Thai food – Thai Food

Red Thai Curry with Chicken (Gaang Phet Gai)

evgoart — Thu, 20 Sep 2012 11:29:58 +0000

Gaang Phet Gai means hot chicken curry.
Red curry is the hottest of all the Thai curries and one of the most popular and versatile curries in Thailand as well as the West.
I have used chicken in this dish, but beef, pork or shrimp are also popular meats to have with a Red Thai curry.
Red Thai curry paste used for this dish is widely available ready prepared and easy to use.

Ingredients for 2-3 people:
Oil
4 cloves of garlic
1 onion
3 fresh chillies (optional)
1-2 heaped tbls Red Thai curry paste – depending on how hot you want the curry
150ml chicken stock
200ml coconut milk
2tbls fish sauce
3tbls lime juice
1tbls brown sugar
200g chicken, chopped into pieces
50g water chestnuts, sliced
Your choice of vegetables, for this recipe I used carrot and potato but Red Thai curry is great with fresh red pepper and mange tout or sugar snap peas. (optional)
Handful of Coriander, with some to serve

How to Make Gaang Phet Gai:
Heat the oil in a pan and cook the onion, garlic and chilli, if using, until the garlic becomes fragrant.
Add in 1-2 tbls red Thai curry paste and cook for a further 30 secs
Add the chicken pieces with a dash of water and cook until chicken is sealed.
Add the potato and carrot with the chicken stock and cook for 15 minutes, until vegetables are tender. (if you are using softer vegetables, ie. Red pepper, do not add these in until later)
Add the fish sauce, lime juice and sugar. Stir well then add the coconut milk (along with any other vegetables you are using, pepper/mange tout)
Simmer for 10 mins.
Add the water chestnuts into the dish in the last few minutes of cooking.
Taste and season if necessary
Lastly add in the coriander, reserving some to sprinkle on top of the curry, take off the heat.

Garnish the red Thai curry with coriander and serve with rice.

Crab Fried Rice (Khao Pad Poo)

evgoart — Tue, 24 Jul 2012 05:16:09 +0000

Of all the fried rice dishes, Crab Fried Rice is the king of fried rice that gets to meet and greet important guests. When I was a kid, crab fried rice was the dish that came at the end of the 10-20 course wedding banquet.

Crab Fried Rice is a dish that you do not want to order from small street stalls. You want to get crab fried rice at a nice restaurant because the quality of the crab determines how good crab fried rice can be.

This recipe reflects how crab fried rice is made in Thai restaurants in Thailand, no carrots, no peas, just crab!

Ingredients
6 cups cooked rice
2 eggs
1 1/2 tablespoons fish sauce
3 cloves chopped garlic
2-3 chopped green onion
3-5 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 teaspoon ground white pepper
1 cup crab meat

Prepping
I cook 3 cups of jasmine rice with 3 cups of water which yields about 7 cups of cooked rice. This recipe calls for 6 cups of cooked rice. Another cup is for emergency rescue. Canned crab meat is convenient and fast. However, if you have leftover cooked crab, that is ideal. The can that I bought has ½ cup of crab meat. You will need 2 cans. Squeeze out the water so that the fried rice will be fluffy not gummy.
Cooking
Over medium to high heat, add 3 tablespoons of oil to a wok or a large pot. You’ll need room to stir the rice around. Add chopped garlic to the oil. When the garlic begins to brown, add rice. Stir and mix the rice with the oil. Add crab meat and stir again.

Make room in the middle of the wok. Add a teaspoon of oil and crack the egg into the spot. Scramble the egg to cook it. Then incorporate the egg into the rest of the fried rice. Repeat the same steps to add another egg.

Add fish sauce and ground white pepper and taste. If your fried rice is too salty, add the 1 cup of left over rice. Stir and taste again. If you are happy with the taste, turn off the heat. Add the chopped green onions. In the pictures, I added a few cilantro leaves as a garnish, but it’s not necessary and purely for decoration.
Tasting
The Crab Fried Rice should be fluffy, dotted with crab chunks and green onion. It should not be oily. The crab flavor should be prominent with detectable amount of ground white pepper. Serve with sliced cucumber, a wedge of lime and chili fish sauce.

Grilled Pork Sticks with Turmeric (Moo Sa-Te )

evgoart — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 12:17:58 +0000

Тhis tantalizing sweet-flavored grilled pork sticks are refined with rich, juicy sauce made of turmeric and curry powder. Moo Sa-Te makes a savory hors d’oeuvres that will appease any taste buds. These juicy grilled pork sticks are usually served with two saucy dips – one is a mildly spicy thick sauce with ground peanuts, coconut milk and curry powder and another one is a sweet and sour vinegar sauce with chopped shallot, pepper and cucumber to mitigate its oiliness.

Ingredients:
• 1 1/2 Ibs. of chicken breast or pork
• 1/4 teaspoon of roasted coriander seeds powder
• 1/4 teaspoon of turmeric (roots) powder
• 1/2 teaspoon of curry powder
• 3 slices of galangal
• 1/2 tablespoon of finely chopped lemon grass
• 1 tablespoon of salt
• 5 garlic clover
• 1 cup of coconut milk
• 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil
• 2 tablespoons of sugar
• Small wooken skewers

Preparation:
1. Slice the chicken breast or the pork with the width of about 1 1/2 inches.
2. Pound together the roasted coriander seeds powder, roasted cumin seeds powder, pepper, turmeric powder, curry powder, galangal, lemon grass, garlic cloves and salt.
3. Put the mixture into the coconut cream.
4. Add the sugar and vegetable oil and blend them into a marinade.
5. Soak the meat in the newly mixed marinade for 2 hours.
6. Take the slices of meat out and thread them onto the skewers while heating the marinade until boiling.
7. Roast the meat and apply the marinade to it for some time.
8. When the meat is thouroughly cooked, serve it with sa-te sauce and cucumber sauce.