass leaks out.
  • 8 wild lime leaves, center stem removed and torn into thirds (you can substitute 1 teaspoon / enough to fill a 5 ml measuring spoon of grated lime zest).
  • 5 – 10 red small chillies, stem removed and bruised with a cleaver or knife to release the spicy flavor inside. I use red chillies to provide a color contrast to to the white soup basis and the green of the wild lime leaves.  Also, if your fellow diners do not like to bite into chillies, the red chillies are easy to identify and avoid.
  • 1 large shallot, skin removed and sliced along the equator into thin slices (about 2 tablespoons / enough to fill a 30 ml measuring spoon).
  • ½ cup / 40 grams thinly sliced straw mushrooms or button mushrooms (optional).
  • 3 tablespoons / 45 ml fish sauce.
  • 2 tablespoons / 30 ml lime juice.
  • 1 tablespoon coriander/cilantro leaves / enough to fill a 15 ml measuring spoon.

Note:  The collection of galangal, lemongrass, wild lime leaves, chillies, mushroom and shallots we call “aromatics” since they give the soup fragrance, flavor and color. 

Here is a photo of the aromatics to give you an idea of the balance of colors and the sizes.   The lime leaves were torn off the tough inner stem so their flavor seeps out. The lemongrass has had the tough outer layers peeled off as they are too tough to chew and the lemongrass has been slit open so the flavor inside is released.  The chillie stems were removed and the top of the chillie trimmed slightly to release the spicy flavor. The shallot was peeled and cut along the equator to make it look attractive.  The galangal was skinned and cut into slices to help release its flavor.

How to prepare the aromatics for the soup

COOKING METHOD STEP BY STEP

  1. Turn on the burner to medium high, and place the coconut milk and water or chicken stock into a medium size saucepan and bring to the boil.  Smell the hot coconut milk and look at the pale white color.  We are later going to use our eyes and sense of smell to guide us as to when the coconut milk has been flavored by the aromatics so we can add the chicken. 
  2. After the coconut milk and water or chicken stock have reached a boil, reduce the heat to medium low. Add the wild lime leaves, lemongrass, chillies, shallot, galangal slices and mushrooms, if using.  Look at the contents of the pan and smell it – you will need this as a reference point to determine if the coconut milk has later become flavored with your ingredients. 
  3. Continue to cook over medium low heat for five minutes to extract the flavor from these aromatics.  Now smell the coconut milk with the aromatics to sense if it has changed.  Look at the coconut milk and water in the pan to see if it has changed color – if the coconut milk has gotten slightly darker, it means the flavor and color of the aromatics has been released.   Since the color change and change in smell are important, continue softly boiling until you can sense the change from sweet coconut milk to an infused soup base that has become flavored by the ingredients inside the cooking pot – this may take longer than five minutes.
  4. Add the chicken chunks by spreading them evenly through the pan but do not stir (this helps seal the outside of the chicken and keep the chicken meat moist inside).  After the soup returns to the boil, you can stir lightly to make sure the chicken cooks evenly. 
  5. The chicken should cook through in about five minutes – you can test for doneness by taking one of the larger chunks out and cutting into it to see if it has been cooked through (no pink color on the inside).
  6. Remove from the heat.  Add the lime juice and fish sauce and stir mildly.  We add the fish sauce and lime juice at the end of the cooking process so their flavors don’t evaporate out.  You can adjust the quantity of fish sauce and lime juice to suit your own preference.
  7. Sprinkle coriander/cilantro leaf on top of the dish just before serving and serve warm.  Serve with steamed jasmine rice on the side or add rice to the bowl as I do!

 Serves two persons as part of a multi-dish Thai meal.

 TUMMY TIP

You can leave in the woody lemongrass stalks and galangal pieces in the soup if your guests are not too picky, or you can remove them.   

If you purchase fresh wild lime leaves, you can reserve those you don’t use in the freezer to preserve their unique aroma and flavor.  When ready to cook again, put the frozen leaves in your dish – no need to unfreeze them.  The cooking process will warm the leaves and help release the cherished aroma and flavor.